Eternal Energy

Taiko player and percussionist Kenny Endo has long been at the forefront of marrying old traditions to new musical forms. He has performed with Kodo as well as numerous San Francisco jazz, rock, and world music ensembles. Eternal Energy features an ensemble who uses traditional Japanese instruments in performing music from antiquity as well as new works written specifically for their distinct sound. A meeting of the two creates an interesting set of tension, in that Endo is far more interested in pushing new soundscapes for these instruments, moving the 17-string koto, the Taiko (an enormous drum on a stand), the bamboo flutes, and shakuhachi, as well as smaller organic percussion to new expressions of elastic sonances and drastic utterances. The ensemble, who is eager to be pulled into this new area, finds it difficult nonetheless to abandon age-old ideas of tonality, pitch control, and rhythmic invention. The result is a splitting of cultural norms, a tearing apart of an older fabric and the stitching of a new one into it. Over nine selections ranging from 1984 to 1994, the pairing makes good on its promise to create and forge a new Japanese music without regard for forms or norms. This one has be heard to be experienced — or even imagined. Brilliant.