I used to run taiko.scot as an online taiko resource for Scotland. I’m no longer actively maintaining the website but you can still visit it using the menu above.
For now, I’m using taiko.scot to let people know about the taiko projects I’m currently involved in, which are:
Painted X-Ray: my main music project just now, a Glasgow-based band with taiko (Georgie Whyte and myself), guitar (Jer Reid), bass (Ali Begbie) and violin (Rafe Fitzpatrick). Skins and strings basically. “A band with taiko at its heart.”
Taiko and poetry with Lisa Fannen: a new project! I’m playing taiko with poet Lisa Fannen (with Jer Reid, as part of their duo Claquer). For now, taiko appears on just two poems but more will follow…
2taiko: a duo I started with Yumi Célia when we lived in Montréal, Canada. She’s now in France so we still get together now and again, most recently to take part in an Aber Taiko concert in Swansea in the spring of 2018. “It takes two to taiko…”
Aber Taiko: a community taiko drumming group based 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 sometimes play taiko in a duo with Georgie Whyte on flute. (She’s my fellow drummer in Painted X-Ray and has a flute and taiko project called Velma.)
And I occasionally get together with Tamashii Taiko at the East City Taiko dojo in London, with members of Taiko Mynydd Du in Wales, and recently with members of Thunder Drummers in Cumbria.
I get around…
Taiko teaching
I teach taiko and can give group classes and workshops, as well as small group and individual lessons. So 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 currently based between Glasgow, Lochinver (north-west Scotland), and South Wales. However, since I move around with my taiko, I may be able to come to you.
email: alison (at) taiko.scot
Alison originally learned taiko (in Scotland) as a member of Mugenkyo at the turn of the century. She’s since played in Canada, the US, and Japan with Yumi Célia as 2taiko, and was a founding (though brief) member of experimental taiko band Issho in Glasgow. She’s studied with Kurumaya-sensei in Fukui, Japan, and Chieko Kojima (Hana Hachijo) is also a big inspiration. She currently plays with Painted X-Ray, a Glasgow-based band with taiko, guitar, bass and violin. She’s partly based on a sailboat in the north-west of Scotland and partly in south Wales where she teaches and plays with Aber Taiko in Swansea and members of Taiko Mynydd Du.
