Pocket Penguin is going to perform at Bath International Music Festival.
Melodica: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
Date: 24th May (FRI)
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm/7:00pm-7:30pm
Place: the Victoria Art Gallery
Admission: Free
Also there will be another performance by a singer, Lánre.
Please check here for her details.
Hope to see you there.
1 May 2013
17 Apr 2013
After the charity concert at East Finchley Methodist Church
We've just finished a charity concert at East Finchley Methodist Church in North London last Sunday. It was a lovely day, we enjoyed very mild and warm weather.
Most of the audiences were new to hear music of Pocket Penguin, but we got good feedback from them. And we really appreciate people who generously donated to a music school in Palestine, Al Kamandjâti, that was the main purpose of this concert.
Programme:
Bela Bartok: Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csík District
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite III
Pocket Penguin: Prelude 1 & 4
Keigo Fujii: Variations on the theme SHABONDAMA (P&G)
Ryusuke Koarashi: Walking through a Forest
Bulgarian Folk Songs:
・Vido, Vido, Byala Vido — Vida, Vida, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Radi na Radka Dumashe — Radi Said to Radka, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Bre, Petrunko — Why, Petrounka, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Vecherai, Rado — Eat your supper, Rada, originally arranged by Philip Koutev.
・Polegnala e Todora — Todora Lay Down For a While, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Dilmano Dilbero — Dilmana, Beautiful Girl, originally arranged by Ivan Kavaldzhiev
John Dowland: A Piece without Title, Forlorn Hope Fancy
Ryusuke Koarashi: Çok Güzeller
We have been playing Bach’s prelude of Cello Suite III on its own, but this time we included the entire pieces of the suite (Prelude, Almande, Courante, Sarabande, Bourre and Gigue) into the programme, that was our first attempt. Upon request of the church, we played one piano and guitar piece, “Variations on the theme SHABONDAMA”. That was the piece we played for the Great East Japan Earthquake in two years ago. At the same concert for the earthquake, we played Dowland Returns(for narration and guitar) composed by Yuji Takahashi, which he used musical fragments and words by/about John Dowland. This time we played two pieces from Dowland’s own works by newly arranging for melodica and guitar. Bulgarian Folk Songs were perhaps the highlight of the programme of this time. Ryusuke has had a special interest to Bulgarian music for over 15 years—constantly attending concerts and collecting the materials (recordings & books), he had even written an essay about it when he studied at the Guildhall school. We have often played Kopanitsa, a piece of Bulgarian dance, to our programme. We gained new repertoire by “re”arranging some well known arrangements of folk songs by Philip Koutev and Ivan Kavaldzhiev for Bulgarian female choir.
Most of the audiences were new to hear music of Pocket Penguin, but we got good feedback from them. And we really appreciate people who generously donated to a music school in Palestine, Al Kamandjâti, that was the main purpose of this concert.
Programme:
Bela Bartok: Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csík District
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite III
Pocket Penguin: Prelude 1 & 4
Keigo Fujii: Variations on the theme SHABONDAMA (P&G)
Ryusuke Koarashi: Walking through a Forest
Bulgarian Folk Songs:
・Vido, Vido, Byala Vido — Vida, Vida, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Radi na Radka Dumashe — Radi Said to Radka, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Bre, Petrunko — Why, Petrounka, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Vecherai, Rado — Eat your supper, Rada, originally arranged by Philip Koutev.
・Polegnala e Todora — Todora Lay Down For a While, originally arranged by Philip Koutev
・Dilmano Dilbero — Dilmana, Beautiful Girl, originally arranged by Ivan Kavaldzhiev
John Dowland: A Piece without Title, Forlorn Hope Fancy
Ryusuke Koarashi: Çok Güzeller
We have been playing Bach’s prelude of Cello Suite III on its own, but this time we included the entire pieces of the suite (Prelude, Almande, Courante, Sarabande, Bourre and Gigue) into the programme, that was our first attempt. Upon request of the church, we played one piano and guitar piece, “Variations on the theme SHABONDAMA”. That was the piece we played for the Great East Japan Earthquake in two years ago. At the same concert for the earthquake, we played Dowland Returns(for narration and guitar) composed by Yuji Takahashi, which he used musical fragments and words by/about John Dowland. This time we played two pieces from Dowland’s own works by newly arranging for melodica and guitar. Bulgarian Folk Songs were perhaps the highlight of the programme of this time. Ryusuke has had a special interest to Bulgarian music for over 15 years—constantly attending concerts and collecting the materials (recordings & books), he had even written an essay about it when he studied at the Guildhall school. We have often played Kopanitsa, a piece of Bulgarian dance, to our programme. We gained new repertoire by “re”arranging some well known arrangements of folk songs by Philip Koutev and Ivan Kavaldzhiev for Bulgarian female choir.
