Leaf Rec.
Asa-Chang & Junray : Jun Ray Song Hang (JAP,2002)*****
Asa-Chang started to make career as a percussionist and a bandmaster of the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra in 1989 with a multiplied openness to all kinds of genres and approaches. In 1998, Asa-Cang started Asa-Chang & Junray as a duo with guitarist / programmer, Hidehiko Urayama, with a first album “Tabla Magma Bongo”. In 2000, a third member joined the band, namely tabla player, U-Zhaan, for performing live together. In 2001 they released the mini-album “Hana” with much success, resulting in a rerelease of this album for Leaf and this full CD, with raving reviews.
Asa-Chang plays the Indonesian "Dandud" bongo in a style influenced by the Indian tabla style. This original idea came also from Indonesia. In Jakarta there exists a contemporary style of drumming called "Dandud" based upon the playing of tabla.
Other member U-Zhaan has spent some years studying tabla and Carnatic South Indian kanjira drum under the tutelage of percussionist V. Selvaganesh. The new technique they present in the group is completely new. It has elements and ideas of Indian vocal percussion duet with tabla. A few times I also recognized some Indonesian communicative rhythmic singing patterns too. Here it becomes a tabla-over-normal-speech style. In our modern commercialized music business times, where the still primitively minded hip-hop style is over-promoted, now this is what I call a thoughtful vocal percussive and musically interesting communication area with vocals and rhythms.
But this is far from a percussion driven album..
“Hana” is a filmic track with minimal chamber music and duet vocals with broken tabla-percussion on the spoken word rhythms, with just a few small touches of electronic effects.
“Preach” has beautifully combined trumpet, played with gipsy-fun, mixed with a metallic Indonesian instrument (?), and deformed funny vocals and other sounds, with tabla-like percussion and electronic effects.
The track “Kobana” I knew from the “Childish Music” compilation. I recognised immediately with it a huge talent and great vision behind the music. It has more deformed funny vocals with percussion, harmonica and electronics very nicely interwoven into a sweet folktronic fairytale-story-into-music song. The vocal ideas continue on “Nigatsu”, a track wich starts with storm sounds and guitar, and which is basically composed by guitar mixed with some keyboards and slightly cut-in recordings of vocals which are beautifully interwoven in the composition with a song idea, adding percussion, trumpet, and a bit of sitar all contributing its own ideas to it.
“Goo-Gung-Gung"definitely has some ethnic inspiration (Indonesian ?). It is a percussive melody with fine combinations of sounds that combine well with nice overtones (tabla, electronica and …), built up very much in combinations like some Indonesian music is built up, but here still as something different and as a new idea.
“Kutsi#1” after this, played by trumpet & percussion mostly is a more moody melody. Also “Jippun” has something of an ethnic music idea. It starts with funny electronica with flutes on top of it, in some kind of dialogue with one another, into a playful, slightly more abstract Plato-shadow game. It is as if some essence developed and collected from some ethnical source here is translated or transformed into a more futuristic vision or for some different out-of-space cybernetic perceptive ears. This piece ends with deformed Indian percussive vocals with percussion mixed with electronica. (My son of nine said : “I know how this is made : the voices are just speeded up” ; funny how he contributes in listening attentively).
“Kokoni Sachiari” has more techno-electronic breakbeat vision of other ideas from Indian music (sitar, vocals, etc.). Also “Tabla Bol” shows another variation of how one can also record/perform/bring a vocals/tabla duet mixed with some electronica. The way the result sounds, reminds me a bit more of Indonesia than of India.
“Radio-No-Youni” after this is a brilliant adaptation of the instrumental part of a Brigitte Fontaine song called ‘Comme a la radio” played with odd guitar, electronica, a mouthharmonica kind of instrument. This is mixed surprisingly with sitar, percussion and trumpet. A version, which I think Brigitte would appreciate too.
The album closes perfectly with a moody outro calm track, called "Kutsu", played by trumpet, percussion on a rhythm of sometimes-clicking-together maracas.
There are so many ideas in this album, which are built up well and which hang so well together. This project comes over like group with genius from which this item shows many reconsiderations of some essences of music, with new different visions to it.
The album was recorded by Kiyosho Kusaka who added his own ideas into the mix and has additional musicians contributing for strings, voice samples and so on (Yoshimi P-We, Kazufumi Kodoma, Miki Supercar, Punku Boi, with Shika Udai Strings (?), Pianica Maeda (?) and Naruyoshi Kikuchi (?).
Other video with choreography (not from album) : "Tsuginepu"
