Tenkoo Orchestra

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Tenkoo Orchestra are fronted by japanese multi-instrumentalist Hiroki Okano.  They have toured the UK on several occasions, playing the Jazz World & Avalon stages at Glastonbury festival and as part of the Japan 2000 cultural year.  Hiroki first performed at Glastonbury Festival when he was invited over by Dave Goodman in 1992 to play on his 'Clean Energy' Mandala stage.  This first band was with fellow Japanese muti-instrumentalist Kosei Yamamoto and named 1000 Windbells.  Next he came with a seven piece band named Wind Travellin' Band.  Then with a smaller Tribal Techno outfit named Leela and more recently with Tenkoo Orchestra.  He brought to England the 'Peace Flame' from japan which was a flame that was still burning from the Hiroshima Nuclear Holocaust.

Together with Dave Goodman, they've organised many Peace Gatherings at Sacred Sites across Britain and Japan.

"Tenkoo" is a Japanese Buddhist word meaning "Seventh Heaven" "Tenkoo" is an apt name for this band! They move through hauntingly beautiful sounds and resonances to innovative beats and rhythms, creating their tribal rock music.  Hiroki Okano - founder member of Tenkoo Orchestra - is a multi- instrumentalist, playing - among others - synth, bouzouki, flute, syamisen and percussion, as well as being an impressive vocalist and accomplished composer. With Tenkoo he combines traditional instruments with contemporary electronic sounds to make a unique "east meets west".  Through their music Tenkoo Orchestra express and share their belief that all beings, together with the earth, are resonating and harmonising. Hiroki is significant on the Japanese New Age and ethno-ambient-techno scene, where he also produces and works as a musical director. His experience is wide and varied. He has composed, recorded and played live as a solo artist, with The Wind Travelin' Band, Leela and many others, as well as composing for theatre, film, dance, radio, TV and environmental projects. He has toured extensively in Japan, the US and UK, where he has appeared with his bands on Glastonbury Festival's Jazz World and Avalon stages and in the Green Futures Field, in clubs on the London ambient dance scene, the Barbican foyer and a whole variety of other venues around the country. Since 1991 Hiroki has created fifteen sound installations, hanging over 1000 wind bells in diverse, natural surroundings, to make a new 'sound-space' - evolving a music which is created by and in harmony with nature. Together with his wife, the graceful and entrancing dancer and singer, Hiroko Kawanishi, who also performs with Tenkoo Orchestra - Hiroki holds workshops of impressive vitality, based on music and dance as therapy. Tenkoo Orchestra includes Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar, surbahar and harp) - Masahiro Bessho (tabla, percussion, didgeridoo) - Masazane Nobuto (vocal, djembe, percussion) - Akira Hino (bass) - Koichi Nakajima (keyboards) - Tomo Yamaguchi (violin). They have a wealth of diverse experience playing live in concert internationally and recording, as solo artists and in many different bands. They compose, collaborate and play with artists from all over the world - including working in experimental theatre, dance, prose and poetry recitals and meditation workshops.