KENSO
Ha-Re-Ki
(PATHOGRAPH PADV-01)
Ha-Re-Ki is a fine way to see Kenso live once, because despite a lot of live-CD’s, the number of performances of this band outside of the Japanese boarders has been limited up till now. The DVD contains well over one and an half hour of a concert from June 2002. Kenso, once called “a jazz-rocking Genesis” and “the Japanese Happy The Man”, brings a cross section of its extensive oeuvre, including material of Fabulis Mirabilibus De Bombycosi Scriptis, which is recently also available in Europe. For a couple of tracks Keiko Kawashima is added to the line up and she produces some powerful, Spanish-like vocals. It is beautiful to see these musicians perform their complex music in a apparent relaxed way, at which a full symphonic sound is produced, in which jazz-rock-impulses and Gentle Giant-like interruptions constantly keep the compositions lively. For keyboard-freaks it is lovely to see how keyboard-virtuoso’s Kenichi Oguchi and Kenichi Mitsuda complement each other or go into a duel with each other, without going down into bombast; it is as if you see two Tony Banks, or Eddie Jobson ànd Rick Wakeman. Front-man Yoshihisa Shimizu can live it up in this perfectly with rocking accompaniments, sensitive solo’s in the best Steve Hackett- and Andy Latimer-tradition and intriguing fusion-licks. Bass-player Shunji Saegusa is the solid calmness himself and Masayuki Muraishi shows that drums don’t have to sound loud to create an inventive base. The show has been film soberly; the shots of the musicians aren’t too short and are regularly being shown in split-screens, varying from two to six screens. Now and then video’s are being used and sometimes the images have been manipulated afterwards. The light-show isn’t spectacular, but it is very effective, so the building up character of the performance is well-founded. The bonus-tracks contain comical anecdotes of some of the band-members, from which the translations will be published on the website. Although Ha-Re-Ki is expensive, it is an impressive must-have.
Information: www1.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~kenso/
Ha-Re-Ki
(PATHOGRAPH PADV-01)
Ha-Re-Ki is a fine way to see Kenso live once, because despite a lot of live-CD’s, the number of performances of this band outside of the Japanese boarders has been limited up till now. The DVD contains well over one and an half hour of a concert from June 2002. Kenso, once called “a jazz-rocking Genesis” and “the Japanese Happy The Man”, brings a cross section of its extensive oeuvre, including material of Fabulis Mirabilibus De Bombycosi Scriptis, which is recently also available in Europe. For a couple of tracks Keiko Kawashima is added to the line up and she produces some powerful, Spanish-like vocals. It is beautiful to see these musicians perform their complex music in a apparent relaxed way, at which a full symphonic sound is produced, in which jazz-rock-impulses and Gentle Giant-like interruptions constantly keep the compositions lively. For keyboard-freaks it is lovely to see how keyboard-virtuoso’s Kenichi Oguchi and Kenichi Mitsuda complement each other or go into a duel with each other, without going down into bombast; it is as if you see two Tony Banks, or Eddie Jobson ànd Rick Wakeman. Front-man Yoshihisa Shimizu can live it up in this perfectly with rocking accompaniments, sensitive solo’s in the best Steve Hackett- and Andy Latimer-tradition and intriguing fusion-licks. Bass-player Shunji Saegusa is the solid calmness himself and Masayuki Muraishi shows that drums don’t have to sound loud to create an inventive base. The show has been film soberly; the shots of the musicians aren’t too short and are regularly being shown in split-screens, varying from two to six screens. Now and then video’s are being used and sometimes the images have been manipulated afterwards. The light-show isn’t spectacular, but it is very effective, so the building up character of the performance is well-founded. The bonus-tracks contain comical anecdotes of some of the band-members, from which the translations will be published on the website. Although Ha-Re-Ki is expensive, it is an impressive must-have.
Information: www1.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~kenso/
Listened to the In the West tune with Kenso...and it was really good...sounding a bit like HTM I think. Great musicians...like the rhytm/beat a lot!
- But I sold it back today...
