New CD!

Hi there!

I was not being so active on my Zaadz profile lately since I was quite busy at work and also was taken by a major personal project which is the production of the first CD that I will be featured in. This CD will be a collective effort of Michael Chikuzen Gould and me.

Michael is a Dai Shihan in Shakuhachi music and is currently my teacher as well. While having discussions about Buddhism and Shakuhachi we came out with the idea that it would be great if we could produce a CD that would show those parallels. So we both decided that we had to get this done by the end of this year and on Tuesday next week we will be in studio recording.

This CD will be a Mixture of Shakuhachi, Shomyo (Buddhist chants) and some sutra readings accompanied with bells and some percussion instruments used in Buddhist rituals. Some pieces will be predominantly based in Chanting with the Shakuhachi and others will be the inverse scenario as well. Overall for Shakuhachi scholars this CD as mentioned earlier serves to show some of the origins of the Shakuhachi music being greatly influenced by the Shomyo type of Chanting.

As for the outreach to the general public this CD has been formulated over a theme that promotes meditation and relaxation. So instead of being oriented exclusively towards Shakuhachi or Buddhist chanting limiting the type of audience the mixing of those two related genres created a great channel to promote interest in various fields being Japanese music, Buddhism, Shakuhachi and so on. So Michael and I both feel that this CD will be able to reach and stimulate a very wide range of individuals.

This album should be available at the end of this year or beginning of 2008 in January but not later. I will keep you all posted when I have more information to share.