Japan's best known living composer, Toshio Hosokawa explores the boundaries between Western avant-garde and traditional Japanese culture, and is influenced by the static structures of the Gagaku music of the Japanese court. In the ongoing series of his chamber and solo compositions under the Vertical Time Study and Sen rubrics, Hosokawa's works begin cerebrally but soon erupt with emotion and virtuosity, as displayed by Europe's foremost accordionist, Stefan Hussong on Sen V and Melodia, or the three-piece chamber-ensemble of Michael Riessler (clarinet), Werner Taube (cello), and Yukiko Sugawara-Lachenmann (piano) on Vertical Time Study 1. Vertical Time Study III features Yukiko Sugawara-Lachenmann (piano) and Asako Urushihara (violin). in Die Tiefe Der Zeit features Hussong's accordion, Julius Berger on cello and Chosei Komatsu conducting the Diagonal Chamber Orchestra.