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CD
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PING 060CD
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Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was a folk singer from Japan. She was a representative of the Ainu culture on the Hokkaido Island in the north of Japan. Ihunke is her first album which was recorded with the Ainu musician and dub producer Oki Kano in 2000. The 16 Ainu songs on Ihunke are delicate, natural gems. They are built on Oki Kano's tonkori patterns (a five-string harp), over which Umeko Ando develops her repetitive, mantric vocals, often in a call-and-response manner. Oki Kano is one of very few professional tonkori players who performs worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band. The songs possess a mystical energy -- when crows call accurately with Ando's brittle voice in the first song, it seems like natural powers join in with her music. Her voice sounds like animals of the sky and the forest. Oki Kano: "It was a lot of fun to record with Umeko Ando. Many Ainu hesitate to break from tradition -- if Umeko hadn't been so flexible to work with the younger generation and recording technology, this album would never have happened. Our sessions were intense, and we were proud and happy about making such beautiful music." Only recently (in 2008) have the Ainu officially been acknowledged as indigenous people who are culturally independent from Japan. This record is an example of how their music has been passed on through generations in the underground Ainu communities while it was oppressed by the Japanese hegemony. It deserves a huge audience. Includes liner notes and download code.
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CD
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PING 081CD
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Upopo Sanke means "Let's sing a song" in the Ainu language. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was one of the best-known artists of the Ainu, an indigenous, long-suppressed community in northern Japan. She sings their traditional songs together with Oki Kano on the Tonkori harp, who also recorded the album. The two are supported by members of the female vocal group Marewrew as well as Ainu percussionists, a string player and a male singer who provides rhythmic shouts and also throat singing. The call-and-response structure of many of the songs is performed with a mantric quality in a vocal style that is perhaps best described as elastic and breathing. There seems to be a gentle smile in every note and syllable. This music softly hits the heart. Upopo Sanke was recorded on a farm in Tokachi in the summer of 2003. You hear dogs barking, a distant thunderstorm and voices imitating animals. The liner notes that accompany the double-LP release gather the anecdotal memories of Umeko Ando and Oki Kano about the stories of the 14 songs. Oki Kano is a musical ambassador of the Ainu culture who tours worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band and also gives solo concerts, always playing the Tonkori, the five-stringed Ainu harp. The Ainu have suffered from the oppression of their culture and language by Japan, especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Only recently, in 2008, were the Ainu officially recognized again as an indigenous people culturally independent of Japan. As a result of the marginalization, there are now only a few hundred native speakers of the Ainu language left, making it a particularly worthy object of preservation.
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2LP
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PING 081LP
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Upopo Sanke means "Let's sing a song" in the Ainu language. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was one of the best-known artists of the Ainu, an indigenous, long-suppressed community in northern Japan. She sings their traditional songs together with Oki Kano on the Tonkori harp, who also recorded the album. The two are supported by members of the female vocal group Marewrew as well as Ainu percussionists, a string player and a male singer who provides rhythmic shouts and also throat singing. The call-and-response structure of many of the songs is performed with a mantric quality in a vocal style that is perhaps best described as elastic and breathing. There seems to be a gentle smile in every note and syllable. This music softly hits the heart. Upopo Sanke was recorded on a farm in Tokachi in the summer of 2003. You hear dogs barking, a distant thunderstorm and voices imitating animals. The liner notes that accompany the double-LP release gather the anecdotal memories of Umeko Ando and Oki Kano about the stories of the 14 songs. Oki Kano is a musical ambassador of the Ainu culture who tours worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band and also gives solo concerts, always playing the Tonkori, the five-stringed Ainu harp. The Ainu have suffered from the oppression of their culture and language by Japan, especially since the 18th and 19th centuries. Only recently, in 2008, were the Ainu officially recognized again as an indigenous people culturally independent of Japan. As a result of the marginalization, there are now only a few hundred native speakers of the Ainu language left, making it a particularly worthy object of preservation. Upopo Sanke was mixed again in part by Oki Kano, before being mastered and cut to vinyl by Kassian Troyer. This album was the second album by Umeko Ando, the follow-up to Ihunke (PING 060LP) and also re-released in 2018 by Pingipung together with Oki Kano. 45rpm.
