Oki, the performing title of Oki Kano, performs folks of essentially the most pressing variety – music from a critically endangered tradition. The language wherein he performs and his cultural ancestry is Ainu; each have been suppressed via the centuries by the Japanese. Oki’s instrument is Ainu, too: a five-stringed historic harp, the tonkori, with a bewitchingly woody, stark, hole sound.
After working in New York within the Nineteen Eighties, Oki returned to his dwelling island of Hokkaido to plait collectively threads of Ainu music with worldwide influences like throat singing, dub and African drumming. This compilation of the primary 10 years of his music-making sounds thrillingly recent. Kai Kai As To (Rippling Lake) is supple and lithe, his tonkori lifted by approximations of birdsong and harmonies by singers Yayo Boo and Noda Tin. Oki’s instrument supplies an pressing, percussive undertow to Iso Kaari Irekte (Beat Lure Rhythm) as a bass clarinet sighs alongside it like a lovable, lumbering animal. Yaykatekar Dub, a tune by late tonkori participant Ume Nishihira, will get a sprightlier replace: it seems like a blinding offcut from the Ze Data catalogue that introduced us Child Creole and Lizzy Mercier Descloux.
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Late Ainu singer Umeko Ando leads a number of the greatest tracks. A call-and-response passage between her and youthful singers Rekpo and Kapiw drives Iuta Upopo (Pestle Track), a unbelievable, strident finger-clicker. Oki’s love for improvisation additionally shines all through; there’s even what seems like an uncredited Hammond organ in Afghan Natural Backyard, full with a stuttering preset rhythm. That is music from the previous with the long run on its thoughts, preserving traditions because it propels them into new locations.
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