In 2006 when my good friend, celebrated Australian chef Kylie Kwong’s father was gravely ill, I wrote a piece Kwong Song for her, in which I tried to express the sorrow of the imminent loss of someone close and to foreshadow the memory of that someone. It is, like Blue Silence, quite minimal in its material and quietly repetitive. The initial idea was to write a succession of small short sighs, this grew into a kind of waltz. There are other versions of this piece for string quartet, for clarinet quartet and for flute trio (or flute and piano).
Elena Kats-Chernin