MinYo Songbook Vol 1

Many cultures around the world have taken forms of their own folk songs and reinterpreted them in a more mainstream style. At the heart of this trend perhaps lies the hypothetical question: ‘If interpreted though a mainstream style, will folk songs achieve a wider popularity?’ If successful, this process can rejuvenate the genre with lasting effects.

The Japanese traditional folk music, known as min’yō, is particularly apt for this treatment. The Tokyo MinYo Club, a collection of accomplished musicians playing a variety of instruments (including Tsugaru shamisen, shakuhachi, Japanese drums, guitar, piano, violin, bass and keyboard), recognises that the min’yō comes from rural culture and is for the people, and hence they aim to bring this music back to people's daily life. The arrangements in this debut are particularly impressive, providing a balanced mix of traditional and contemporary instrumentation. Though the ‘contemporary’ parts are performed idiomatically, when the pieces switch to highlight either a traditional instrument or min’yō singing, the performers have laudably eschewed trying to fit or assimilate them into the Westernised style. The uniqueness of the arrangements is found when the traditional instruments are highlighted yet do not try to emulate Western harmonisation, a common problem in many similar interpretations.