(Mais Um)The Ainu maestro curates a collection that gives his people’s endangered ancient sound a modern lease of life – with dub, harmony and dazzling percussion and harmony
Oki, the performing name of Oki Kano, plays folk of the most urgent kind –
music from a critically endangered culture. The language in which he performs and his cultural ancestry is Ainu; both have been suppressed through the centuries by the Japanese. Oki’s instrument is Ainu, too: a five-stringed ancient harp, the tonkori, with a bewitchingly woody, stark, hollow sound.
After working in
New York in the 1980s, Oki returned to his home island of Hokkaido to plait together threads of Ainu music with international influences like throat singing, dub and African drumming. This compilation of the first 10 years of his music-making sounds thrillingly fresh. Kai Kai As To (Rippling Lake) is supple and lithe, his tonkori lifted by approximations of birdsong and harmonies by singers Yayo Boo and Noda Tin. Oki’s instrument provides an urgent, percussive undertow to Iso Kaari Irekte (Beat Trap Rhythm) as a bass clarinet sighs alongside it like a lovable, lumbering animal. Yaykatekar Dub, a tune by late tonkori player Ume Nishihira, gets a sprightlier update: it sounds like a dazzling offcut from the Ze Records catalogue that brought us Kid Creole and Lizzy Mercier Descloux.