Tokyo Aglow (At The CONFLUX Part Two)

Tokyo Aglow tours the Japanese capital by road and rail. Whereas Aerial Arterial (the first installment) explores the edifices of the city from elevated perches, Tokyo Aglow captures the city from the blacktop. The automated Yurikamome flows through Odaiba and arrives downtown. A taxi whips to converging clusters of crowds in Shibuya. Scores surge, stream and swarm, tangle and scramble. Patterns of people, probabilities and periodicities, play. Weaving and knotting, the masses rhythmically engage with the machinery of modern life.

Koto inspired chords underpin the music of the piano. Trombone, trumpet and violin map to the patterns recurrent and emergent. Crosswalk chimes, chirps and cuckoos echo into the night.

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“Tokyo Aglow” is the second of five installments of At The CONFLUX, a short film exploring the rhythm of urban Japan and its people.

Stay tuned for the premiere of installment three, “A City, A Sonder,” on Monday, June 13th.
Complete gear and location list can be found at attheconflux.com

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At the Conflux was shot during two trips to Tokyo. In May and June of both 2014 and 2015. Editing began in earnest in November of 2015 along with the composition of the music.

I recorded the solo piano part in early April at SoundPure studios in Durham, NC with the help of recording engineer, Artem Smirnov. Members of the The Deviant Septet, Karen Kim—violin, Doug Balliett—bass, Mike Gurfield—trumpet, Matthew, Melore—trombone, Jared Soldiviero—percussion recorded the instrumentals with recording engineer Rick Nelson.

The time-lapses were shot in raw (with a 5D Mark III and a Sony A7s) developed in Lightroom, and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I composed the music at the piano with paper and pencil, input it into Finale 2014, recorded the music into Pro Tools in two separate recording sessions, processed the field recording in Ableton and Max MSP, and did the final edits in Adobe Audition and in Premiere.

Cast: Justin Tierney

Tags: timelapse, japan, tokyo, time-lapse, justin tierney, japanese and at the conflux