Monday, April 16, 2007

Yamato - Impressive Drumgroup from Japan

Basically this is a photoweblog. So besides some short announcements most of the time I post pictures with some backgroundinformation. But occasionaly I'll make an exeption. Once I wrote about the Egyptian weblogger Alaa and several others who were detained by the police while demonstrating peacefully in support of the independence of the judiciary in Egypt (see here). And I wrote e few times about the International Film Festifal (IFFR) in Rotterdam (see here).

Tonight I want to write something about a show that a friend and I visited Sundayafternoon in our hometown Utrecht from Yamato, a Japanese percussion/drumgroup from Nara. Unfortunately my girlfriend couldn't join because she had to work.

Nara was one of the former capitals of Japan before Kyoto, Kamakura and current Tokyo, although stricly speaking Kamakura was officially not a capital city, but the chief city during the Heian period of one of the shogunates. BTW Heian in Japanese means peace or tranquility. But don't let's go to deep into that.

I was talking about Yamato. I've seen them twice before during a previous worldtour about 6 years ago. I was very much impressed then as I was again this Sundayafternoon. It's a combination of a visual spectacle, with good use of light and a very energetic and impressive performance of musical skills. They are now in the middle of their European Tour. You can check Yamato's schedule. If you have the chance to visit I would highly recommend to go.

Judging by the number of performances in Holland (41), I guess Yamato has a special relationship with Holland. Maybe it has to do with the long relationshp between Japan and Holland which started 407 years ago on 19 April 1600 with the Dutch ship "De Liefde" (Love) which was the first Dutch ship that reached Japan and marked a long intensive trade relationship. For more than 200 Years the Dutch were the only Westerners allowed in Japan. During that time they were staying at Dejima, a small artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki.

Anyway, enough history lessons. I have embedded a video I found on YouTube from Yamato where they are performing on German television. If you have a subwoofer connected to your PC, I would recommend to turn it on. Be prepared that you could end up in an argument with your neighbours. It gives you a bit of an impression. But nothing beats a live performance by Yamato. If you want to feel the air move and experience goose bumps as a chemical respond on the moving air I would suggest that you visit a concert of Yamato. Enjoy!


Here you can check some more videos of Yamato.

1 comment:

raghav said...

hey great blog .. am a bit curious though .. could you tel me how I can put the Youtube video on my blog ?? I tried ( and tried again) but could not succeed .. please advise. thanks.