An Endangered Instrument, Revived and Funkified: Oki Dub Ainu Band at PS21

Saturday, June 7, 7:30pm | Chatham, NY

Oki Dub Ainu Band plays PS21 in Chatham on Saturday night. The band, led by musician and visual artist OKI (Oki Kano), travels from Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, with a performance that doesn't sound like anything else. Wielding his tonkori, a five-stringed harp-like instrument of the Ainu people, OKI and the band weave the traditional instrument into a modern context playing reggae, dub, afrobeat, and electronics.

The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan and parts of Russia's Far East only officially recognized as an indigenous people in Japan in 2019. Translated through a contemporary sensibility OKI is preserving and evolving the endangered cultural art form. OKI—born to a Japanese mother and an Ainu father—encountered the tonkori after returning to Japan from New York in 1992, where he had been working as a special effects artist in film. At the time, the instrument existed mainly in museums; virtually no one was playing it. He taught himself to play, developed new techniques, and in 1996 released his first album, Kamuy Kor Nupurpe. He then founded Chikar Studio to record and release Ainu artists, which has put out 23 albums to date, including records by the traditional singer Umeko Ando and the all-female vocal ensemble Marewrew, whose vocalist Rekpo also performs with Oki Dub Ainu Band.

The band that grew around OKI is now a full ensemble: Takashi Nakajo on bass, Manaw Kano on drums, Toshiki Shimizu on keyboards, and Naoyuki Uchida on keyboards and dub mixing board. Shimizu is a veteran of FISHMANS and Little Tempo; Uchida came up in Japan's roots reggae scene with Dry & Heavy. The sound the six of them make together is driving and celebratory, grounded in the tonkori's distinctive drone and the Ainu language's ancient vocal textures, propelled by the rhythmic weight of dub and reggae. Their 2022 compilation Tonkori in the Moonlight, released on UK label Mais Um Discos, rose high on European world music charts and brought the band significant international attention for the first time.

The US tour is co-presented by Japan Society in New York, with support from the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs.

PS21, 2980 Route 66, Chatham, NY. Tickets at ps21chatham.org.