17 Mar 2013
Charity Concert in East Finchley
We will have a charity concert to support a music school for children in Palestine, at East Finchley Methodist Church in north London. All the donations will go to a nonprofit organisation, Al Kamandjâti, who runs the school in Ramallah in Palestine. The organisation offers music lesson for children who have to survive in poor and violent situation depriving opportunity of any kind of education.
Al Kamandjâti says “We must give our children the opportunity to think beyond soldiers and tanks. They must think creatively, not about the destruction of their country, but about rebuilding their civilization.”— quoted from Al Kamandjâti’s website
As being musician, we still want to believe a certain power of music to open up people’s imagination beyond a confined situation. Our hope is to hear a new music, new sound on different perspective, by those children in a future when they grow up, not sound of gun and missile.
To the programme, we are thinking to include some latest works, both new arrangements and compositions, and also, upon a request of the church, some pieces of guitar & piano which we have not played almost for a year. Let’s see what will happen..!
Melodica/Piano: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
“Unconventional Convention Conventional Unconvention”
Date: 14th April (SUN)
Time 19:30 - 21:30
Venue: East Finchley Methodist Church
Address: High Road, East Finchley, London N2 8AJ
Collection in aid of Music school in Palestine (Al Kamandjâti)
Click here to download the flyer.
Click here to download the leaflet of Al Kamandjâti
Al Kamandjâti says “We must give our children the opportunity to think beyond soldiers and tanks. They must think creatively, not about the destruction of their country, but about rebuilding their civilization.”— quoted from Al Kamandjâti’s website
As being musician, we still want to believe a certain power of music to open up people’s imagination beyond a confined situation. Our hope is to hear a new music, new sound on different perspective, by those children in a future when they grow up, not sound of gun and missile.
To the programme, we are thinking to include some latest works, both new arrangements and compositions, and also, upon a request of the church, some pieces of guitar & piano which we have not played almost for a year. Let’s see what will happen..!
Melodica/Piano: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
“Unconventional Convention Conventional Unconvention”
Date: 14th April (SUN)
Time 19:30 - 21:30
Venue: East Finchley Methodist Church
Address: High Road, East Finchley, London N2 8AJ
Collection in aid of Music school in Palestine (Al Kamandjâti)
Click here to download the flyer.
Click here to download the leaflet of Al Kamandjâti
10 Mar 2013
Prelude
Pocket Penguin has been expanding their repertoire mainly by adapting various pieces with a view to exploring different possibilities of interpretation. Our repertoire is not all mentioned on the list, is constantly increasing and frequently being updated.
Recently we are taking a different approach to the sound world of melodica & guitar. What we are experimenting with is to find new sound material or different ways of producing sound on each instrument and then assembling them into a pattern or a time framework.
These fruits from our explorations are output as a series of "Preludes"—so named because we think they have some similarities to general aspect of conventional prelude, i.e. rather short duration, limited material and pattern, improvisatory—as some parts are left for the performers' judgement.
Our Prelude may include some "pre-removed" material, structure, and ambiguity from music. So we seem going back "before music", that is a place where the sound may not yet be called music, as in the Latin "Prae-ludere" which etymologically meant "before playing".
3 Mar 2013
A Concert at Union Chapel (The Daylight Music)
Pocket Penguin finished a performance on 2nd of March in the Daylight Music, a musical event regularly held at Union Chapel.
We would like to say thank you to all the people who were there listening to our performance warmly and carefully, and those who gave us good feedback, that will certainly encourage us to go to next step of music making. And also we would like to give special thanks to Ben who gave us the opportunity to play in such a nice venue, and stuffs who supported our performance.
