The chamber theatre work “Koto” was initiated by a commission from Rosetta, a Kyoto based contemporary music ensemble, in 2019. The idea behind the concert is to investigate on the possibility of “without framing”, which challenges the traditional concept of music being a “framed”, or “bounded” art form. The commission came with two questions to address,

1.How can this flexibility of public be adopted into a musical concert?
2.Musical work itself usually has a time frame of beginning and end. How can we deframe this tradition?

“Koto” is a collection of 26 small works, while most of them have no fixed duration, some are written in the traditional format. All the movements are inspired by dialogues from Yasunari Kawabata’s novel of the same title, published in 1962. The novel was cited by the Nobel Committee as a part of decision to award Kawabata the 1968 Prize for Literature. The story is about Chieko Sada’s life in Kyoto, where she lived with her adopted parents and later on met her long lost twin sister Naeko. The work also invites audience on stage.

“Electrify” is a series of works written by the composer for violinist Patrick Yim and electronics. The work comprises “Miles Upon Miles”, inspired by Xinjiang’s muqam; “Violin Concerto No.1: Generation”, inspired by various generations of people in Hong Kong; “Mega”, a work that investigates on timbre; “Inside the Mind of…”, written for EEG device and violin; and “Smoke”, a collaboration with Hong Kong Railway Museum.