Hirasakana Oyogu is a Japanese street musician who makes tribal and childlike folk music. He travels Japan playing songs on his djembe, ukelele and flute which combine African hand drumming with traditional Japanese folk and western pop.
His music might be seen as ‘folk’ in the truest sense of the word since he writes his songs as he travels the Japanese countryside and each song is an expression of the environment and season in which it was written.

We recorded with Hirasakana over the course of 3 days in May of 2008 in different locations in and around Kyoto.
The first recording session was done on Kawaramachi street which is one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city of Kyoto. Hirasakana played his ‘city’ songs which feature propulsive hand drumming and Japanese folk chants.
The next recording session was conducted at Mt. Kurama which is a sacred mountain 40 minutes from the city. We were joined here by Tatsuya Okabayashi who plays the a Mongolian horse head cello known as the ‘morin khuur’.
The last day we recorded in several different locations around the area of Shugakuin, including a children’s playground, a mountainside graveyard and a Shinto temple.

Brother Sister Records feel excited and privileged to be releasing Hirasakana Oyogu’s debut album outside of Japan.