Tag ‘Kodo One Earth Tour’
Announcement: Upcoming Release of New Album “Mystery”
Kodo will release a brand new album, “Mystery,” on Dec. 19 (Fri). This studio recording captures the essence of the stage production “Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery,” directed by Tamasaburo Bando.
All eight tracks are original compositions, each one a piercing ray of light from within a sacred world of darkness. We hope this album takes you on a voyage to the extraordinary, to a mysterious realm that lies in the beyond. Sit back, close your eyes, and let the sound of “Mystery” conjure a wondrous world deep within your mind, where darkness & light intersect and stillness & movement entwine.
Kodo Discography | Mystery
http://www.kodo.or.jp/discography/od011_en.html
Samples of all tracks available on this page.
Available from Kodo performances venues and Kodo Online Store from Dec. 19.
http://kodo.shop.multilingualcart.com/
Tour Trucks Get an “Eternity” Makeover
Our new production “Kodo One Earth Tour 2014: Eternity” premieres on Sado Island today!
Our tour trucks have a new look, outfitted to match the “Eternity” poster, and they are ready to hit the road, too!
Kodo One Earth Tour 2014: Eternity
Nov. 20 (Thu) Amusement Sado, Sado Is., Niigata
Nov. 30 (Sun) City Hall Plaza “Aore Nagaoka,” Nagaoka, Niigata
– “Heartbeat Project” Special Version –
Dec. 2 (Tue) Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Dec. 4 (Thu) Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater Concert Hall, Nagoya, Aichi
Dec. 6 (Sat) & 7 (Sun) NHK Osaka Hall, Osaka City
Dec. 10 (Wed) Okayama Civic Hall, Okayama City
Dec. 12 (Fri) Ueno Gakuen Hall, Hiroshima City
Dec. 15 (Mon) & 16 (Tue) Hakataza Theater, Fukuoka City
Dec. 19 (Fri) – 23 (Tue/Public Hol.) Bunkyo Civic Hall, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo
Dec. 25 (Thu) Niigata Prefectural Civic Center, Niigata City
“Miwaku Dancers in ‘Eternity'” by Jun Jidai
Nov. 15, 2014
Our brand new production, “Kodo One Earth Tour: Eternity,” premieres on Nov. 20! Right now we are at the climax of our rehearsals!
In this performance, Koki, Shogo, Mariko, and I will dance in a new piece called Miwaku. It is a unique dance, like some kind of magical ceremony. Please come and watch us in action.
Spiraling sounds will lure you to another dimension.
Once the curtain rises, another world will be revealed.
Please join us for “Eternity.”
Kodo One Earth Tour 2014: Eternity
Nov. 20 (Thu) Amusement Sado, Sado Is., Niigata
Nov. 30 (Sun) City Hall Plaza “Aore Nagaoka,” Nagaoka, Niigata
– “Heartbeat Project” Special Version –
Dec. 2 (Tue) Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Dec. 4 (Thu) Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater Concert Hall, Nagoya, Aichi
Dec. 6 (Sat) & 7 (Sun) NHK Osaka Hall, Osaka City
Dec. 10 (Wed) Okayama Civic Hall, Okayama City
Dec. 12 (Fri) Ueno Gakuen Hall, Hiroshima City
Dec. 15 (Mon) & 16 (Tue) Hakataza Theater, Fukuoka City
Dec. 19 (Fri) – 23 (Tue/Public Hol.) Bunkyo Civic Hall, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo
Dec. 25 (Thu) Niigata Prefectural Civic Center, Niigata City
TV Appearance: tvk “Kodo Eien no Hibiki” (Kodo, Echoes of Eternity)
tvk Programme “Kodo Eien no Hibiki” (Kodo, Echoes of Eternity)
On Nov. 22, a special progamme featuring Kodo will be aired on Television Kanagawa (tvk) in Japan.
*Photos are not from TV footage
This TV programme was filmed this autumn and features one of the key cast members, Masayuki Sakamoto, giving a tour around Kodo Village, shows the Kodo members off-stage & up-close, as well as taking at behind-the-scenes look at the regimented training they undergo to become performers on the Kodo stage.
