Midori Takada
高田みどり
Birth nameMidori Takada (高田みどり)
BornTokyo, Japan
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Composer
  • Percussionist
Instrument(s)
Years active1983–present
Labels

Midori Takada (Japanese: 高田みどり) (born December 21, 1951[1]) is a Japanese composer and percussionist. She has been described as a pioneer of ambient and minimalist music.[2][3]

Early career and Mkwaju Ensemble

Takada graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and began her musical career as a percussionist with the Berlin RIAS Symphonie-Orchester in the mid-1970s.[3] She became dissatisfied with the Western classical musical tradition and returned to Japan to study African drumming and Indonesian gamelan, as well as the early minimalism of Steve Reich and Terry Riley.[4] She channeled these influences into the group Mkwaju Ensemble which she formed with Joe Hisaishi, Yoji Sadanari, Junko Arase and Hideki Matsutake. Mkwaju Ensemble released two albums in 1981, Mkwaju and Ki-Motion,[2] and she also performed on recordings by Toru Takemitsu and Satoshi Ashikawa around this time.

Through The Looking Glass

Takada recorded her first solo LP Through The Looking Glass in three days in early 1983. She performs all parts on the album, with diverse instrumentation including percussion, marimba, gong, reed organ, bells, ocarina, vibraphone, piano and glass Coca-Cola bottles.[5] The album was not commercially popular upon release, but became a collector's item in the late 2010s thanks to online sharing through YouTube and other sites.[4] The album was reissued on vinyl and CD in 2017 and has been hailed as "mesmerizing"[2] and an "ambient minimalist masterpiece".[6] Pitchfork awarded the album 'Best new reissue'[7] and it became the second best-selling release of 2017 on Discogs.[4]

Further collaborations, Tree of Life and recent career

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Takada performed in various ensembles, composed for theater director Tadashi Suzuki and taught at various universities in Tokyo.[4] She also performed with the improvisational group Ton-Klami and collaborated with pianist Masahiko Satoh (Lunar Cruise) and Ghanese percussionist Kakraba Lobi (African Percussion Meeting), but did not record another solo album until Tree of Life in 1999.[6]

There was a resurgence of interest in Takada's work following the reissue of Through The Looking Glass and she has since performed extensively across Europe, the United States, Australia, Israel and Japan.[8] She also recorded two new collaborative releases, Le Renard Bleu with electronic artist Lafawndah and An Eternal Moment with saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan.

In 2020, Takada was approached by filmmaker Otto Bell who wanted to use Through The Looking Glass as the soundtrack for his documentary, The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima. Takada instead decided to compose a new original score which she performs for the film.[9]

Discography

  • Through The Looking Glass (1983)
  • Nebula (1987), with Mayumi Miyata
  • Lunar Cruise (1990), with Masahiko Satoh
  • Tree of Life (1999)
  • Le Renard Bleu (2018), with Lafawndah
  • An Eternal Moment (2019), with Kang Tae Hwan

Theatrical work

Film Score

  • The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima, 2020

References

  1. ↑ "Midori Takada | Listen on NTS". NTS. NTS Live Ltd. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Dayal, Geeta (24 March 2017). "Ambient pioneer Midori Takada: 'Everything on this earth has a sound'". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 Bowler, Paul (30 August 2018). "Through the looking glass with ambient pioneer Midori Takada". The Vinyl Factory. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Andy, Beta (21 May 2018). "How a Digital Rabbit Hole Gave Midori Takada's 1983 Album a Second Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Through The Looking Glass (LP booklet). Tokyo: RCA Corporation. 1983.
  6. 1 2 Doran, Spencer (12 February 2019). "Composing for space: The meticulous design of Japanese environmental sounds". The Vinyl Factory. The Vinyl Factory Limited. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  7. ↑ Beta, Andy. "Midori Takada: Through The Looking Glass Album Review". Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  8. ↑ "RA: Midori Takada tour dates". Resident Advisor. Resident Advisor Ltd. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "Vice Acquires Doc 'The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima' About Nuclear Disaster Aftermath".
  10. ↑ Barnett, Laura (13 August 2012). "Edinburgh International Festival: Waiting for Orestes: Electra, King's Theatre, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  11. ↑ Gardner, Lyn (13 August 2012). "Waiting for Orestes: Electra – Edinburgh review". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  12. ↑ Журавлев, Вадим (15 June 2001). "Шекспир-сан" (in Russian). Vedomosti. Retrieved 30 January 2016.


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