- Program Notes
- In Japanese folklore, yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits. Oftentimes they are humanoid in appearance, but in general their features are animalistic.
Shinchū are a type of yōkai that resemble colossal silkworm moths. While they look horrifying and ferocious, shinchū do not attack humans. Instead, they feed on demons and evil spirits. In particular, they prey upon other yōkai that cause disease and spread epidemics. They rip their victims apart violently as they feed, leaving pools of blood and body parts in their wake. Their appetites are as big as themselves. Every morning, a shinchū will consume three thousand demons, and every evening it will devour three thousand more. They are members of a secret task force who call themselves the Exterminators of Evil.
Legend has it that there once was a single, apostate shinchū named Kanikama, who switched from a diet of evil spirits and demons to eating merely crab sticks from Lidl. Her particular voracity was the sole cause of the 1982 Global Crab Stick Shortage—a universal cataclysm, with effects that still reverberate throughout the entirety of today’s socio-economic spectrum.
Also, the name “Kanikama Shinchū” sounds a lot like the word knikkermachientje *.
* Dutch: “little marble machine”
- Recording Notes
- Recorded at Concertzaal Amare, The Hague on December 2, 2022
- Performer Credits
- Residentie Orkest Den Haag, conductor Jun Märkl
