Alison’s taiko projects

I’m currently using taiko.scot to let people know about the taiko projects I’m currently involved in. I’ve also compiled a Scottish taiko directory and information on the styles of taiko I play and teach.

News

• After a long break due to a head injury, I’m on the mend and have started teaching and gigging again
• Painted X-Ray are back in action with Yumi Célia from 2taiko joining us
• Two new books are out in which I am featured briefly. One is Jonas vom Orde’s excellent book about taiko composition. The other is a book about elm trees, including their use in making taiko

Projects

Painted X-Ray

Painted X-Ray is a Glasgow-based band with taiko (Yumi Célia), guitar (Jer Reid), bass (Ali Begbie) and violin (Rafe Fitzpatrick): skins and strings basically. ‘A band with taiko at its heart.’

2taiko

2taiko is a duo I started with Yumi Célia when we lived in Montréal, Canada. She’s now living in France and we still get together now and again, most recently for a couple of wee gigs in the French alps, where we were joined by our friend Maia Abouleze. ‘It takes two to taiko.’

Taiko and poetry

Lisa Fannen is a poet and musician with whom I worked on her album, Faultline. This features recordings of her poems with music/soundscapes and I play on track 11, New Clear, along with guitarist Jer Reid.

Aber Taiko

Aber Taiko are a community taiko drumming group in Swansea, South Wales, whom I teach and perform with from time to time.

Other activities

In recent years, I’ve played taiko with dancers, including Solène Weinachter and Joan Clevillé, which is something I’d love to do more of.

I also join Tamashii School of Taiko Do at the East City Taiko dojo in London from time to time, play with members of Aber Taiko and  Taiko Mynydd Du in Wales, and recently did a gig in Cluj, Romania with my old Montreal taiko friend, Ignatius Kim (he currently plays as Kidaiko though we used to go by the name of Taikonauts, boldly going where no taiko player has gone before).

I get around…

 

Taiko teaching

I teach taiko and can give group classes and workshops as well as individual lessons. If you’d like to learn taiko, or are already playing taiko but would like to further your skills, then please get in touch. I’m based in Lochinver (in the North West Highlands) but regularly travel around the British Isles and am always happy to add an extra location to my taiko travels.

You can find out more here: learn taiko with Alison

email: alison (at) taiko.scot

Alison originally learned taiko in Scotland as a member of Mugenkyo, Europe’s leading taiko group, performing and teaching at theatres, schools and festivals throughout the UK. She’s since played in Canada, the US, and Japan with Yumi Célia as 2taiko, and in Scotland with experimental taiko band Issho (of which she was a founding, if brief, member). She mainly plays the Hokuriku style of taiko, which she studied with Mugenkyo and with Masaaki Kurumaya-sensei in Fukui, Japan, and Amanojaku and Chieko Kojima are also big inspirations. She currently plays with Painted X-Ray, a Glasgow band with taiko, guitar, bass and violin, as well as working on projects with poets and other musicians. Alison also teaches taiko, being a regular teacher of Aber Taiko in Swansea and giving workshops to other taiko groups and players in the UK and Europe. She lives in Lochinver, in north west Scotland, though is somewhat nomadic, often visiting Glasgow and South Wales, as well as taiko friends in more far-flung places. 

A wee interview with myself and Georgie White from Painted X-Ray about playing taiko (filmed and recorded by Meray Diner at GMAC Film, and Stereo, Glasgow, 20th September 2019):

All aboard! Sailing a taiko to the Arctic Circle, summer 2017:

 

I’m always looking for collaborators, if you fancy a Highland taiko holiday…