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LP
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VOLKUTA 002LP
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Umeko Ando's Battaki (Joe Claussell Remix) is the second release from Japanese label Volkuta. For this release, three songs are selected from the album Infuke, originally released in 2001. Ando is known as the master of Upopo (song) and Mukkuri (mouth harp) and also known as one of the successors of the Ainu tribal culture of Hokkaido's Obihiro district. Ando has been sending the Ainu music all over the world with her unafraid style, adopting the music for new generations but at the same time respecting the original which has been followed since ancient times. "Battaki" is fusion of the Ainu's Upopo and folky sound of the tonkori (the stringed instrument of the Ainu) & percussion by Oki from Oki Dub Ainu Band. The next two tracks are "Mukkuri", representing the Ainu's primitive style itself. On side B, Joe Claussell has remixed a 14-minute version of "Battaki" giving a jazz essence to Ando's original. The Ainu people live in Hokkaido in harmony with nature, as aboriginal people like Native Americans or Eskimos. It is not easy to imagine their original, highly-developed culture and tradition and their foreign trade when one is more familiar with the Ainu's simple, freely-living way of live (which is actually made up for tourism). The truth is further from one's expectations; one must not forget the persecuted history that the westernizing Japanese robbed the Ainu of their land unfairly, forced upon them their own values. Vokulta is happy to release into the world the music of Ms. Umeko Ando and producer Mr. Oki. Releasing the sound on vinyl is also to deliver the background of the music through the media of a jacket. It is different from what is released with a simple two-hole sleeve. The remixer Joe Claussell has not just remixed the sound, he has recreated the view of this music in his world. It has been four years since the first release, but Volkuta still has the same touch since we had deciding to release this music, having faith that this music will be played for many years in the whole world.
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7"
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PING 063EP
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"Atuy So Kata" is the closing track of Umeko Ando's Ihunke album. It is a poetic dedication to the surface of the ocean. Her voice is especially mesmerizing in this traditional Ainu song, and it perfectly captures all the brittle and enchanting qualities of her vocal art. Patric Catani (aka Candie Hank, aka Ill Till) is an artist of many faces who has already appeared on a couple of Pingipung releases. His playful remix approaches the Ainu folk song with an offbeat punch, spacing out on delays and dub textures.
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12"
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PING 062EP
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Following Pingipung's reissue of Umeko Ando's Ihunke, the label invited an eclectic bunch of producers to remix Umeko Ando's Ainu folklore songs. Folktronica wizard Nicolá Cruz replaces Umeko's voice with a traditional flute and infuses "Battaki" with driving, percussive spirits. Gama and RLHBSLCN focus on the psychedelic tremors in Umeko Ando's brittle voice in "Iyomante Upopo" and "Atuy So Kata". Andi Otto captures a funky acid-bass energy in "Iyomante Upopo". M.RUX's take on "Herutun Rutun" is definitely another masterpiece in his oeuvre. El Búho takes the "Battaki" Tonkori, a Japanese hand-held harp, and creates a type of slow house.
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2LP
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PING 060LP
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2023 repress. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was a folk singer from Japan. She was a representative of the Ainu culture on the Hokkaido Island in the north of Japan. Ihunke is her first album which was recorded with the Ainu musician and dub producer Oki Kano in 2000. It was released on CD in Japan only and is finally available on vinyl. Ihunke follows 2017's single Iuta Upopo (PING 058EP) which had been received with overwhelming enthusiasm and was quickly sold out. The 16 Ainu songs on Ihunke are delicate, natural gems. They are built on Oki Kano's tonkori patterns (a five-string harp), over which Umeko Ando develops her repetitive, mantric vocals, often in a call-and-response manner. Oki Kano is one of very few professional tonkori players who performs worldwide with his Oki Dub Ainu Band. The songs possess a mystical energy -- when crows call accurately with Ando's brittle voice in the first song, it seems like natural powers join in with her music. Her voice sounds like animals of the sky and the forest. Oki Kano: "It was a lot of fun to record with Umeko Ando. Many Ainu hesitate to break from tradition -- if Umeko hadn't been so flexible to work with the younger generation and recording technology, this album would never have happened. Our sessions were intense, and we were proud and happy about making such beautiful music." Only recently (in 2008) have the Ainu officially been acknowledged as indigenous people who are culturally independent from Japan. This record is an example of how their music has been passed on through generations in the underground Ainu communities while it was oppressed by the Japanese hegemony. It deserves a huge audience. Includes liner notes and download code.
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7"
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PING 058EP
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2019 repress. Umeko Ando (1932-2004) was a folk singer from Japan. She is a representative of the Ainu culture on the Hokkaido Island in the north of Japan. "Iuta Upopo" was released on Upopo Sanke (2003). "Upopo" is the name of a particular singing style which involves repetition, while "Iuta" simply means song. Umeko Ando performs this minimalistic vocal in a brittle, emotional manner which is framed by a slow, percussive pulse and Oki Kano's Tonkori patterns. This single is part of Pingipung's ongoing Concentrical Series of 7 inches. M.Rux provides a remix on the B side.
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