Playlist “Psyche van het Folk”, Radio Centraal, Antwerpen The music from AYUO (Japan). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Info on all these items : http://progressive.homestead.com/JAPANreviews2.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction : PROFILE AYUO : (Guitar, Bouzouki, Celtic Harp, Hurdy-Gurdy, Psaltery, Koto, Vocals, Words and Music) Born October 19, 1960. He spent 1963-65 in Berlin and Stockholm and 1966-75 in New York City. He studied guitar first with Stanley Silverman and later with William Hellerman. He later studied the Japanese Biwa, Chinese Zheng, European Lute, and classical music composition. He joined "Fushitsusha", an avant-garde rock group led by Keiji Haino in 1979. Since 1983, he has recorded 11 solo albums for labels such as Midi, Epic-Sony, JVC Victor, Polygram, and others, in which he recorded with musicians such as Peter Hammill, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carlos Alomar, Takehisa Kosugi, David Lord, Danny Thompson, Maddy Prior, Peter Knight, and Dave Mattacks. His more recent music tries to show the ancient musical link on the silkroad from Europe through the Balkans to Persia, India, Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan by exploring the possibilities of using ancient and traditional music to create new music. He now leads his own group for which he composes and plays Bouzouki, Hurdy-Gurdy, Guitar, and other instruments. In 2000, a CD of an opera called "Izutsu" scored for Japanese instruments with Celtic Harp, Hurdy-Gurdy, Sitar-Guitar, Psaltery was released on John Zorn's Tzadik label. The most recent release is a joint album with pop singer Ohta Hiromi, also available from Tzadik. Ayuo : “I first started playing the guitar in 1968. My first influences were psychedelic music. The first records I had were Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett), Joni Mitchell, The Velvet Underground. My first guitar teacher had many of these albums, and some others were given to me by friends of my parents. I went to see many of these bands from the time I was 8. I became interested in the possibilities using various traditional music from the world, first by hearing groups such as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Gong and The Incredible String Band. Later, when I was given the opportunity to record my own albums. I went to England to try to see if I could collaborate with some of these musicians. Peter Hammill became a great influence and inspiration in the way I have been creating music. As I wrote in the liner notes to "Izutsu", I grew up here and there, so I always felt rootless in culture. But having had the opportunity to see and live in different cultures gave me the ability to do things in a way that was different from other people. Peter Hammill also told me that because he grew up here and there in England, he wanted to raise his children in one small community, so that they would have a better sense of belonging. A lot of his work is also about communication as is his new CD "Incoherence".” --------------------------------------------------------------------------- playlist : * Midi Inc. Ayuo Takahashi : Nova Carmina (1986)***’ Tr.1, “Guide us” (water music) 3 min Poem narration in English (by Aideen Morgan, with water and distant electric violin Tr.6, “Veris Leta Facies” 5 min Medieval track (from the Carmina Burana series of songs) sung in an original interpretation by Maddy Prior, with filmic instrumentation. Tr.11,”Eye to Eye” 6 min -14 Violin improvisation theme by Peter Knight with psaltery, electric bass, and some filmic keyboard arrangements. * Republic Kazue Sawai,koto : Eye to Eye (1987)***°° Tr.5, “A song to fallen blossoms” (Ayuo) 7 min Tr.7, “Midare” (Kegyo Yatsuhashi) 11 min Tr.8, “Eye to Eye” (Ayuo) 9 min 27 40 Master-player of the koto, with one classic 16th century piece (with some small very fitting reverb effects) between 2 Ayuo tracks. One has Peter Hamill & Sarah Jane Morris on vocals and has also some beautiful tiny reverb effects on koto here and there. Sarah Jane Morris has similarity in voice with Carhy Alexander of The Morrigan. Another chosen track has Hiromi Ohta on vocals. * Carmina Ayuo Trio + : Live bootleg : (we are the space between the sea and the moon (rec.1994,1997,1998,1999)**°° 1998 : Tr.2,“1000 springs” 7 min 1999 : Tr.5,“Tao” (live version) 7 min Tr.8,“The holy man and the sinner within” 9 min 23 63 First chosen track is a singer-songwriter