Sparrow's Tongue

Patrick Shiroishi is a multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. His previous solo saxophone release was Tulean Dispatch, a series of improvised meditations on the experiences of his paternal grandparents, Patrick and Dorothy Shiroishi, in a wartime internment camp. Sparrow's Tongue is similarly centred on family and culture. “All of the saxophone parts were recorded live with additional field recordings as well as my mother (Uzuko Shiroishi) reciting some of my grandfather Seiji Inoue's tankas. Two pieces focus in on overtones via tenor and alto, two pieces focus on playing the alto and soprano simultaneously, with the fifth piece playing the soprano into a snare drum to create a kind of feed-back with the instrument interplaying with an audio recording of an atomic bomb slowed and reversed.”