THE GUARDIAN - Top ten folk albums of 2022 ★★★★☆
"The Ainu maestro curates a collection that gives his people's endangered ancient sound a modern lease of life – with dub, harmony and dazzling percussion"
THE QUIETUS - top 30 reissues of 2022
MOJO ★★★★☆
"Mixed up folk music . . . a whole lot of fun"
THE FINANCIAL TIMES ★★★★☆
"This eclectic record captures the Japanese musician's distinct blend of Ainu folk music and international influences - mesmeric and spectral"
SONGLINES ★★★★☆
"Charting the iconic Ainu musician's early releases"
GILLES PETERSON / BBC 6MUSIC "Winners 2022" - best music of 2022
Tender tonkori melodies, meditative dub excursions and hallowed folk vocals combine on Tonkori in the Moonlight, an 11-track collection of mostly traditional songs performed by indigenous Ainu musician OKI.
Born on the Japanese island of Hokkaido in 1957, OKI's released his debut album in 1996 and since then he has recorded 11 studio albums both solo and with his Dub Ainu Band and toured internationally – from WOMAD in the UK to the John F.Kennedy Center in Washington DC via festival appearances in Singapore, Australia and across Europe.
OKI is one of only a handful of musicians who play the tonkori, a five-stringed Ainu harp, which is both the pulse of this record and the force that unifies the disparate sounds he introduces such as reggae, dub, Irish folk, throat singing, African drumming and music from Central Asia