Prayer’s Tale - Taiko Drums and Asian Percussion

Prayer’s Tale - Taiko Drums and Asian Percussion
• Joji Hirota’s career has spanned over 30 years as a Japanese taiko drummer, multi-percussionist, shakuhachi player, singer and composer.
• Prayer’s Tale is a rare solo album using 40 different Japanese and Asian instruments.
Nature, the cosmos and humanity are the inspirations for Joji Hirota’s latest solo album, Prayer’s Tale. Single-handedly playing 40 different Japanese and Asian instruments, combined with vocals, he weaves sounds of nature, emotions and colours of the universe into a beautiful soundscape.
With Joji’s circular instrument set up (various taiko drums, 13 different sizes of kin [prayer bells], six sizes of gongs, various bells and wind chimes) he can stand in the centre and respond intuitively. “Everybody has their own personal circumstances… their own sense of ‘universe’. Here, I try to express my own personal sense of Earth’s history, human history, and my own outlook on the future through musical scenes, emotions, colours and nuances of sound.” – Joji Hirota

1. The Sound of Earth (Daichi No Oto) - 10:18
2. Prayer’s Tale (Inoribito no Uta) - 11:30
3. The Limitless Swing (Kagirinaki Ritsudou) - 8:12
4. The Gravitational Field (Douryoku Ken) - 9:25
5. The Elements of Harmony (Ohayashi Goto) - 10:31
6. Serenity of Breeze (Kaze no Soyogi) - 7:41
7. Descent of Gods and Goddesses (Kamigami no Kourin) - 10:06

Total playing time: 68:03 min.