Customer Reviews

Gagaku & Beyond

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first Gagaku album I have ever listened to and I must say I love it! I first became interested in Japanese traditional music from watching Akira Kurosawa films. The balance of beauty, nobility, and sorrow has always moved me. Listening to this album, I again feel those same emotions. What at first seemed to be dissonant melodies soon reveal themselves to be a beautiful conversation among the exotic instruments. It creates an other-wordly mood, as if this music was meant not for mortal ears, but for the gods and spirits themselves. The wide variety of styles offered in this album provides a great overview of Gagaku. Personally, my favorite track is the second, which features deep, male vocals (the only vocals on the CD).

This is the first Gagaku album I have ever listened to and I must say I love it! I first became interested in Japanese traditional music from watching Akira Kurosawa films. The balance of beauty, nobility, and sorrow has always moved me. Listening to this album, I again feel those same emotions. What at first seemed to be dissonant melodies soon reveal themselves to be a beautiful conversation among the exotic instruments. It creates an other-wordly mood, as if this music was meant not for mortal ears, but for the gods and spirits themselves. The wide variety of styles offered in this album provides a great overview of Gagaku. Personally, my favorite track is the second, which features deep, male vocals (the only vocals on the CD).

If you want one gagaku/engaku recording this is perhaps the one. The recording quality is great and the performance as well.

astonishing...wonderous...beautiful...and whole mess of other cheesy adjectives.....i listen to a lot of music from around the planet...i have most of the explorer series re-issues plus a host of others put out by other record labels...and i have to say that this music is some of the most expressive music i have heard from anywhere...not to mention the most expressive i've heard from japan..i did some painting recently and i put this music on in the background....extremely inspirational....it has an incredible ability to shape the mood and space....i would not recomend this music to people who listen to music for entertainment...it won't make you want to bob your head and there is no concrete melody to sing along with but if you are interested in one-ness, or spirituality of any kind this music is a wonderful experience... i would also recomend this to anyone who is interested in exploring their understanding of music, sound, and the relationship of those things to everything else.

This is certainly a beautiful, elegant collection of gagaku; I would recommend it to anyone interested in traditional Japanese music or even to someone who loves minimalistic orchestration.
However, if you're used to typical Western music with tempo and whatnot, and are a virgin when it comes to "world music", you may be put off at first.
I was caught by surprise to hear a tract with voices (Saibara: Koromogae) and it has turned out to be my favorite so far.

I'm fairly certain that the flute solo on the fifth tract (Koranjo) is the same as what plays during the opening credits of Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood' (Kumonosu jo). Or maybe my ears are deceiving me. . .