Biography

A Musical Journey

Music has been a blessing in my life. Music opened the way for me, and has accompanied me along the way. It continues to permeate my being, to wash away the dust of life, to inspire and lead me on.

I was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in the North of England on February 14th 1962.

My Mum was a schoolteacher and Dad worked at an engineering factory. They supported my musical interests from an early age, and I started piano lessons at age six, violin at seven and trumpet at nine.

Music held a fascination for me above all other things.

The strongest early musical influence I can remember was Louis Armstrong. I played the trumpet with a passion through all my school years, and especially loved dixieland and big band jazz.

Gagaku Orchestra

I went to Manchester University to study music. Most of the studies were of Western classical music, but I also received an introduction to the sounds of Japan and other faraway cultures.

I was strongly moved by the mysterious sounds of Gagaku – the ancient ceremonial music of Japan.

Move to London

When I was 24 I moved to London to study for a master’s degree at City University. My area of research was the performance practice of 17th century baroque music, and I studied baroque recorder at The Guildhall School of Music.

I also took part in many performances with the contemporary music ensemble 20^th Century Music Enterprise.

While living in London my interest in Japanese music was truly sparked. Together with musician friends who shared a similar interest, we formed a new group, Tortoises in Heaven – The London Gagaku Orchestra. This was an unusual ensemble, giving its own version of 8^th Century Japanese classical music. I played the hichiriki, Japanese oboe.

Several years later I had the chance to study with authentic Gagaku musicians of the Tenri Gagaku Orchestra in Tenri-shi, Nara.

In 1987 I began to study the shakuhachi, traditional bamboo flute of the Japanese Komusô Zen monks.

Komusô translates loosely as “monks of emptiness and nothingness”. Centuries ago they used the shakuhachi to cultivate a spiritual practice known as suizen, or blowing zen.

I was drawn to this enigmatic instrument. It was to become my lifelong passion.

Life in Kyoto

Initially I studied the shakuhachi with Clive Bell in London, who was at that time one of the very few Western players.

After a while I wrote to Yokoyama Katsuya, one of the most respected shakuhachi players in Japan, and asked whether he would take me on as pupil. He wrote back and invited me to go to Japan and study with him.

A few months later I was living in a little wooden house next to the Zen temple of Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion) in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan.

I began to practice the shakuhachi for several hours a day, and to learn all I could from Yokoyama-sensei.

In 1993 I received a Japanese government scholarship as a Research Fellow at Kyoto Arts University, to compose new music for traditional Japanese musical instruments. Ultimately I came to live in Kyoto for seven years.

I gave a series of shakuhachi concerts in Zen gardens.

I began to collaborate with butoh choreographers, composing music for performances of contemporary Japanese dance.

While living in Kyoto I worked as a sound recordist for the Canadian documentary filmmaker Chris Fryman. Together we travelled the length of Japan, making films about volcanoes, sumo wrestlers, olympic skiers, taiko drummers and space travel.

I played trumpet together with Chris in the band PLink, which had a Norwegian singer as well as a Chinese two-string violin and a banjo and double bass.

A chance encounter on the Trans-Siberian Express in Mongolia led to the formation of the group East Whistle, which first performed at the Wroclaw Shanty Festival in Poland, went on to headline at the Black Mountain Folk Festival in North Carolina, USA. I played flutes and percussion in this group.

Introduction to Brazil

I met some Brazilian musicians in Kyoto, and had opportunity to play with them. They were travelling from their village in the Amazon Rainforest and they invited me to visit them when they returned home. I went there to Brazil for the first time in 1995 and immersed myself in the sacred music and rituals of their forest community.

Since that time, and many trips to Brazil later, my relationship to the spirit of Amazonian musicality has continued to deepen.

Marriage with Noriko

In 1996 at a spiritual retreat in the foothills of Mt. Fuji in 1996 I met my future wife, Noriko

We were married within six months, and have been together ever since.

Cornwall and Devon

After several years of travelling between Japan and Brazil and many adventures along the way, Noriko and I moved in 2002 to Cornwall where our son Taiyo was born.

Our daughter Aya Sophia was born in 2005

Whilst living in Cornwall I became a musical director for Kneehigh Theatre and later Wildworks Theatre, creating the music for A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, and Souterrain, two spectacular outdoor productions that toured internationally for five years, including performances on the docks of Birgu in Malta, in the no-mans-land controlled by the United Nations in Cyprus, in the ruins of an abandoned 16th century Citadel in Amiens and in a disused tin mine in Camborne.

I also worked at the Eden Project in Cornwall, developing music education projects with Cornish schools.

Together with local composer Jim Carey we formed the brass-funk band Bombrassa playing at local festivals.

In 2006 our family moved to the village of Dartington in South Devon.

Recent musical collaborations include concerts with classical cellist Matthew Barley, Indian tabla player Sanju Sahai, drumming group Kagemusha Taiko, electronic musician Andy Barlow, Scottish Dance Theatre and Tring Choral Society.

Amazonian Indians

In August 2010 I was invited to a meeting of twelve Amazonian Indian tribes from the lineage of the tronco lingüístico Pano. This meeting took place in the heart of the Brazilian Rainforest. There I took part in moonlit ceremonies and became friends with Haru, the charismatic young chief of the Kuntanawa tribe.

Haru is engaged in dialogue with Brazilian and International partners to secure legal rights for his people to live on their ancestral land in the Rainforest, harmoniously with nature and recognised by society.

Haru is also a great singer and I am working with him on a collaborative recording of his songs.

Spiritual Essence

This sketch of my musical journey has touched upon some of the external elements ….study, travel, concerts, collaborations etc….

There has also been in inner journey, an ongoing search for the spiritual essence of life. Musical meditations with the shakuhachi, sacred rituals of Amazonian spirituality, and my own devotional songs, which I have been receiving over the past fifteen years, and have been sharing in prayer circles with like-minded friends.

As the journey continues to unfold I give thanks for the music, and thanks to all the beautiful souls who have guided me thus far….. I wish peace, light, love, harmony and happiness for all beings.

Japanese Umbrella film (Rain is Heaven on Earth) – coming soon

Sound clips

Canzona no 3. for soprano recorder and archlute. (B. Salaverde)
recorded Live St James Church, Clerkenwell, London July 1987

East Whistle – Huayno (trad. Peruvian)
From the album Hat But No Shoes recorded live in Lodz, Poland, December 1993

Bombrassa – Funky Eagle (A. Freedman)
recorded live at The Eden Project, Cornwall 2003

Wildworks Theatre – Sayonara (A. Freedman)
recorded live Nicosia, Cyprus, July 2005

Spirit Rising (A. Freedman)
From the album Music on the Edge of Silence recorded in St. Johns Church, Totnes. April 2006