AGURI KATAJAMA
Intervista ad uno dei più prolifici compositori del Virtual Audio project

Aguri Katajama is an affable composer of Japanese origin who has been collaborating with the Virtual Audio Project since its inception.
It was 1993 when the first message sent out on the Internet by Cybertracks invited foreign artists and musicians to send in electronic music demo tapes of their own works. Before all the others started pouring in, three replies came back immediately, one of these from our friend in Japan.

Within 10 days we received a package by mail later and we were at once impressed by the potential and the innovative style of this composer. True to his nature and technological origins the composer granted us an on-line interview, over the Internet naturally, with the aid of a program of his own creation which allows the interview to be annotated automatically during the interview. Aguri is in fact a very able computer programmer who has on many occasions helped us solve various problems experienced with the "music glove". But let's take things one step at a time, starting at the beginning...


Q) When did you start your composing career?
I started playing at around 8 years old, attending a course to learn about basic musical theory and practise. And so, just for fun, I asked for a small "all round" keyboard as a present and that put me on the road to music. I can still remember my first composition, which I wrote for my sister... is was a great success with the whole family!


Q) Do you think you've improved much from when you were 8 years old?
Yeah, I think I have really! Now I work entirely with music and composition and seeing how much interest I get from my customers I think in all honesty I can say I'm at a healthy point in my evolution.

Q) What are your main musical activities?
By the time I started working with Cybertracks I had already created a couple of dozen soundtracks for various TV productions. Putting images to music has become my passion and now my studio is very well known in the field. And then of course I also continue my active collaboration with the Virtual Audio Project who I have a tight relationship with, despite the distance.

Q) Let's talk a little about the music you contribute to Cybertracks...
I could talk at length about that, especially concerning the period when the first CDs came out. My style was a lot different back then, I had a way of playing which I saw as a continuation in sound of my own dreams. I used to create fantastic and unreal sound ambients, all very strange, just like my dreams. I still remember those times really well.

Q) Is that very different from how you work today?
My style has obviously evolved, I've moved on towards new areas, along a path that has brought me to a more basic world, more electronic and maybe a little less heavy.

Q) What do you mean exactly by "heavy"?
Its a question of track length and concentration. The first pieces as well as the ones I write now are experiences to be lived out by means of the emotions, but the first ones are longer and release the details little by little, without giving the whole track away immediately. Nowadays I prefer to conjure up all the sound timbres straight away, to make the whole situation available at the outset. The difference is that before you had to find out where you were, now you know that right away but you don't know what's coming...

Q) Which tracks do you see yourself best in, comparing the two periods?
"Subway", released on Mind Contact is one of my best accomplishments and I'm especially proud of it. Let me make it clear, all the pieces I've done for Cybertracks are "me" in essence but this one has its own particular appeal.

Q) You've only recently started putting your real name to your music. Whatever happened to the "Real Vision" project.
That was a tough decision to make, I changed my name to renew my image and to give a new angle to my music. Just like starting all over again with a new batch of experiences built up during the first phase.

Q) What is in your studio made up of and what type of instruments do you like to use best?
My idea has always been to invest the money I've earned to keep up with progress and because of where I live that's not such a hard thing to do. Basically, every single component in my set up is digital, I don't mean just digital synthesis but connections too. A clean sound has become an indispensable element of each work and the quality should never be overlooked. And that's why I haven't even got one analogue synth.

Q) What role does the computer play in your music?
An essential role because it allows me to keep everything under control on two monitors that give me just the parameters and settings for each instrument. Using a "home-made" software program I can manage to do all the instrument settings using just the mouse. In this way all my attention can be concentrated on my master keyboard which is underneath the monitors.