TAKA KOTO ENSEMBLE: Taka

Taka Koto Ensemble

Taka

© 2000 Koto World (695171002023)

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Contemporary koto ensemble music with flowing rhythms, a rainbow of textures and compelling harmonies.

tracks

1 Taka
2 Spring Rain
3 Uruma
4 Haiku
5 Blossoms
6 Dream Wind

notes

This ensemble of seven women koto players based in Seattle and headed by Elizabeth Falconer, specializes in performing contemporary music for the Japanese koto. Members include: Cara Izumi, Junko Tajima, Sachiko Honda, Mayuko Ohinata, Mie Naito, and Shiho Kurauchi. "Taka" (falcon) refers to the soaring reverberations of their combined energies on their 13-stringed instruments. The music is composed by Tadao Sawai and Elizabeth Falconer.

I first heard the Taka Koto Ensemble at an open-air concert where their music and orchestrations captured the essence of spring breezes. I purchased the CD that night from one of the members of the ensemble and have enjoyed it regularly since then. The sounds created in the pieces are vibrant, sensual, fresh and soothing. The ensemble propels the listener through planes of flight and fantasy with their astonishing rhythms and syncopations. Each cut on the CD has its own personality and each is moving and entrancing and collectively they take you on an extraordinary journey of spiritual magnitude. Immerse yourself with headphones and feel each of the ensemble's fingers plucking and strumming on chords sent from the heavens. The creatively of the ensemble with this traditional instrument makes this CD a must have for any music- lover's collection! This CD ranks up there with the music of Kitaro, Jean Michel Jarre, and Yanni.

Review by Ivan Demetrius, July 1, 2000
Cairns, Australia

reviews

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  • Amazing!
    author: Carrie

    I am new to koto music, and this CD is amazing. Beautiful, complex and full of emotion. Listen to it, and you’ll be hooked!

  • Exquisite....a shower of singing raindrops.
    author: Ed Ratledge

    The poem I wrote after my first hearing, seems the best review for this compilation..... Uruma.... it is rain... and not rain.... this... endlessness... of separate.... drops.... come singly... their... arhythmic.... beat.... almost too... clear.... and.... in a key... each... sings.... unto itself.... unique

  • Wow! Breathtaking and beyond beautiful!
    author: Kim

    As someone who as always appreciated Japanese music, I couldn't resist buying this album. And it is beyond lovely. Each piece has it's own personality and distinctive and endearing qualities. The harmonies are truly mezmorizing, especially to the western ear where many of these sounds are seldom heard. These ladies are incredibly skilled musicians, and the energy force of each track simply shimmers with intensity. Truly amazing work! Highly recommended!

  • Floating, flowing, at once with and without form
    author: Joe Ross

    The Japanese word "taka" means "falcon" or "hawk," and this Seattle-based group of seven koto players give us extraordinary contemporary compositions that epitomize the freedom of a raptor in flight. The group also takes its name from the opening piece, "Taka," composed by koto master Tadao Sawai who also penned "Uruma," an historic name for the island of Okinawa. The four pieces from the Taka Ensemble's director, Elizabeth Falconer, embody the spirit of meditative Japanese music -- simultaneously floating, flowing, at once with and without form. The joy of this album is to tune in and listen to the music in each fleeting moment, rather than to expect each piece to slowly intensify until it reaches some culminating sound or passage. A very pleasant aural journey!

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