Programme:
J.S Bach: Prelude from Cello Suite III
Ryusuke Koarashi: Walking through a forest
Pocket Penguin: Prelude I, III, IV
Ryusuke Koarashi: Çok Güzeller
Melodica: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
We played 6 pieces. Prelude from Cello Suite III is a piece we recorded in the first album "A Bird Flying over Mountains" and played several times before. And all the rest of the programme was the first time to play in public.
The title “Walking through a forest” just came from an impression of the piece, like walking in a winding road in a forest and sometimes stopping suddenly and looking around.
Prelude I, III and IV are from a series of experimental pieces by Pocket Penguin, exploring sound material and combination of our instrument. We will describe more details of the series 'Prelude' later in our blog. You can have a glimpse of our rehearsal on Facebook, and also listen to Prelude I on Soundcloud.
“Çok Güzeller” was a piece Ryusuke has just made last week in a demand of rhythmic and “happy” repertoire of Pocket Penguin. The title is Turkish, meaning “very beautiful” in third person plural form. We wondered if someone noticed the Bach motif, a succession of notes, Bb A C B natural, used at somewhere in the piece. Our programme of this time actually began and ended with "Bach".
We would like to say thank you to all the people who were there listening to our performance warmly and carefully, and those who gave us good feedback, that will certainly encourage us to go to next step of music making. And also we would like to give special thanks to Ben who gave us the opportunity to play in such a nice venue, and stuffs who supported our performance.
Programme:
J.S Bach: Prelude from Cello Suite III
Ryusuke Koarashi: Walking through a forest
Pocket Penguin: Prelude I, III, IV
Ryusuke Koarashi: Çok Güzeller
Melodica: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
We played 6 pieces. Prelude from Cello Suite III is a piece we recorded in the first album "A Bird Flying over Mountains" and played several times before. And all the rest of the programme was the first time to play in public.
The title “Walking through a forest” just came from an impression of the piece, like walking in a winding road in a forest and sometimes stopping suddenly and looking around.
Prelude I, III and IV are from a series of experimental pieces by Pocket Penguin, exploring sound material and combination of our instrument. We will describe more details of the series 'Prelude' later in our blog. You can have a glimpse of our rehearsal on Facebook, and also listen to Prelude I on Soundcloud.
“Çok Güzeller” was a piece Ryusuke has just made last week in a demand of rhythmic and “happy” repertoire of Pocket Penguin. The title is Turkish, meaning “very beautiful” in third person plural form. We wondered if someone noticed the Bach motif, a succession of notes, Bb A C B natural, used at somewhere in the piece. Our programme of this time actually began and ended with "Bach".
12 Feb 2013
Hammond 44
We got really excited with Ayumi's new equipment—Hammond 44 by Suzuki—which is one of the most pricey and presumably the best quality melodica. We tried playing a little today. Pitch is very correct, tone is nicely soft, key noise is less than others in initial condition. It has got built-in mic and 44 keys (the previous one was 37 keys), which will give us more possibilities in arranging/composing. Can't wait for using it at next concert.!
(In duet with 37 keys melodica which we have been using)
(Melodica which Ayumi has been using, chronologically ordered from the left to right)
16 Jan 2013
Spain by Chick Corea, on Melodica & Guitar
Pocket Penguin played "Spain" by Chick Corea, which is one of the most frequently played repertoire from the modern jazz standard. The pictures in this video were provided by an Argentinian artist, Lili Mariel Sciarrotta. She is currently based in the U.S. and being active as not only painter, but also as poet, singer, and Spanish teacher.
Here is additional information about the painter: Mariel describes her painting style as a combination of expressionism, modernism, and abstract. She believes art is the true expression of the soul, the feelings and emotions that connects all beings. If you want to see more of her art, visit her site at: lmsciarrotta.blogspot.com/, or like her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/lmsciarrotta (updated on 20th Jan 2013)
Melodica: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
Here is additional information about the painter: Mariel describes her painting style as a combination of expressionism, modernism, and abstract. She believes art is the true expression of the soul, the feelings and emotions that connects all beings. If you want to see more of her art, visit her site at: lmsciarrotta.blogspot.com/, or like her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/lmsciarrotta (updated on 20th Jan 2013)
Melodica: Ayumi Toyama
Guitar: Ryusuke Koarashi
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