The programme will also introduce “Eternity, our brand new production that will tour around Japan from late November through December, alongside various other works directed by and in collaboration with Tamasaburo Bando in recent years.
If you’re in Japan, we hope you’ll tune in!
Television Kanagawa (tvk) “Kodo Eien no Hibiki” (Kodo, Echoes of Eternity)
Broadcast Date & Time: Nov. 22 (Sat) from 18:30
*Date and time are subject to change without notice.
“Kodo Heartbeat Project: Lest We Forget” by Tomohiro Mitome
Nov. 1, 2014
Hello, everyone. This is Tomohiro Mitome, leader of taiko performing arts ensemble Kodo.
It’s November now and autumn is at its peak. It looks great here on Sado Island, Kodo Village is adorned with yellow and red leaves all around. Both the “Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery” cast & crew and the ”School Workshop Performance” tour, which started last November and toured simultaneously over the past year, have completed their long journeys and safely returned home to Sado.
Now, everyone is rehearsing at Kodo Village to prepare for our new production “Kodo One Earth Tour: Eternity” and a newly directed “School Workshop Performance” programme.
This month, I would like to talk about the upcoming “Kodo Heartbeat Project” performance at Aore Nagaoka in Nagaoka, Niigata, on Nov. 30.
Ten years have passed since the Chuetsu Earthquake. To pray for the area’s continued recovery from this disaster, and for Tohoku’s recovery from the 2011 Tohoku Pacific Earthquake, this November Kodo will visit Nagaoka to perform a special version of “Kodo One Earth Tour: Eternity,” hold school workshops, and collaborate on-stage with three specially-invited performing arts groups from the Tohoku area.
One of the groups from Tohoku is Shiroyama Toramai (Shiroyama Tiger Dance) from Otsuchi in Iwate, who we met when we performed with them at “Nanako Matsuri – Fuyu no Jin” last December. I recently visited them in Otsuchi to prepare myself for our Nov. 30 collaboration.
Left: Performing arts groups from each district lead magnificent festival floats through the town during “Kamaishi Matsuri.”
Right: Taking a close look at a float built in 1699 in Ozaki Shrine.
During my stay, it was the festival season in Otsuchi’s neighboring town, Kamaishi, so I was able to see the tiger dance being performed at an actual festival.
Also, I went to see the current state of the disaster area.
“What I Focus on When I Create New Pieces” by Yuta Sumiyoshi
Oct. 12, 2014
I am writing this blog post on my day off in Saitama Prefecture. On our days off, we all go about our normal daily lives.
Me? Well, I went for a bit of a run this morning and right now I am at laundromat, watching the tumble-dryer do its thing. Our tours always get so hectic, so times like this to chill and stare off into space are unexpectedly precious. Ideas for new taiko pieces often come to me at times like this.
So, today I would like to talk about what I think is most important when I compose pieces.
When I create a new piece, I always make it thinking about incorporating a moment that will move the audience listening or watching and give them goosebumps. I do not know if “goosebumps” is the best expression, but hope you can kind of get what I mean by that…
I think this sensation of goosebumps, or chills, is something that everyone feels, regardless of their own personal preferences or cultural background.
Such different music, impossible to list, is scattered around the world, and to me good music always has a moment somewhere that gives people goosebumps. I think there are various things that move us in music, like the distinct characteristics of the musical instruments, development throughout the piece leading up to that moment, phrasing, and so on. On the other hand, sometimes I think these moments are related to the certain charms of the performers who bring the music to life.
To create music, I think it is also very important to study musical elements and their cultural background. Then, we can recreate new pieces by filtering those elements through our own sensibilities.
“Be Prepared & Have No Regrets” by Tetsumi Hanaoka
On Oct. 5, we gave a performance of “Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery” in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki. We also came here with “Legend” two years ago and we were happy to be back.
