Album 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