01 June 2015
Gramophone, Jed Distler

The acclaimed percussion virtuoso Kuniko goes it alone, so to speak, in an impressive multitracked performance of Xenakis’s four-movement, 40-minute 1975 percussion ensemble work Pleïades. Although Kuniko calibrates balances, dynamics, nuances and sonorities with her expected precision, she also creates a genuine sense of repartee between the parts, as if the six original percussionists were interacting. The subtle contrast between the third movement’s resonating and non-resonating mallet instruments is particularly telling, as are the sounds of the different-size drum heads throughout the fourth movement. Reviewing the recording by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (Denon, 1/90), Arnold Whittall wrote that ‘each movement is too long to sustain unflagging interest in what is essentially a music of rhythm and colour rather than, in the widest sense, of ideas,’ and I have to agree with his assessment.

These words also apply to Rebonds for solo percussion, although there are many striking moments (pun intended!) such as Part A’s asymmetrical flourishes. Mastering the composer’s complex and multi-level rhythmic notation and pinpoint dynamic indications may well represent a kind of rite of passage to percussion virtuosos. Kuniko passes this rite triumphantly. Her effortless, glitch-free technique and ability to manipulate mallets and sticks to seemingly coax melodies from non-melodic instruments are bound to humble aspiring and established percussionists alike. Her clear, descriptive and often personalised annotations refreshingly contrast to Xenakis’s convoluted and rather off-putting programme note for Pleïades.

06 April 2015
All About Jazz by C. Michael Bailey

Sound is elemental. It is why the heartrate, composed of many individual heartbeats in succession is called a vital sign. Percussionist Kuniko understands this in an explicit and integral manner. Her previous recordings, Kuniko Plays Reich (Linn Records, 2012) and Cantus (Linn Records, 2013) were devoted to her command of the vibraphone and marimba. Xenakis: IX broadly expands her use of percussion methods, liberating her talent dramatically. In other words, Kuniko mixes things up…like a wild, precisely structured, aural martini, dry.

Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) is the other looming presence on this disc. A Greek-French composer well known for his percussion compositions, Xenakis was not only a music theoretician, but also an architect-engineer. He brought both streams of thought together in mathematical models he used in his composition. Xenakis’ pieces are studies in contrast and binary color pitting different instruments against one another. The result is an entropic precision, a creative tension that is both naturally static and dramatic. Kuniko deftly mixes her percussion instruments both vertically polyrhythmic and horizontally expansive. Her use of differing timbre and volume adds a tactile feature to the performances that is very effective. Kuniko’s performances are celebratory.

08 June 2015
Audiophile Audition by John Sunier

The most amazing thing about kuniko and her espousal of avant-garde percussion in her many recordings are the videos available on YouTube in which she first plays the first three-and-one-half minutes ofthe second Reich work on the first SACD and then the tour de force of her duplicating not only the music parts of the complete fourth movement of Xenakis’ Pléïades (Peaux, which translates as skins), but also herself (visually) times six, playing the various tympani and other percussion.

kuniko is widely recognized as one of the most gifted and important percussionists in the world today. She studied under renowned marimba legend Keiko Abe and works today with composers and performers thruout the world in expanding the percussion repertory and its appreciation. The first SACD, which was actually Linn’s best-seller of 2011, features three arrangements of earlier Steve Reich works, and she worked closely with the composer on all three. On Vermount Counterpoint guitarist Pat Metheny also advised, since he performed the premiere of the work in 1987.

In the Six Marimbas Counterpoint keniko plays solo marimba along with a specially-prerecorded tape of the other five marimbas. There are a dozen overlapping tracks to go with the live performance, and all worked hard on achieving the perfect surround and stereo mixes of the work. In fact, all three works have a pre-recorded tape played together with the live performances.

Other reviews of the album have not been entirely positive; some object to the changes from the sounds of the electric guitar or clarinet to the marimba or steel pans. Reich is not one of my personal favorites (except for his Music for 18 Musicians) due to his total embrace of the strongest minimalism of any living composer. However, with kuniko’s very precise technique and expressive performances, she has won me over with these Reich works, especially when accompanied by the visuals. No wonder it was the label’s best-seller.

The new Xenakis SACD requires even more of a leap to appreciate. Neither of these contain music for everybody, just those who may want to expand their musical taste. The Greek composer-architect-mathematician (who died in 2001) pioneered works full of unusual notation and requiring virtuosic performances – some of them deemed actually unplayable. The big work here is his Pléïades, which is in four movements: Mixtures, Metals, Keyboards and Skins. In addition to the steel drums, vibes and marimba in this arrangement of the work, it requires the SIXXEN, which was designed by Xenakis himself and customised by kuniko, with 120 metal bars which are struck. The whole piece is a quite different sound world of great color and fantastic rhythmic complexities.

