Very cool pieces. Always a treat to listen to your live playing on the lyre. I felt the improvisational nature of the tracks worked well with the theme and for them being ambient, but I would also have loved to find a bit of direction compositionally to transition to the second track or make some build-ups and create more tension for the "secret" part of the theme and keep the tracks more interesting. Also, and of course this feels intended, the tracks deviate from the Japanese vibes of the picture, and I felt right into Viking territory or a Scottish lake.
Heh it is kind of a mix up of cultures. The lyre is a Germanic lyre, but I suspect this instrument is a derivation of the Roman kithara., which is derived from the Greek Kithara.
Bagpipes are one of the instruments you see depicted accompanying the Greek kithara in period artwork.
So, I thought it would be neat to use bagpipes. So, the sound you hear is in part an attempt to grt closer to reproducing plausible ancient greek Kithara music.
That's so cool to know. Always surprising to hear how many times our assumptions in music are so deviated from history. The evolution of the guitar from the pandura but taking the name from the kithara is also a fascinating one as well. And I see hellenistic Greeks also even had a water organ! So cool.