・Original CD
"VOICES BEYOND EUITETSU HAYASHI"

・Compilation Box [3CD+1DVD]
"KU WO TATAITE HIKARI HAJIMETE SHIROSHI"

A message from Ian Cleworth / TaikOz

I recently fulfilled a long-held dream ﾐ and that dream was to perform at the National Theatre of Japan. When I first lived in Japan in 1981, I attended Kabuki at the National Theatre and was totally entranced ﾐ I loved the colour, the sounds and atmosphere of the whole performance. Later, I became aware of the wonderful ﾔNihon no Taikoﾕ concerts that take pace every year at the National Theatre and I began to think how amazing it would be to have the chance of performing on the same stage as some of the greatest actors and musicians of all time.

On September 1 and 2 this year, I was given that chance and I am eternally grateful to Eitetsu for inviting TaikOz to perform on the stage with him, Fun no Kai and the kagura performers of Iwate-ken. It was truly an honour to have the opportunity to present Australian taiko music to the people of Japan and the whole experience was one of the most fascinating and exciting events I have ever been involved in.

A most memorable and beautiful image from the concert was the opening scene ﾐ a large 冕imedaiko suspended like a full moon above gently rippling water. Accompanied by the insistent beat of off-stage taiko, Eitetsu seemed to call ﾔacross the oceanﾕ. After hearing the powerful beat of Wadaiko, a ghost-like figure from a far off land emerged. Painted in the colours of the Australian desert, it was Matthew Doyle answering Eitetsuﾕs call with the haunting drone of his didgeridoo.

For me, one of the most satisfying moments came in the middle part when Eitetsu began singing a chant that seemed to come from deep within the heart of Japan. At first it appeared Eitetsuﾕs song would remain alone, but responding from a world away, emerged a chant of similar power, deep from within the heart of Australia. Magic!

My impressions of this recent concert seek to illustrate the incredible visual and aural power of Eitetsuﾕs music. Everyone knows that Eitetsuﾕs sound is very powerful and true, but do you know what makes it like this? More than any other taiko player, Eitetsu understands the importance of structure and colour in music. He is a master of these things.

Although I am now a full-time taiko player, I spent my first 20 years as the Principal Percussionist of the Sydney Symphony. Over so many years I played many famous pieces of music by the greatest composers and through this experience I came to understand how structure, colour and internal movement are vital to the creation of great music.

With so many different instruments, a symphony orchestra is very good at taking a composerﾕs ideas and bringing them to life for the audience to hear and enjoy. But to achieve the same result with just a few taiko? This is extremely difficult. Next time you see Eitetsu, I urge you to listen how he creates a whole world of sound ﾐ just like a symphony!

You will have a great opportunity in December, when Eitetsu takes the stage as soloist with the orchestra. In this concert, when Eitetsu plays four concertos you will hear how great composers like Ishii Maki (Monoprism) and Matsushita Isao (Hi-Ten-Yu) draw energy from the sound of Wadaiko and make new colours by the clever combination of the taiko with the instruments of the orchestra. The results are wonderful and very satisfying ﾐ such deep colours, interesting musical shapes and the most amazing thing is 100 musicians all moving together! Amazing!


I was a part of this experience when Eitetsu performed Hi-Ten-Yu with my orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, in 2002. With the orchestraﾕs percussion placed next to Eitetsuﾕs taiko, we created a huge ﾔsculptureﾕ made with rhythm and colour. The power coming from Eitetsuﾕs taiko infused the whole orchestra with energy and excitement. This concert filled me with inspiration to make taiko my life, too.


A special part in Eitetsuﾕs 25th Anniversary Concert will be the performance of Ishii Makiﾕs Monoprism. This is a revolutionary piece of music. The sound of Wadaiko ﾐ from the quietest ﾔrain-dropsﾕ of seven shimedaiko, the joyous ﾔmatsuriﾕ of three Chichibu-daiko to the thunder of Eitetsuﾕs 囘aiko ﾐ all combine with orchestra to create a totally unique and powerful genre. It had never been successfully done before, but Mr Ishii achieved this and it is music of which the Japanese people should be very proud.

In fact, this piece of music is very close to my heart because Mr Ishii helped open up my mind to the possibility of me ﾐ an Australian musician ﾐ playing Wadaiko. This is because Mr Ishii is like the ﾔother side of the coinﾕ to me; he is a Japanese musician who knows traditional Japanese music, but also created music in the European tradition, whereas I am a musician brought up in the European tradition who came to love and practice music coming from Japanese tradition.

You can imagine my great excitement then, when back in 2001, TaikOz had the opportunity to give the Australian premiere of Monoprism. It was another dream come true! Now TaikOz has given many performances of Monoprism ﾐ 11 so far. Our best performances were given with the great conductor, Iwaki Hiroyuki, who sadly passed away last year. His understanding of this music was profound and he brought great understanding to the performance.

And would you believe that Monoprism is very popular in Australia? The audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane have all experienced and enjoyed the incredible colours of this amazing ground-breaking piece.

Open your mind, eyes, ears and heart and you will hear and see all of the colours of a Japanese garden in autumn!

On behalf of TaikOz, I wish Eitetsu a happy 25 Years! Congratulations and may you beat the taiko far into the future!