Kazue Kudo, Kazue Frances Asawa
Music for Koto and Flute
Crystal Records (US) 1988
S316 (LP)
sleeve : EX+
media : EX+/EX+(Some parts may have a slight dust noise)
This album was released in 1988 by Kazue Kudo, who has been teaching koto music for a long time in the U.S., mainly in Los Angeles, and Kazuhide Asawa-Frances, who also performs and teaches in Los Angeles. The album features music composed by Tadao Sawai, Kunizan Yamamoto, Kozaburo Hirai, Michio Miyagi, and other old and new performers who represent the world of pure Japanese music. The music is so-called neo-classical hogaku, but the flute, a Western instrument, is used in place of the shakuhachi, giving it a contemporary and new age feel. In A1 by Tadao Sawai, a free improvisational flute solo unfolds, and in A2 by Kuniyama Yamamoto, we can hear a spiritual melody on the flute with vibrato that sounds like a shakuhachi.
A1: Hana A2: Ichikotsu