Stock: 
Format: 
Release Date: 26-10-1998
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Catalog Number: 15021-2
Barcode: 13711502121
Musical Style: World
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenjo [06:22] | 5 | Reflections [07:39] |
| 2 | Kamakura [01:26] | 6 | Takeda's Poem [06:38] |
| 3 | Go [09:21] | 7 | Miyajima [05:10] |
| 4 | Shinrabansyo [05:20] | 8 | Moon Over Water [07:51] |
Description:
From the plaintive cry of the shinobue flute to the booming thunder of the huge taiko (drums), the sounds of Japan echo through this latest release from Australia's preeminent new music ensemble. Michael Askill, Ian Cleworth, Rebecca Lagos and Colin Piper have created a sonic journey that is at once vibrant and reflective. Inspired by the philosophy and sounds of the traditional taiko drumming of Japan, Taiko reflects Australia's unique position in the musical world - as a Western country keenly aware of its position on the Pacific Rim. This quartet of percussionists joins with Japanese flutest/composer Sen Amano and shakuhachi virtuoso Riley Kelly Lee in a series of musical dialogues, playing on the dichotomy between East and West that has colored so much of Australian art. The music of Taiko ranges from the Zen–like simplicity of Kamakura, a traditional Japanese work for the flute known as shinobue; to the excited pounding of Sen Amano's Shinrabansyo, featuring the taiko and gongs of the Arahan drum ensemble; to the subtle pointillism of Moon Over Water, an Ian Cleworth composition using dozens of unusual percussion instruments, shells and found objects.
Biography:
Producer and composer Michael Askill is regarded by many as Australia's finest percussionist. He is a founding member and the Artistic Director of Australia's premier contemporary ensemble Synergy, a composer, producer, the Head of the Percussion Department at the Canberra School of Music and finds time for collaborations and a solo career. By his teenage years, Omar Faruk Tekbilek was one of Turkey’s most sought after session musicians. A virtuoso performer on the Near Eastern cane flute (ney) and the Turkish lute, (baglama) Tekbilek was in demand in both jazz and traditional Turkish/Arab music circles. Along the way, he has mastered several kinds of reed instruments, a variety of strings (bowed and plucked), synthesizer, hand drums and even the accordion. In 1976, he settled in upstate New York. Since then, his music has appeared regularly on concert stages, recordings and films in the United States, Europe and Australia. In addition to a thriving solo career, he has played with a wide range of other musicians, from the late Don Cherry to pianist Michael Harrison’s Mandala Jones, a band that draws on the poetry of the great 13th century Sufi poet Rumi.
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