Name: The Gate
Brand: Joji Hirota

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

USCDRW82

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "USCDRW82"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-07-01

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Joji Hirota

Genre GB

Rest of World

Label GB

Real World

Capturing the mastery and rhythmic grace of this outstanding Japanese contemporary multi-instrumentalist, emotional vocals interweave with taiko drumming, shakuhachi and string quintet.

‘The Gate’ is Joji Hirota’s first solo CD with Real World. However, Joji’s work with the label started some years ago during the 1992 Recording Week, when he collaborated with Clannad’s founder Pól Brennan and Chinese flautist Guo Yue to form ‘Trísan’, an album which won the Tower Records Critics Award (New York, 1993) for Contemporary Instrumental music.

Each of the tracks on ‘The Gate’ is of vast and epic proportions. Impressive expanses of sea and sky conveyed with heart-stopping emotion, there is joy and exaltation, sorrow and yearning, resulting in a deeply meditative and breathtaking listen.

Joji’s father died shortly before he recorded The Gate, and the album includes a folk song, ‘Esashi-Oiwake’, which Joji has arranged especially as a tribute to him. Joji’s father played the shakuhachi flute and gave Joji his first flute – a small child’s version – when he was five years old. It is a very simple instrument hewn from a piece of bamboo with only five holes (four in the front, one for the thumb at the back) and amazingly expressive – the nearest an instrument can come to the human voice; it is naturally plaintive and full of sadness and yearning. First used 500 years ago by Zen Buddhists on pilgrimages, it became a more popular instrument about 150 years ago and was always played by men. Because it was the instrument Joji Hirota’s father played it has a very special significance to him, although he uses it in his music in a very untraditional way.

The Gate

Music GB