When I got the commission from the Taiwan World Percussion Competition to write a set piece for their first round, I began to think about the development of the marimba repertoire over the past 30 years. Composers like Peter Klatzow, Anna Ignatowicz, Jacob Druckman, Joseph Schwantner and Alejandro Viñao have all helped to further improve the quality of the marimba repertoire and placed the instrument in the exclusive room of classical music. 

Since 2010, when I published my first work at Edition Svitzer - Blue Memories and Stella Polaris, I have had a close contact to artist Bengt Berglund. Sometimes he has created new works directly for my music, like Timbres and Fantasia & Toccata, and sometimes I have used his older works from the 60s and 70s. Last year, when I wrote Mistral for Michael Burritt, a green painting from Bengt was the perfect cover. From the same series, Bengt got another one with fiery colors…

The inspiration for Yán jiāng comes from the art by Bengt Berglund and from great composers I admire.