Riley Lee
Riley Lee plays the shakuhachi as living breath: honkyoku meditation pieces that float, pulse and yearn, and studio improvisations that turn bamboo into slow landscapes of repose.
The first non-Japanese player to attain Dai Shihan (grand master), he carries lineages descending from the Zen Buddhist komusō of the Edo period. His seven-disc Yearning for the Bell survey is the first complete recording of the honkyoku canon: free-rhythm solos where the inhalation shapes and colours every phrase, largely taken in single concentrated sessions so the intensity of live performance stays in the room. Long instruments drop the music into deep prayer; shorter ones brighten it; komibuki, the pulsating breath of the Nesasa pieces, focuses the line like a heartbeat. Elsewhere he improvises inside a Sydney reservoir with rainwater still dripping through the tone, and pairs the flute with electric guitar in ambient duets of quiet emotional weight. Beside koto, chamber groups and new Australian scores, the sound remains intimate and dramatic: slides, subtle vibrato, breathy attack, and the sense that spirit is moving unmediated through bamboo.
Riley Lee is featured on the following titles
Searching: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 7
Riley Lee completes his survey of the Japanese meditation melodies, or honkyoku, for shakuhachi. The pieces were recorded in the sumptuous acoustic of the Australian National Acoustics Laboratory reverberation room. Riley sounds as if he is floating.
Phoenix Crying: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 6
Riley Lee continues his survey of Japanese meditation melodies, or honkyoku, for shakuhachi. Recorded in the sumptuous acoustic of the Australian National Acoustics Laboratory reverberation room, the playing seems to float. The programme includes Lee performing both parts of the famous duet Nesting of the Cranes.
Deep Night: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 5
Fifth in Riley Lee’s seven-CD survey of the complete lineage of 13th-century Japanese honkyoku—solo meditation pieces for shakuhachi. Lee was the first non-Japanese player to attain grand mastery of the instrument.
Autumn Field: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 4
The fourth of seven CDs presenting the complete lineage of thirteenth-century Japanese honkyoku, or meditation pieces, performed by Riley Lee, the first non-Japanese player to attain grand mastery of the shakuhachi.
Empty Sky: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 3
Volume 3 of a monumental seven-CD set. Riley Lee, the first non-Japanese grand master of the shakuhachi, presents the complete lineage of the orally transmitted 12th-century Japanese meditation melodies known as honkyoku.
Bamboo Grass: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 2
Volume 2 in Riley Lee’s seven-CD survey of the complete lineage of medieval Japanese meditational honkyoku. Solo shakuhachi, recorded in the reverberation room of the National Acoustics Laboratory.
Like a Bird
Odamura's first CD, made after she settled in Australia in 1989 and brought the koto into contemporary performance here. Her playing is dramatic and engaging, joining traditional and modern techniques with equal conviction.
Water Music: Shakuhachi
Twelve remarkable shakuhachi improvisations, recorded in a water-storage reservoir that serves inner Sydney.
Composer
Producer: Producer
Breath-Sight: Yearning for the Bell, Vol. 1
The first disc in a seven-CD survey of the medieval shakuhachi lineage of meditational melodies known as honkyoku—the first time this complete body of music has been recorded. Riley Lee’s playing is exceptional throughout.
Producer: Recording Producer
The Eagle and the Ocean
Riley Lee is a master shakuhachi player, and this disc is the fruit of a studio meeting with guitarist Geoff Ween-Vermazen: a set of ambient-style improvisations. Definitely soul-food here.
Composer
Riley Lee also appears on
Raft Song at Sunrise: Chamber Music, Vol. 2
Following the best-selling first volume of Ross Edwards’s chamber music (TP051), this disc gathers some of his most enduring works, recorded here for the first time.