Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu was born in Tokyo and studied technology at Keio University. He taught himself composition, joining a jazz and rock group, and has studied for a short while with Teizo Matsumura, one of Japan’s “Elder Statesmen” of classical music.

Yoshimatsu’s musical language is tonal and lyrical, and he espouses what he calls “new lyricism”, objecting to unmusical modern music. Among his many compositions are five symphonies, six concerti, many chamber and solo piano and guitar works. He has also composed works for traditional Japanese instruments such as the koto and shakuhachi (bamboo flute). 

According to Yoshimatsu, And Birds are Still, composed in 1998, describes the human scene from the point of view of the flying birds in a surreal world: "I see a sky with transparent birds. With sad eyes they quietly look down on the human beings crawling around in an artificial forest below them". The short elegy came from an image of birds gathered around a dead comrade.