By James Robert Shaw
(The Wind up Geek)
They have yet to go viral on YouTube with this recording but Japan‘s Bamboo Flute Orchestra has received over 840,000 views on Facebook thanks in part to Guns N’ Roses, the NHK, and the Rock vs. Metal Facebook page (stylized Rock \m/ Metal). Bamboo Flute Orchestra which contains members Yoshimi Tsujimoto, Erina Ito, and Yuko Watanabe are taking the Internet by storm. Like the Yoshida Brothers before them they are introducing traditional Japanese music to a wider audience. With their first album Shakuhachi (released on September 28, 2016), they create a fusion by performing pop and rock tunes with traditional instruments. Some of the songs covered by the Bamboo Flute Orchestra are Michael Jackson‘s “Smooth Criminal”, Avicii‘s “Wake Me Up”, and Taylor Swift‘s “Shake It Off”.
The song being performed here in a music video by the NHK World Blends program is not included on the album. “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses is a track on their debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987), the song is given a different life here using a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) played by Tsujimoto (she played a part in recording the music for the video game Final Fantasy XIII-2), a nijugen-koto (20-string koto) played by Ito and a junanagen (17-string koto) played by Watanabe. The location used in the video is the Ikegami Honmon-ji (池上本門寺) in Ōta-ku, Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture.
Shakuhachi is available through the following retailers:
iTunes
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Amazon Italy
Amazon Spain
Source(s): Rock vs. Metal Facebook page.
Video Source(s): sonnysd15.