The profound musical intelligence of both Xenakis and kuniko come thru in this wild percussive work, but it will be slow going for many listeners. Watch the YouTube video of the last movement first; perhaps for some that will be all they will care to see, in spite of the other three movements not being shown, and the streaming sonics of course are nowhere near the 192K/24-bit of the carefully-engineered surround SACD.

27 May 2015
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review by Grego Applegate Edwards

The music of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) is like no other. The fact that he used computer algorithms to aid in composition has sometimes led people to misunderstand his centrality in the creative process. He did not simply push a button and out popped the music. The conception and ultimate results were his. Otherwise they would not so consistently embody his signature stylistic universe.

The formidable percussionist Kuniko gives us two major examples of Xenakis’s works for percussion on the album entitled IX Kuniko (Linn CDK 492), which is a hybrid CD capable of multi-channel playing as a SACD or standard two-channel playback on a standard CD player. I was unable to audit the multi-channel version because I do not have SACD capability, but the sound in any event is glowing.

The four movement Pleiades (1978) begins the program. It is scored for six percussionists and so Kuniko resorts to multi-tracking to realize the work. Each movement occupies its own sound universe. The specially designed SIXXEN is featured prominently in the second movement. It is a bell-chime like multi-piece percussion instrument that gives out with a special evocative resonance. The other movements have a broad array of instruments both pitched and unpitched. Kuniko’s performance is unparalleled, as is the work.

“Rebonds” (1988), a somewhat shorter two-movement work concludes the program. It is designed and played for a solo percussionist using a set ensemble of percussion instruments, mostly “drums” and a set of wood blocks. It is extraordinarily difficult to play and Kuniko most certainly triumphs here. The complexities and sheer aural delight will quicken the pulse of any percussion music adept, but it makes for a wonderful music listening experience in any case.

Some of Xenakis’s music demands much of the listener, especially in the days when extreme modernism was not always welcomed by the typical classical listener. Times have gone by and his most difficult works no longer sound nearly as challenging now to our ears. We have all grown in our ability to hear and understand complexities and the new language of modern music. But in any event the percussion works here and their marvelous performances by Kuniko can be readily appreciated, I would think, by anyone who is open to the new. They are not difficult listening, quite the contrary.

Some amazing percussion music can be heard on this one. Bravo Ms. Kuniko. Bravo Xenakis!

18 May 2015
Crescendo Magazine by Jean-Baptiste Baronian

La Japonaise Kuniko Kato, qui se fait appeler Kuniko tout court, est sans conteste une des grandes percussionnistes actuelles, et on ne compte plus sesperformances et ses créations aux quatre coins du monde (elle s’est produite avec l’ensemble belge ICTUS). Après avoir joué avec succès des œuvres de James Wood (dont l’étonnant Concerto pour marimba à Londres, en 1997), de Toru Takemitsu ou encore de Steve Reich, elle s’attaque aujourd’hui à deux pièces importantes de Iannis Xenakis, Pléiades et Rebonds, composées respectivement en 1978 et 1988. Lors de sa première exécution par les Percussions de Strasbourg en 1979, au Festival de Lille, Pléiades devait enthousiasmer pas mal de mélomanes, le critique français Maurice Fleuret allant jusqu’à écrire que cette œuvre entrait « dans l’histoire » [sic], au même titrePersephassa, écrite pour percussions dix ans auparavant. Divisée en quatre parties (« Mélanges », « Métaux », « Claviers » et « Peaux »), Pléiades est un bon exemple de l’esthétique de Iannis Xenakis – un art antiacadémique et, comme l’a souligné Roland de Candé, « absolument préservé des règles d’école, puisque ce qui lui tient lieu de thèmes, ce sont des modèles mathématiques ». Dans les années 1970, cette esthétique, ou cette absence d’esthétique, a souvent choqué les amateurs, mais avec le recul, elle paraît somme toute assez sage et ne frappe que si ses interprètes, solistes ou orchestres, ne réussissent à l’intégrer à leur propre discours. C’est heureusement le cas ici. Avec son jeu éblouissant, Kuniko arrive même à tempérer l’impression de lassitude que donnent certains passages de Pléiades. Impression qu’on n’éprouve guère à l’écoute les deux mouvements de Rebonds, sans doute parce que cette œuvre-ci ne dure que quinze minutes, alors que Pléiades dépasse les trois quarts d’heure.

03 May 2015
The Sunday Times by Stephen Pettitt

The Japanese known only by a single name offers two long-established Xenakis masterpieces. Those who already know Pleiades (1978) will wonder how, since these four movements (three of them for particular timbre groups) are intended for an ensemble of six. The answer? Multitracking. No need for such ingenuity in Rebonds (1987-89). These are meticulous and muscular performances, at once elemental and elegant. Brilliant.

