Decider, Concert Preview >>
Everything about the Japanese ensemble Kodo makes it sound and feel like some kind of mythical force, from its tremendous take on traditional Japanese music to its beginnings on the island of Sado, long storied as a home to exiles and artists. Sophisticated, innovative, yet never less than strikingly visceral, the group employs a phalanx of percussion that ranges from small cymbals to gigantic taiko drums played with mallets swung overhead like sledgehammers. In fact, everything's played as if it's music, dance, and martial art all at once. In 2006 the band released its 25th-anniversary compilation, Heartbeat, but a recording's no substitute for the band's theatrical and rigorously physical presence. 02/12/09 >> go there
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