I joined Tokyo Kosei

One of the must do's while in Tokyo is of course to go listen to Tokyo Kosei... after all, they are THE band right? They don't perform all that often in their Tokyo concert hall since they travel all over Japan to perform. So their Boxing Day concert it is for me.

I quite like that concert hall. Its rather small by standards but felt extremely personal to me. Along with the Chandelier, the whole hall has a very nice aura about it.

The concert hall

So happens that the team of pieces in this concert was rather avante gard. Reminded me of the Ligetti CD I got where one track was on 100 metronomes ticking in various timings. Ok, so this concert wasn't so extreme... but there was a particular piece that was rather intriguing. It is a brass ensemble piece where the players seemed to perform a self-mutilation of their tone. The tone they created was not to unlike that of a secondary school player, and they all came in split seconds apart when the conductor cued them in... again, much like what a secondary school band would do. Hmmm... along with the usage of some not too ear pleasing cords, I am afraid that I still don't quite get it(though it was intriguing none the less). The other pieces were more mainstream, but they too had their peculiarities.

An esemble

Witnessed several 'exotic' (to me) instruments today, including the Banjo, Bandonion, Steel Guitar and the Sarrusophone.

All in all,… interesting... will be back for more concerts, so I signed up for the TKWO club. So I am now officially a member of Tokyo Kosei... lol...