Japanese organ builder 'honoured' to restore voice of Notre Dame

Paris: Itaru Sekiguchi first heard the Great Organ of the Paris Notre Dame cathedral when he was 10. The infernal sound changed his life forever....

Paris: Itaru Sekiguchi first heard the Great Organ of the Paris Notre Dame cathedral when he was 10. The "infernal sound" changed his life forever.

"It was a bit of a culture shock," he said.

Today the Japanese, 53, is one of a handful of specialists entrusted with tuning and voicing the fabled instrument as Notre Dame prepares to reopen on December 7 after a devastating fire in 2019.

The near 300-year-old colossus was miraclously spared by the flames.

Sekiguchi moved to France in his twenties to become an organ builder and restorer, dreaming of a chance to work on the "voice" of the masterpiece of Gothic architecture.