Tadao Sawai & Hozan Yamamoto
Koto Sebastian Bach (complete album download)

Fuck new wave, Berlin school, post-punk, electronica, avant-garde, and early-moog albums. Let’s listen to interpretations of classical music on traditional Japanese instruments.

This is the second “classical music but on koto” album that I’ve shared here. The first  was an album featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons performed on koto and shakukachi (Japanese bamboo flute). This, as the title suggests, is comprised entirely of koto-centric reworkings of Bach compositions, again with shakukachi (and some light jazz instrumentation) serving as accompaniment.

Like the Vivaldi album before it, this record is the work of Tadao Sawai and Hozan Yamamoto. This is actually their first album of classical covers, released a year prior to their 1969  Vivaldi album. Unlike their Vivaldi album, this actually got a release in America, coming out in the states in 1973 under the name J.S. Bach Is Alive And Well And Doing His Thing On The Koto. A ridiculous cover accompanied that ridiculous title change.

Yikes.

Sawai and Yamamoto would go on to collaborate on one more koto classical hybrid, Koto Amadeus Mozart, which was also released in 1969. From there, it looks like Sawai got more interested in koto reworkings of other genres, including some movie themes and Latin music. He apparently performed the theme to The Godfather on koto. I got to hear that shit.

I would also like to mention at this time that I think that Tadao Sawai was hot as hell. I mean, damn, look at this man.

He’s got them hungry eyes. Looking like he wants to take off those finger picks and show you what he can really do with those hands. Looking like he wants you to wait patiently while he properly disrobes from his traditional kimono before he can ravage you Edo style.  He’s got that big bad koto daddy look. He could…um…*desperately tries to think of a sexual koto double-entendre*….pluck me all night long if you know what I mean…and I think you do because that wasn’t very subtle at all was it?

I apologize for the sudden horny turn this post took. Enjoy the koto music.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 19th, 2020 at 9:58 am and is filed under Complete Albums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.