John Kaizan Neptune (*1951): Blue Wind (Aokaze 青風, 1978) for Shakuhachi Ensemble

Concert 'Forest Trail', project with John Kaizan Neptune and Naoko Kikuchi
June 9th, 2024
St. Canisius Berlin
John Kaizan Neptune, an American Shakuhachi master in Japan, and Naoko Kikuchi, a Japanese koto master in Germany, met at 2023's shakuhachi festival in Prague and had the idea of organising a project for shakuhachi and koto players in Berlin. The aim is to familiarise the participants with the music of John Kaizan Neptune and to work together on some of his compositions for both instruments.
The result of the three days of work was presented in the final concert. "Forest Trail" is a piece in which all instrumentalists are involved (shakuhachi, koto and bass koto). Even though up to 20 people are involved, it is actually chamber music that incorporates influences from traditional Japanese, other Asian, European classical music and jazz.
The participants come from Germany, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland and Japan and some of them are professional musicians or learn Japanese musical instruments in their spare time.
Shakuhaichi: John Kaizan Neptune / Hermann Battenberg / Dietmar Herriger / Yusuke Yamasaki / Fabian Müller / Guna Paula-Rudäne / Robin Tamura / Marek Kimei Matvija
Koto: Naoko Kikuchi / Shoko Kono / Lixue Lin-Siedler / Luis Jacintho / Sonja Riegert / Annemete von Vogel / Tobias Gfasser / Ziyu Bisaliev / Sachiko Hattori / Mariko Zumsteg / Claudia Erland / Chizuko Hayashi / Akiharu Kitagawa
Percussion: Fumihiro Ono