Let me tell you about one type of drum we use on stage. Shimedaiko (the small drums shown above) have drum heads that are bound together by either bolts or one long rope. Kodo always uses roped shimedaiko so we can create an unconstrained, mellow yet clear, shrill sound. But because we tune our shimedaiko before every performance, the ropes wear out and eventually snap. We need to keep replacing them.
So, we always have extra ropes on hand, just in case. The ropes are made of hemp and they are very stiff, so we pull them and beat them every day to make them just the right softness. By doing this, if one of the ropes snaps during our daily tuning, we always have rope on hand that is ready to replace it right there and then.
As the saying goes, “Be prepared & have no regrets.”
Everyday, we all do our best to be in top condition for our performances!
Radio Appearances in Hakata & Osaka
Kodo members appeared on these radio programmes recently: “Hawks Hana no Oendan” on RKB Radio in Hakata on Oct. 22 and “Wakako Takeda’s Pitatto” on ABC Radio in Osaka on Oct. 23.
Masayuki Sakamoto, Mariko Omi, Shogo Komatsuzaki & Kosuke Urushikubo appeared on “Hawks Hana no Oendan” on RKB Radio. They all enjoyed talking with the hosts about our brand new production, “Eternity.”
Masayuki Sakamoto, Yosuke Kusa and Jun Jidai appeared on “Wakako Takeda’s Pitatto” on ABC Radio and gave a live performance. It featured a collaboration with the radio show hosts. They all had so much fun together that the producers let it run over time!
“Kodo One Earth Tour: Eternity”
http://www.kodo.or.jp/news/20141120oet_en.html
Nov. 20 (Thu) Amusement Sado, Sado Is., Niigata
Nov. 30 (Sun) City Hall Plaza “Aore Nagaoka,” Nagaoka, Niigata
– “Heartbeat Project” Special Version –
Dec. 2 (Tue) Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Dec. 4 (Thu) Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater Concert Hall, Nagoya, Aichi
Dec. 6 (Sat) & 7 (Sun) NHK Osaka Hall, Osaka City
Dec. 10 (Wed) Okayama Civic Hall, Okayama City
Dec. 12 (Fri) Ueno Gakuen Hall, Hiroshima City
Dec. 15 (Mon) & 16 (Tue) Hakataza Theater, Fukuoka City
Dec. 19 (Fri) – 23 (Tue/Public Hol.) Bunkyo Civic Hall, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo
Dec. 25 (Thu) Niigata Prefectural Civic Center, Niigata City
“‘Mystery’ Performance in Iwaki” by Shogo Komatsuzaki
On October 4, we performed in my hometown of Iwaki, Fukushima. It was my first time to perform in Iwaki as a Kodo member. Thanks to the support of the venue, Iwaki Performing Arts Center Alios, the audience there had gathered from all over Fukushima Prefecture. It was a beautiful day and my heart was filled with happiness.
No matter how much I think about it, all I can think to say is “Thank you” to all of the people who helped us with this performance. Even though people in Fukushima are still having a hard time, they manage to turn their tough experiences into strength and they smile a lot. They reminded me that I get my own strength from them too, everywhere I go, all the time, with each step I take.
I hope this performance will become a link between Iwaki and Kodo. I will continue to do my best, in the hopes of coming back to perform in Iwaki soon.
“‘Mystery’ Japan Finale in Shimane” by Narumi Matsuda
The Japan Finale of “Mystery” in Shimane
The Japan performances of “Kodo One Earth Tour: Mystery” ended at Oda Shimin Kaikan in Shimane on Oct. 26. It was also the last One Earth Tour performance for cast members Kenzo Abe and Yosuke Inoue.
Our tour ended in Shimane, where the original folk art that serpent dance Jamai is based on is upheld. All the members, especially serpent performer Yosuke Kusa, got so nervous soon after we arrived in Shimane. A serpent was on display in the lobby (see the picture below) and we received warm applause from the members of Yunotsu, who taught us the serpent dance. The performers must have felt really encouraged by their support. The performance was really lively thanks to this great atmosphere, created by everyone there: the audience, the staff backstage and front of house, and the entire cast. Thank you, everyone!