track with guitar, harmonica, percussion. Second session is partly in Middle Eastern “rock” mood. “Tao” is with great acoustic and amplified bouzouki solo’s, some wa-wa electric guitar in middle eastern tuning, and a great live energy etc. Great to see again a different aspect in Ayuo’s talent. Track 8 sounds a bit like early Alex, the German rock musician who played mostly Turkish music as Middle Eastern rock. So this is similar, a kind of middle eastern psychedelic. English vocals fits perfect with this style. Tr.8 has some extra musicians. Fantastic track. Ayuo : “My parents divorced when I was quite young. I grew up with an Iranian-American step-father, who came from a family of court musicians for the Persian Shah. I grew up listening to a lot of Persian traditional music in New York City. I wasn't speaking Japanese at home either. So this is the answer to why there is a lot of Middle Eastern influence in my music, and why a lot of it is in English. I am, however, trying to increase the amount of songs in Japanese, and there is a lot more in Japanese now, then there was at the time "Live Bootleg" was recorded. * Tzadik Ayuo : Izutsu (JAP, 2000)***°° Tr.2, “Ama No Umi” 3 min Tr.3, “Lament” -> 5 min (fragment) Tr.9, “Izutsu 6” 5 min Tr.10,“Izutsu 7” 5 min (fragment) Tr.11,“Izutsu 8” 5 min 21 84 Very moody acoustic, a bit slower evolving item with Japanese new music, with Japanese, Western, Indian instruments, and with texts from Japanese, middle eastern and western philosophers. This is with Makiko Sakurai on vocals. It contains a piece in 12 parts, and three other tracks. The track I choose was an instrumental on celtic harp, with on the next continuous track a part of the poem, “Lady on the well”, with the next track voices, harp & flute and sitar-guitar. * H²O Earthman Ayuo : Stoned (2002)***° Tr.12, “Geronimo” 4 min 4 88 Conceptual piece around a stone-art exhibition by photographer Ken Awazu. Very conceptual music too. Ayuo : “Geronimo” is recited by a Romanian-Russian who has only been in Japan, a few years. She doesn't have full control of pronouncing Japanese correctly. For people who know Japanese, it sounds like a thick Russian accent. Ken Awazu thought it would be more interesting to bring in someone like this to recite the words, rather than to have someone read Japanese normally. Neither Ken Awazu's or I can speak or read and write Japanese perfectly. I think Kan Mikami must have been one of the first to sing and record for a major label in a northern dialect or language of Japanese that most people in this country do not understand. He sings with a lot of emotion and expression like an old blues singer, so the fact that the words might not be comprehensible doesn't really matter. English would be far easier language for most young people to understand, since the difference between his language and normal modern Japanese may be greater that perhaps that of Dutch, German or English. See review at http://progressive.homestead.com/JAPANreviews2.html * website Ayuo : “A stranger” 8 min 95 If Popol Vuh had experienced what Ayuo did (with more Persian and Indian music influences) perhaps his music would have sounded a bit more like this. A perfect blend spanning a wide area around the globe of direct and intuitively felt genres (from UK over Persia, India and Japan, from Medieval areas over psychedelica towards new music). Masterly track ! * Tzadik Ayuo / Ohta Hiromi : Red Moon (JAP,2004)***°° Tr.1, “Tsuki To Mizo” (Moon and water) 8 min Tr.2, “Yume Utsutsu” (Dreaming away) 7 min Tr.3, “Takeda no Komori uta (Takeda Lullaby)” 6 min Tr.6, “Devotion” 7 min 28 125 Masterpiece of very original new music/ acid crossover folk / crossover real psychedelica item, with lots of world instruments & wonderful female voice,.. Very unique and highly recommended. A must for every lover of acoustic music with eastern, psych and other elements ! “Devotion” is a bit like Peter Hamill, but with saz? and tabla, and female Japanese narration. Ayuo : “About half the songs in "Red Moon" were originally written in English, and translated into Japanese. Ohta Hiromi gets credit for translating "Yume Utsutsu" because she translated it to fit her own singing voice.” “There are two songs based on Persian Sufi concepts on this CD They are both played on a bouzouki tuned like a Persian Setar. I feel the use of English here sounds quite Asian. My influence from Peter Hammill was more conceptual and in the way of doing