Purnima by Makyo
Makyo has been a studio-based project since the '90s, but "Purnima" -- Makyo's long-awaited sixth album -- marks the debut recording of Makyo as a live band. A Tokyo-based 5-piece, Makyo is known for its unique tribal dub sound, fusing Indian and middle-eastern instruments & percussion with live electronics and mystical oriental dance. Personally, this is my favorite album of them all, the closest to realizing what I was aiming for way back in the day.
The band is centered around producer/dj/remixer Gio Makyo, who is known for his ethno-ambient & blissed-out dub productions, working on mixes and remixes with such artists as Bill Laswell, Natacha Atlas, Cheb-i-Sabbah, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Kaya Project, and Solace. Gio has defined his sound over the course of 5 albums, and live he brings a hands-on, real-time approach to electronic sequencing and sampling, while dub mixing all the acoustic instruments as well. Jimi Miyashita, a top student of Indian maestro Shivkumar Sharma, performs on the 72-stringed santoor, while multi-instrumentalist Madoka contributes on electric saz, oud, Afghani rubab, and guitar. Percussionist Junzo Tateiwa, known for his work with Japanese prog-rock band Ghost, plays Indian tabla, darbukka and daf. Finally, mystical bellydancer Hayati brings her flowing and expressive "ambient oriental" style to the front of the stage. The band formed in late 2009, and has gigged regularly at clubs, lounges, and outdoor parties throughout Japan; their first overseas appearance was at Portugal's massive BOOM Festival in 2010, where the band played the closing set on the Sacred Fire Stage.
"Purnima" was started shortly before the tsunami hit Japan last Spring, and has taken a year to complete in the face of nuclear meltdown, evacuation, etc. The album documents several of the pieces Makyo has been performing and perfecting live over the past 2 years, and while recorded in Studio 11-11 for good recording quality, almost everything on the album was performed in one take. We allowed ourselves a few overdubs and such, but for the most part, this is free, improvised, flowing electronic-acoustic fusion as only Makyo can do it.
Tracklist
| 1. | Soma | 10:00 |
| 2. | Mystic Fire | 10:09 |
| 3. | Madana | 11:02 |
| 4. | Nebusoku | 14:02 |
