Sound and Vision: where shakuhachi, live electronics, and visual art converge
Sargasso proudly presents Branchings-Accessible Places, a double album by composer and shakuhachi master Jim Franklin. These two extended works, created between 2022 and 2025 in collaboration with visual artist Peroka, explore the intersection of shakuhachi, live-electronics, and image-making.
Although presented here as recordings, both works preserve the ethos of live performance. In Branchings, Franklin recorded the shakuhachi and electronics simultaneously in one take, or in some cases as two separate but unedited layers, each performed live. Accessible Places reverses the process: Peroka first created images inspired by sites she and Franklin had visited, which Franklin then set to music. In both cycles, the integrity of ‘in-the-moment’ performance remains central: no post-editing, no fixing in the mix. Breath, instrumental sounds, and texture remain part of the living soundscape.
Peroka responded to Franklin’s performances with images that are reproduced in the accompanying booklet. Her work draws on ink painting, paper making, and calligraphy, grounding the music in a complementary visual world.
CD 1
Branchings
1. 1st Dream [9.06]
2. 1st Interlude [5.17]
3. 2nd Dream [7.50]
4. 2nd Interlude [7.31]
5. 3rd Dream [8.35]
6. 3rd Interlude [5.59]
7. 4th Dream [7.21]
8. 4th Interlude [6.09]
9. 5th Dream [8.30]
CD 2
Branchings (continued)
1. 5th Interlude [7:16]
2. 6th Dream [8:41]
3. 6th Interlude [8:16]
4. 7th Dream [8:13]
Accessible Places
5. I: Singapore Orchid Conversations [9:45]
6. II: Nagasaki Lanterns [8:17]
7. III: Tottori Dunes [6:43]
8. IV: Shirahama [7:29]
9. V: Takamatsu Pines [7:38]
All compositions ©&℗ Jim Franklin 2022-2025 – All images © Peroka 2022-2025
All instruments (shakuhachi, synthesizers, theremin, Haken ContinuuMini, live-electronics) performed by Jim Franklin
Engineering and production: Jim Franklin