23 April 2015
The Guardian by Kate Molleson

Whether architects like it or not, buildings will be scruffed up by the humans who use them. The same goes for music, and Iannis Xenakis – architect as well as supremely mathematical composer – loved the unruly energy whipped up by what he called “faithfulness, pseudo-faithfulness and unfaithfulness” in rhythm. He wrote for percussion in a way that demands near mechanical perfection, but it’s that “near” that’s the crux; it’s what makes his dizzyingly intricate pieces so seductive. For her third studio album, percussionist Kuniko (yep, the kind of artist who goes by a single name) takes on the 1978 dance score Pléïades, and treats its effervescent textures to a loose, sensual swing. Who knows what the spatially obsessed Xenakis would have thought of her overdubbing the multiple parts of the sixxen (an instrument of Xenakis’s own devising), and it isn’t a hugely muscular performance, but the delicacy and sway are enticing. Also on the disc is Rebonds, a 1988 percussion repertoire stalwart that Kuniko plays with a subdued, affectionate touch.

23 April 2015
AllMusic by Blair Sanderson

Among Iannis Xenakis’ most frequently performed and recorded works are his solo percussion pieces, Pléïades and Rebonds, which stretch the limits of a performer’s dexterity, speed, and stamina. As part of her touring Project IX, Kuniko Kato has performed Pléïades in a multimedia presentation with dancer Megumi Nakamura, and Rebonds has been a part of her repertoire ever since she became a professional percussionist, so she has a thorough knowledge of Xenakis’ system of notation and methods. This hybrid SACD from Linn provides the best format for capturing the subtle nuances and timbres of the instruments, which include pitched and unpitched percussion, and the multichannel recording reproduces the wide dynamic range and spatial dimensions of Kato’s performances. Listeners who are coming to Xenakis for the first time may find the percussion works quite accessible, and they will appreciate the precision and power of Kato’s virtuosic playing. Highly recommended.

22 April 2015
PS Audio by Lawrence Schenbeck

IX: Iannis Xenakis. Kuniko, percussion (Linn CKD 495; SACD and download). I don’t understand why Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) never became quite as famous (notorious?) as his peers in the late-20th-century avant-garde-characters like Berio, Stockhausen, Boulez, and Cage. On the surface he seemed just as nutty: fanatical, self-serious (unlike Cage, who could be maddeningly un-self-serious), and teeming with mathematical and quasi-scientific justifications for every note (unlike Cage, who carefully, maddeningly hid his careful calculations from the public). Trained as an engineer and architect, Xenakis nevertheless created music that pulsed with life. Like Stravinsky, he thought of music as architecture, but that hardly kept his works from functioning as glowing, complex organisms with forms always informed by their utter fluidity.

Having tackled music of Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt in previous releases for Linn, Kuniko (like Madonna and Björk, she’s only got the one name) now brings us her take on two major Xenakis works, Pléïades and Rebonds. Via multitracking she becomes her own percussion ensemble, creating cascades of sound from the drums and mallet instruments at her disposal. She also writes-and writes well-about this music; it’s actually useful to read what she has to say about these pieces. (The booklet notes include the composer’s own commentaries too.) In Claviers, third movement of Pléïades, one can hear the influence of Asian gamelan, of various algorithms applied to canonic textures, or of Impressionistic echo effects. It’s beautifully elastic-loopy, in every sense of the word-and it may make you smile. (For me it briefly brought to mind the wonderful Groucho-Harpo “mirror scene” in Duck Soup.)

21 April 2015
SA-CD.net by Castor

For her third release on the Linn label, entitled Xenakis IX, the virtuoso percussionist KUNIKO turns to two of the most inventive and challenging works of the Greek-French avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).

‘Pléïades’ was composed in 1978 and premiered by the six members of Les Percussions de Strabourg. It has four movements of roughly equal length and lasts, in KUNIKO’s performance, 45 minutes. The titles of each of the movements – Mélanges (Mixtures), Métaux (Metals), Claviers (Keyboard) and Peaux (Skins) – indicate the type of instruments used and hence the differing tonal colours produced. The work also uses an instrument named the SIXXEN made up of metal bars with irregularly distributed pitches. KUNIKO herself selected 120 steel square tubes to produce the sonorities she wanted to achieve from six of these instruments in ‘Métaux’.

Xenakis suggested two possible orders for performance with ‘Mélanges’ placed either first or last. KUNIKO has chosen the former, that allows the listener to experience the full kaleidoscopic percussion panoply before the instrumental groups separate for the subsequent movements.
Her thrilling performance of this remarkable piece is astonishingly confident and absolutely hypnotic.

‘Rebonds’, composed between 1987 and 1989, was written for the respected percussionist Sylvio Gualda whose complimentary note to KUNIKO is reproduced in the liner notes with this SACD. The work is in two parts simply labelled A and B that can be performed in any order. Part A uses only skinned instruments – bongos, tom-toms and bass drums – while Part B adds a set of 5 wood blocks and a tumba to the instrumental line-up. KUNIKO makes light of the mathematical and rhythmic complexities of Xenakis’s compositional technique in her authoratative performance of this work.

