Kudsi Erguner & Kokoo Ensemble - Ney/Zen

The album is a live concert recording. The theme is to show the similarities between the Islamic music tradition and Japanese traditional music. The instrument ney is a parallel of the Japanese bamboo "shakuhachi", and kanun (qanun) is the parallel of the Japanese "koto". The album includes compositions by Kudsi Erguner, traditional Zen buddhist and Sufi pieces.

Kokoo was formed by Akikazu Nakamura in 1995. Kokoo’s music is exclusively played on the traditional Japanese instruments shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and koto (transverse harp), but the group’s unique, highly virtuosic sound incorporates a multitude of extended techniques as well as elements of rock, jazz improvisation, Western classical music and the experimental avant garde. The Tokyo-based group has performed at festivals and venues around the world, including the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), the Festival of Japan in New Zealand, the Kita-Kyushu International Music Festival, the Japan Society of New York, the Eastman School of Music, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. The Kokoo albums Zoom (1999) and Super-Nova (2000) were released by King Records; the EP Moon (2001) was a Nippon Columbia release. Kokoo is currently recording its third full-length album. Kudsi Erguner (ney), Hakan Güngör (kanun), Tsuchitori Toshiyuki (percussion), Akikazu Nakamura (shakuhachi), Michiyo Yagi, (koto), Miki Maruta (koto)

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