高円寺百景

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Tokyo, Kantô, Japan (1991 – present)

Few bands are more enigmatic than Koenjihyakkei. Though firmly grounded in the Zeuhl style of Magma, they have taken it to new and unexplored places. Fronted by drummer Yoshida Tatsuya, of Ruins fame, their lineup shifts as rapidly as their style does. However, two things remain constant in their music- lyrics in a made up (and probably nonsensical) language, and an exotic, almost folk feel to the music. The combination of the two gives a sense that you’re listening to the music of a culture that exists only in minds of a handfull of creative people.

Until recently, their ensemble has consisted of drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, and female vocals (usually operatically trained). With their latest album, Angherr Shisspa, they have replaced the guitar with reed player Komori Keiko (mainly on soprano sax). With this change in instrumentation, their style has veered into a new direction to match the change in tone color.

Through their evolution of style, their rhythmic and formal complexity have expanded greatly, incorporating polyrhythms, asymmetrical time signatures (i.e. not all beats are the same length), as well as more complex and varied sections, often containing polyphony and counterpoint. However, through all these impressive technical feats, they have managed to keep the overall feel very simple and melodic, to the extent that most other music feels hideously normal after listening to Koenji Hyakkei.

See also Koenjihyakkei.

Source:
http://www.circlewithadot.net/bands/koenjihyakkei/bio.html
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Top Albums

  • Angherr Shisspa
    高円寺百景
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  • pouchkine

    nice & great & nice

    February 2012

  • pinkpressthreat

    whaaat the.....hahaha love this band

    November 2011

  • pacocrowley

    50,000 plays (2,121 listeners) :O

    March 2011

  • Prog_Rocker

    My favorite thing about this band is my friend picked it up on an impulse buy in the bargain bin because he saw the cover art of Angherr Shisspa and thought he'd get some nice relaxing asian folk music. As soon as the operatic singing started, we all just burst out laughing. Of course, I love this stuff so he gave the cd to me and now I have a new band. Moral of the story is, this music is awesome.

    March 2011

  • longpoke

    how does it not have a cohesive direction? because it isn't verse-chorus-verse? square brackets dude... the artist field is for the artist (高円寺百景), not a description of the artist...

    January 2011

  • Penguin619

    I scrobble them under the name 高円寺百景 [Kōenji Hyakkei], because I am a badass and you should too.

    January 2011

  • Zypraxa

    Who the fuck wrote "folk feel"? Only on their new album is there even a trace of "folk".

    June 2010

  • Diothalamus

    no, deathloop. you are wrong. i know you will argue that it is your opinion and you have the right to have it, and opinions cant be wrong, and this is all true. but your opinion is wrong.

    March 2010
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Videos

News

LIVE AT KOENJI HIGH:DVD

20 Oct 2010 | from blog.myspace.com/koenjihyakkeijp

Koenjihyakkei released DVD,Live at KOENJI HIGH.It was performance in Tokyo after Europe tour 2009.You can see new members,Ah and Taku.and including two new songs.You can buy from …

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