The piece was inspired by and the title was taken from a book of Barbara Bordnick's photographs of flowers, Searchings: Secret Landscapes of Flowers, Volume II. She writes, "Awakened to a world of color and shape, sensuousness and beauty, I was enchanted and motivated by these previously unseen secret landscapes. As I spent more time in this new universe, the mystery continued. I began to see the flowers as aquaintances. They became playful, haughty, gossipy, gaudy, sometimes even frightening---revealing creatures that were living incredibly complex lives, completely indifferent to appearing 'beautiful' to human eye. ----- With each flower I encounter the journey unfolds, illuminating ever deeper layers of intimacy."
First I felt very hard to think of music for this very unusual combination of instruments including multiple instruments I didn't know. So I wrote separate ideas for koto, Arabic percussions, koto and percussions together, and laptop, for the first rehearsal. I was amazed that this crazy combination of instruments sound nice, interesting and fresh. The next problem was if those separate ideas could be used together in one composition. Koto has a lot of limitations. Those limitations I first thought obstacles eventually worked as organizer. We hope to see you tonight and enjoy "Sihr Halal".
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