NMC’s Debut Discs series continues with a timely profile of Dai Fujikura – Osaka-born and London-based, whose music is an intriguing synthesis of Japanese idioms ancient and modern from the vantage of one who, early on, had absorbed the essence of the European classical tradition. A well-programmed sequence opens with Secret Forest (2008), its resourceful combining of strings and wind – physically divided between stage and auditorium in live performance – creating a keenly imaginative sound world, utopian in aim and realisation. If the percussion-writing of Phantom Pulse (2006) is more overtly redolent of post-war models, the later stages are suffused with a timbral resonance poised unerringly between occidental and oriental archetypes. Alternating with these are engaging studies for clarinet and cello that amply underline Fujikura’s technical prowess, the latter prefacing Okeanos (2010) – his most ambitious attempt yet at a cultural amalgam that brings clarinet, oboe and viola into a productive relationship with sho and koto, the Eastern instruments’ respectively ethereal and strident tones adding much to the ensemble interplay of the final movement with its deft evocation of musical otherness.

All the performances do Fujikura proud in their unbridled commitment and attentiveness to the smallest nuance. David Toop provides an illuminating overview of his often unlikely evolution, even if a little more on the individual works might have been welcome (more information can be found at daifujikura.com). Natalie Braune’s cover artwork, too, feels entirely appropriate as an adjunct to the music of one of the most distinctive and thought-provoking younger composers.