Jo Ha Kyu

Tradition belongs more to the present than the past. For three weeks Parisian cellist and composer Gaspar Claus met with traditional and modern Japanese musicians in a Tokyo studio to record Jo Ha Kyu. Performing with Claus on this piece are: Eiko Ishibashi (voice, piano, drums), Keiji Haino (voice), Kakushin Nishihara (voice, satsuma biwa), Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano), Hirochimi Sakamoto (electric cello), Sachiko M (sine wave), Otomo Yoshihide (turntable), Leonard Eto (wadaiko), Kazutoki Umezu (tenor saxophone) and Kazuki Tomokawa (voice, guitar).  Listening to the music of the Japanese avant-garde, one can easily detect that they belong to the great tradition of Japanese music which continues through the, and this wonderful, enveloping record is concrete evidence of this.