Takayuki Rai (born 1954) is a distinguished Japanese composer, interactive computer music performer, researcher, and educator based in Tokyo. Over nearly four decades, he has delved into the realm of interactive live performance, which encompasses both soloists and ensembles accompanied by digital signal processing systems. His journey began with early tape compositions for various instruments paired with fixed media, evolving into contemporary works utilizing a Macintosh computer running interactive Max/MSP patches. In his current setup, Rai's computer system samples musicians performing on stage, executing complex real-time signal processing techniques, such as frequency and time domain manipulation through FFT/iFFT re-synthesis, alongside his unique Grain Based Frequency Modulation technique. This process results in the reproduction of transformed sounds throughout the performance space. Since 2000, he has also been overseeing the development of DIPS: Digital Image Processing with Sound, a multimedia art software for Max/MSP.
Since 1991, Takayuki Rai has been teaching computer music and composition at the Kunitachi College of Music Sonology Department in Tokyo. He also held a teaching position at Lancaster University in the UK from 2006 to 2013. In 2014, he joined the faculty at Toho Gakuen School of Music, followed by a position at Sichuan Conservatory of Music in 2015. Among his recent compositions are Misty Stillness (2016), written for clarinetist John Corbett and harpist Simone Seiler, and Time flows... for bass flute, guitar, percussion, and computer. The latter premiered at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2017) in Shanghai, China, performed by Qi Xiaotong (flute), Min Zhenqi (guitar), and Deng Wenhui (percussion). This piece, originally composed in 2007, featured a completely revised computer part for the Shanghai performance.
Rai studied composition under Yoshiro Irino in Japan and Helmut Lachenmann in Germany. In the 1980s, he served as a guest composer at the Instituut Voor Sonologie in the Netherlands, where he studied computer music. He also composed guest works at various French studios and institutions, including IRCAM, IMEB, INA-GRM, and the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges computer music studios. During this period, he realized several significant early pieces, such as Pain for two computers, a tape piece that premiered in 1983 at the Concert Series of the Institute of Sonology, and Isolation for bass clarinet and tape (or three clarinetists), which debuted at the 1980 International Gaudeamus Music Week and later won the 2nd Irino Composition Award in 1981. His composition Solidity: Transformation of my internal dialogue for 10 instruments was premiered by the ASKO Ensemble at the Holland Festival in 1983 and selected for the ISCM World Music Days 1985 in Montreal and the Warsaw New Music Forum '86. Rai has received several prestigious accolades, including 1st prize at the NEWCOMP International Computer Music Competition and the 1991 ICMA Commission Award.
Rai's music career began in the 1980s with the premiere of his 8-minute piece Transparency for harp and tape, which was performed by Masumi Nagasawa. This piece won a Mixed Electroacoustic Music Prize at the 13th International Electroacoustic Music Competition in Bourges, France, in 1985 and was included on a CD/LP compilation released by Le Chant du Monde. His Five Inventions accompanied by Computers for an ensemble with a live computer system were realized at Sonology and premiered at the 1986 International Computer Music Conference in the Netherlands, later published on a CD compilation by WERGO. Rai featured on a 3xCD compilation in 2003, celebrating the 30th anniversary of IMEB, with his piece Sparkle for bass clarinet and tape, initially commissioned by Fonds Voor De Scheppende Toonkunst and premiered by Harry Sparnaay in 1989. The tape portion was crafted at G.M.E.B. in France and the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands, employing his program DMXMIC for real-time sound transformation.
His discography includes two solo albums: the first, released in 1998, showcases works from 1983 to 1996, including Four Inventions and Kinetic Figuration for MIDI piano, Yamaha VP-1 synthesizer, and IRCAM signal processing workstations, featuring keyboardist Yoshiko Shibuya and Transparency for harp and tape. The second album, produced in 2013 by the Japanese label Fontec, features five award-winning works from 1997 to 2012 for a live interactive multimedia computer system with various instruments. Rai has also collaborated with other artists, such as engineering Aki Takahashi's live piano performance of ...dal niente... by Richard Teitelbaum at Kunitachi College of Music, which was included on a 2013 CD compilation by New World Records. This involved programming a real-time iterative computer system that responds to the pianist's play on a specially adapted MIDI piano.
Throughout his career, Takayuki Rai has worked with numerous acclaimed musicians in Japan and Europe, including pianists Ken-ichi Nakagawa, Nelly Hivet, Kazue Nakamura, Yoshiko Shibuya, and Yoko Abe; harpists Ailing Sai, Michiyo Umezu, and Masumi Nagasawa; clarinetists Harry Sparnaay and Harmen de Boer; and flutist Lars Graugaard, with whom he released a collaborative CD in Denmark in 2000. Other notable collaborations include cellist Taco Kooistra, who performed in Rai's Recursive Figuration for six cellos at the Cello Festival at Ysbrejer in Amsterdam in 1991, as well as contrabassist Keizo Mizoiri, saxophonist Shinichi Miyazaki, guitarist Norio Sato, violinist Mari Kimura, and percussionist Yuichi Ise.
On the Images
Last photo, left to right: Takayuki Rai, Paul Rudy, Simon Emmerson, Barry Truax, and Wayne Siegel at Musica Viva, 2003, Coimbra, Portugal.