The recordings (24-bit / 192kHz) were made in the fine acoustic of Lake Sagami Hall, Kanagawa, Japan at dates between December 2013 and October 2014 by engineers Kazuya Nagae and Yuji Sagae and the sound quality is superb whether one is playing the disc on a stereo or multi-channel set-up. The latter, however, makes maximum use of the surround speakers for the various instrumental groups thus adding to the excitement of the whole listening experience.

Excellent notes by KUNIKO complete this most recommendable issue.

5 May 2015

ArtistXite by Salvatore Pichireddu

JAPANESE PERCUSSIONIST KUNIKO TRANSFORMS IANNIS XENAKIS’ CHALLENGING PERCUSSION MUSIC INTO A PLASTIC, THREE-DIMENSIONAL AND HYPNOTIC MUSICAL EXPERIENCE.

Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis was one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Together with Stockhausen, Boulez and Nono, he was one of those composers initially rejected but eventually celebrated as part of a “great” generation of serialist composers. His frequently very percussive music was characterised by the incorporation of mathematical, geometric, philosophical and architectural principles. The world-class Japanese percusionist Kuniko has now recorded two of Xenakis’ best-known works for drums “Pléïades” and “Rebonds”. They demonstrate how masterfully Xenakis could create music (and not only rhythm) with percussion instruments with an incredibly light melodic touch. In the charismatic Japanese musician’s expert performance, Xenakis’ works are constantly in motion; they are as repetitive and these are progressive. Through the use of a variety of instruments – from the smallest wood blocks to the largest drums – and a sophisticated recording technique (I am tempted to describe it as a “recording choreography”), the album captures an extremely plastic, three-dimensional and hypnotic musical experience.

17 April 2015
Blouin Art Info by Regina Mogilevskaya

Are you ready for some music now that you’re done scanning endless listicles about the Tribeca Film Festival? Yeah, I thought so. And hey, you’re even in luck! This week’s In Tune features a song from a film premiering at the festival, as well as the triumphant return of Ratatat, and an introduction to a mystifying percussionist. Kick back with our playlist while getting ready for tomorrow’s Record Store Day.

…

Kuniko Kato – “Rebonds (Xenakis)”

Track: So here’s a little something new to chew on. To hear Kuniko Kato perform “Rebonds,” a percussion piece originally written by Iannis Xenakis, is to undertake a totally fulfilling, all encompassing experience. The six-minute composition is a driving force, a movement-heavy cascade of bongos and wooden blocks and bass drums. Even if you’ve never choreographed a movement in your life (or had any desire to), something about this piece of music drives your imagination to roll out an entire Pina Bausch-like dance performance.

By: “Rebonds” was originally composed by music theorist and composer Iannis Xenakis. Kuniko Kato is a Japanese percussion soloist whose unparalleled talent has taken her to tour across countless countries, allowed her to be a member of esteemed ensembles, and to release an album of solo work called “Sound Space Experiment.” Her forthcoming album, “IX,” covers two well-known pieces by Xenakis. Listen over at NPR.

14 April 2015
NPR Music ‘Deceptive Cadence’ by Tom Huizenga

Percussionists back in Beethoven’s day could be forgiven for feeling a little bored, waiting for the infrequent roll of the kettledrum or the occasional cymbal crash. But as orchestras grew bigger, percussionists got busier – even more so after World War I, when a new generation of composers began writing specifically for percussion.
Songs We Love
Composers like John Cage and Edgard Varèse expanded musical horizons for percussionists and others, like Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Boulez, followed their lead. The music, whether for soloist or ensemble, moved percussion into the spotlight and helped set standards for performance practice.

Japanese percussionist Kuniko Kato (who goes by the single name Kuniko) studied in Tokyo under marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe. Later she was the first percussionist to graduate from the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music.

Kuniko’s new album, IX, is a terrific all-Xenakis affair devoted to two of his best-known percussion pieces.

In Pléïdes, four movements for six percussionists, Kuniko overdubs herself playing each part (watch a fascinating video). But in the two-part Rebonds (“Rebounds”) she is truly alone with her pair of bongos, atumba (large conga), tom-tom, bass drums and a set of five wood blocks.

Xenakis might be considered cerebral (he was also an architect obsessed with geometry and math), but part B of Rebonds has a hypnotic, nearly danceable groove sustained by quick pulses in the bongos and fat punctuations from the bass drums. Kuniko lays out the rhythmic layers cleanly and with confidence. She doesn’t play them speedily (like Pedro Carneiro), but instead opts for fluidity and a distinctive bounce that just might make your hips sway.