Andrew Jilin - "Peace and Freedom" album release "This is real Zen life!" Do you know or have you ever thought how Zen sounds like? Andrew Jilin has been practicing to play Japanese Zen monk flute shakuhachi since 2006. Japanese priests used this flute not for entertainment but for enlightment. It sounds like an ocean breeze, like a wind in the trees, like a whisper on the ear saying something very important and sacred. Andrew travels round the world and catches the things that inspire him. The most important for him is human feelings and places of nature. On this recording, you will hear a very soft and gentle kind of bamboo flute playing solo. Andrew has performed some very traditional classical Japanese pieces as well as melodies of his own composition. Track #1 here "The pigeons’ song" was also featured as a main melody in the movie "Ronin and Death". The main idea of Andrews music is that you do not need to have a full pack of amplifiers, wires, mikes and light equipment just to say: "Hey, the sun over the sea today is so beautiful!". In his music, there is the Sound and the Silence. Silence is as important as the Sound is! This is real zen life! Here are some notes about the pieces from this recording: 1. Pigeon's song. This song was composed long ago. The name comes from the first sound of flute in this track. There is is a sound so similar to pigeon's voice. This song is a title piece in the movie "Ronin and Death", released September 2014 2. Burgeon (Moe - 芽). Koku Nishimura - the founder of Kyotaku School of bamboo flute, composed this piece. Kyotaku means the empty bamboo. The piece has a deep philosophical meaning. This is a story of burgeon. In the beginning, it starts growing and blooming. It reaches its full bloom in the middle of the piece and then begins to fade. In the end, burgeon fades and dies giving the way to new life. 3. Pale silhouette (Souei - 蒼影). This piece is also composed by Koku Nishimura - the founder of Kyotaku school. This piece goes well for evening or late night meditation. This is a symbol of a humans shadow crawling on the floor as the Moon shines bright in the sky. 4. Sun over the sea (Umi no Hi - 海の日). Andrew Jilin composed this piece during his stay in Savoca, Italy 2010. Imagine a brilliant sunny morning. There you stand in the mountains and look down the sea. You see the sun reflecting in a calm see. Moreover, this melody comes to your mind. 5. The Bell of Emptiness (Kyorei - 虚鈴). The oldest piece known for Japanese bamboo flute. It is 600 years old! In China in ancient days there was a Zen monk called Pu Hua. He was very well known for his eccentricity. He had his hand bell (Rei). His was walking the streets to the city ringing the bell and calling everybody for immediate enlightenment. They say that when Pu Hua was close to death he asked to lay him in the coffin, carry it to the eastern gates of the city, and open it up there. When this was done, the coffin appeared to be empty and only the sound of his bell was ringing deep in the sky. As the remembrance for his teacher one of Pu Hua's students made a flute of bamboo which had only one sound - the sound very similar to Pu Hua;s hand bell. This piece is a tribute to Pu Hua's hand bell. 6. Music of the highest harmony (Daiwagaku - 大和楽). Jin Nyodo, a famous collectioner of shakuhachi music, composed this piece in 1941. Jin Nyodo was traveling Japan, writing notations of all the pieces in his very own calligraphic style. He was confessed that a single person could not compose a great music. He thought that creation of music is a manifestation of creative powers of Universe. We cannot say that a piece was composed by somebody. Instead, we should say that music was born or displayed in some person in some place. The name Daiwagaku can be translated as "music of the great Harmony". This is derived from a Chinese proverb "Good makers are the beginning of the sky; music is the Harmony of the Sky". Four seasons are described in this song and four stages of humans’ life. 7. The song for a sunset ( 夕日の曲). Many Japanese pieces describe natural phenomena. This piece describes the moment of winter day when the sun sets and the moon rises. 8. Union of the Earth and the Sky (Choshi - 調子). This is a most known piece for Japanese bamboo flute. The name can be translated as "The Tuning". Actually, the second and the most known name is "Union of the Earth and the Sky". Usually this piece is played at the beginning of a practice to warn up the flute and to tune a player, a flute, a listener and the space to one mood.