Search - Ayuo, Makiko Sakurai :: Izutso

Mysterious and moving

07/02/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Where do I begin with this CD? I initially became curious about it because it is on John Zorn's label, then I read about it and the artist was compared to Moondog, Sun Ra, and Keiji Haino, so I knew that I had to get it. When I finally got to listen to it I was pleasantly shocked; it didn't sond like any of those people! But it didn't sound like anything else I'd ever heard either (thus the comparison). I was expecting wild improv jazz/noise, but what I got was a combination of Japanese/Hindu new age classical beauty. I was hooked from the moment I heard the first track, which is the most moving song I've ever heard. Ayuo is a master musician; he uses a hurdy-gurdy, sitar-guitar, celtic harp, etc.,all topped off by a female Japanese vocalist with a stunning voice. This is world music, pure and simple. I just wish I could figue out which world it's from. A classic from a hardcore individualist."

Beautiful stuff

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 05/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I generally am put-off by anything that smacks of "the New Age," from the sound of Pachelbel's "Canon" sawing away over recordings of surf and seagull to the obnoxious simplicities of dipsticks like Stuart Wilde -- but this CD, which owes at least SOMETHING to New Age music, is very much an exception to this rule. It's absolutely lovely, amazing stuff. Scored largely for Celtic harp, voice, and hurdygurdy, this disc is some of the most sincerely peaceful, soothing, rapturous music I've encountered. It's very minimal and not particularly structurally sophisticated, but it has a rich and strange quality that most New Age music lacks. The traditions it draws on -- Celtic, Japanese, and Indian, among others -- make a pretty interesting mix, as well, and the vocalist (a Japanese singer whose name I don't have handy) is really marvelous. (What lyrics there are are in Japanese, note). It's a favorite of mine, at present, and I've played it almost every night, prior to sleeping, since I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Highly recommended."