Who is Rieko Makita?
I’m a pianist and composer. Five years ago, I moved to London to study a Master’s degree in classical piano at the Royal College of Music. During my time at RCM, a friend asked, ‘Have you ever written music?’ and that prompted me to take an interest in composition. That opened a new door for me.
My mum started taking me to piano lessons from a very young age. Something about the piano really fascinated me – I thought it was so wonderfully strange to be able to make a sound from pressing down a key. The vibrations under the fingers felt really nice.
I really fell in love with music when I started listening to CDs late at night, around the age of ten. I have this fond memory of listening to Grieg’s piano concerto, tucked in bed, nice and cosy under the duvet. There was something so comforting about that moment that lingers within me.
What was it like working on your latest EP?
It all began with a few sketches I made last year. Some pieces came together in a few days; others took months to develop. I noticed that there was an overarching feeling across the works, so I was thinking that this could be a collection of pieces. A few months later, I received a grant from PRS Foundation to record my first EP, which made the idea possible.
In February this year, I recorded ‘Koma’ at Tempo Rubato in Melbourne after giving a recital there. Then, in June, I recorded the remaining five tracks at World Heart Beat Studios in London. It was such a thrilling experience recording in a professional studio for the first time, with the freedom to experiment with upright and grand piano tones.
If you could change one thing about how people experience your work, what would it be?
Piano music in general, my music included, is listened to as background music. It’s nice that my music can be listened to in that way, bringing a sense of comfort and peace while people go about their day. But sometimes, just sometimes, I would love for people to simply listen and take a moment to feel – because that’s what the music was created for – to feel.
This is one of the reasons I love going to concerts myself, and I love performing. Live performance makes people listen more closely. As a performer, I think it is so special to be able to guide the audience through the selection of my own work and pieces written by other composers that I love. People have chosen to take this time away from their busy day, just to listen. Everyone is so present. Sharing this moment in music with an audience feels so intimate and beautiful.
Which classical composers are you drawn to the most?
Ravel and Debussy – I fell in love with the colours. Their music feels three-dimensional. Debussy often writes très loin, which suggests a sense of distance, an echo, and I feel like he foresaw the possibilities of delay and echo effects, music processing, and synth effects of today. I think he would be mind-blown to see what’s possible today, and it makes me curious about what he would have done if he were alive today. I feel like they were both so ahead of their time in terms of how they thought about music.
Finally, could you describe what kind of music you try to make when you incorporate synths?
I turned to composition because of this curiosity about simply creating and expressing through music and sound from silence. I think it’s the most natural way for me to express a feeling or tell a story, as music is the thing I have spent the longest time with.
The piano has remained at the centre of my music. Its malleability as an instrument is incomparable to any other instrument, I think — it’s an orchestra, with its ability to imitate any instrument through its wide registers, and through the illusion of colour created by the touch (how you approach the piano and release). From a sparse texture with the pedal down to create an atmosphere, to singing lyrical passages imitating a clarinet, or a percussive sound like a drum providing a beat, I feel like through creating music, I’ve fallen in love with the piano more and more for its versatility and unexpected possibilities.
Recently, I began experimenting with synths as a way of learning more about what sound is, and visualising the waves we create through the air. Also, because my music lies somewhere between contemporary classical, jazz and ambient music, I wanted to expand my sound through the use of synths and break free from the mould of making simply piano music. I think I’m still slowly figuring out my sound, and this EP has been such a rewarding experience in discovering and building my universe in music.
Interested in being interviewed for our blog or know someone who would like to be featured? Please reach out to us directly to explore any possibilities:
To stay informed about the studio’s activities, sign up for our newsletter here:
https://mailchi.mp/plphotostudio/subscription