things, rather than musical. Many of my earliest songs sounded like this before I had even heard of Peter Hammill's music. Peter Hammill did write some notes for my CD, where he said that we have similar ways of using ancient and traditional music in our own music. This is a kind of trans-global new music which I consider as a must-have. Where “Izutsu” can be considered a bit more as new Japanese music, this album is more directing towards an interest for those who like psychedelia. Ohta Hiromi is a know pop voice who recently retired because of familial reasons. It’s nice she participated with this project because she really has a beautiful voice. Ayuo : “Many of my CD’s are no longer in print. Kazue Sawai's "Eye to Eye" has been out of print since 1987. Live Bootleg was something I made at home on my computer to sell at my live shows. There are still a few copies of ‘Nova Carmina’ left around, although they remain very expensive. I wish some company abroad could license some of these CDs and sell them for a price that would suit people who may be interested in them in Europe and the US.” Ayuo Ayuo : “Next month, I have a live show with Yamazaki, the drummer from Ghost on their PSF releases, and Fukuoka, a guitarist-celloist and member of Overhung Party with Yamazaki.” outro : * Belle Antique Takami : Yume No Kirigishi (JAP,rec.1985,re.1995)**’ Tr.6, 14 min (fragment-> max.10 min) This is another, early example of a track with Japanese elements and sitar. With female voice, and some keyboards too. Slightly blurred composition, dark,too long. Group with Om Tomatom, Pneuma, Takami. * Musea Rec. Theta : Seeds of the Dream (JAP,2000)*°° Tr.7, “Summernight dream” 5 min 140 Neo-Prog(fusion)/artprog group. Supposed to have influences from Rennaissance, Solstice. Info : http://www.katsunuma.ne.jp/~hanchian/theta.html & http://217.128.227.4/Infosheet/4332.pdf Reviews : http://www.dprp.net/reviews/0120.htm#atheta & http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_CD.asp?cd_id=2334 & http://www.e-prog.net/bands/theta.htm * Drag City Ghost : Hypnotic Underworld (JAP,2004)**° Tr.8, “Ganagmanag” 10 min 150 New item of this already more known psychfolk/psych group. Varied album, with many good elements. A splendid track. Label entry : http://www.dragcity.com/bands/ghost.html with this item : http://www.dragcity.com/catalog/records/dc249.html Ghost homepage : http://www.ab.cyberhome.ne.jp/%7epochamal/ Review : http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/g/ghost/hypnotic-underworld.shtml & http://www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=107459733133137 & http://www.fakejazz.com/reviews/2004/ghost.shtml & http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=1697 & http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/1140 & http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2004-03-25/rotations4.html & http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/ghost_hypno.html Interview : http://www.magnetmagazine.com/artist/artist2.html Other soundfiles of this album : “Piper” : http://realaudio01.datapipe.net:8080/ramgen/othermusic/piper.rm “Aramaic Barbarous Dawn” : http://realaudio01.datapipe.net:8080/ramgen/othermusic/aramaicb.rm “Hypnotic Underworld pt. 2: Escaped And Lost Down In Medina" : http://aquariusrecords.org/audio/ghostescaped.m3u "HU pt. 3: Aramaic Barbarous Dawn" : http://aquariusrecords.org/audio/ghostaramaic.m3u outro : * Belle Antique Trembling Strain : Bottom Of Empty (JAP,1996)***°° Tr.2, “Tamaudun” max. 4 min (fragment) Trembling Strain made three basically acoustic new music albums based upon the departure / burial theme etc. Beautiful music, in same quality as the best Third Ear Band but with mostly Japanese instruments. Pneuma participated with them here. Info : http://www.gepr.net/to.html#TREMBLINGSTRAIN & http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/files/JAPAN.TXT & http://www2.inforyoma.or.jp/~sory/Trest.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other playlists : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/2004.html General index page : www.radiocentraal.be/psychevanhetfolk More detailed index page : http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/index.html Receive weekly this playlist before the radioshow with new reviews and additional comments : / ontvang wekelijks playlist vòòr de radio-uitzending : Subscribe / schrijf u in : psychevanhetfolk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com