Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

Forget that it’s an unlikely crossover between Japanese Ainu and traditional Irish music lest it put you off for good, forget the words ‘fusion’ and ‘rich cultural blends’ and instead concentrate on ‘skillful’, ‘deceptively brilliant’ and ‘fascinating’, which describe it more effectively.

The collaboration between global adventurers Kíla and Japanese Ainu musician Oki has a real dance feel to it although the beats rarely kick in (a remix album off the back of it would be unsurprising) and the trad elements, both Irish and Ainu are interwoven beautifully and in a way that makes you feel you’ve been listening to this music for years.

The overwhelming feeling on the album is of energetic collaboration, of artists who love what they have discovered together and this can’t help but pass on to the listener, especially in the upbeat ‘hAon Dó’ and the hypnotic and bluesy ‘Last Mile Home’.

Sung in Ainu, Irish and English, the fairly short, eight track album is compact enough to keep you listening carefully from start to finish and the breathy flutes, bhodran and tonkori, (if this is starting to put you off, skip this paragraph and just go out and get it).

Kila and Oki is available now on Kíla Records.

Links:
www.kila.ie
www.tonkori.com