ARTS
Friday, January 26, 1990

The Michigan Doily
Kodo drums
up a message
BY LYNNE COHN

Page 8


BY popular demand, Kodo drumming ensemble will
shake the Power Center this weekend as part of their
'One Earth Tour. The concert marks Kodo's fourth elec-
'trifying Ann Arbor appearance.
"Kodo gives a one-of-a-kind performance that is not
repeated on stage anywhere else. Seeing it is an entirely
different concert experience," said Robin Stephenson of
the University Musical Society, the group responsible
for bringing the drummers to town. The members of
'Kodo use a traditional Japanese drum called a taiko, in
addition to various other instruments including the
bamboo xylophone, gong, shamisen, bamboo flute, and
wooden clacker. The human body becomes an instru-
ment as well, through the use of dance and mime.
Drums dominate any Kodo performance, the most
magnificent being the o-daiko, a large, 900-pound in-
strument that is carved from the trunk of one tree and is
played during the finale by two men dressed simply in
'loincloths. The sounds throughout the concert range
from the peaceful, reverberation of the hyoshigi
(wooden clackers) to the o-daiko's threatening peal.
The word "Kodo" signifies "heartbeat" as well as
"children of the drum" and the sound expresses two feel-
ir'gs: the sound of a mother's heartbeat as heard and felt
from within the womb, and the desire to play the drums
purely, with the heart of a child.
The men who comprise Kodo live on Sado Island in
the Sea of Japan. They tour for eight months and live
communally amidst the natural beauty of the island dur-
ing the remainder of each year.
Ancient Japanese custom dictates that the taiko is

Members of the Japanese Kodo ensemble let loose on
drums virtually as large as themselves.
the symbol of the rural community. Being that the vil-
lage limits are not solely determined by geography but
by the farthest distance at which the drum can be heard,
Kodo desires that the One Earth Tour remind people
worldwide of their part in the large village that is the
world.
In encouragement of a greater understanding of the
taiko, Saturday's audience will be privy to a special pre-
concert presentation titled, "Taiko: The Rhythm of
Japan," given by Professor William Malm, Director of
the Ethnomusicology Program at the University School
of Music.
KODO will perform tonight and tomorrow at the Power
Center at 8 p.m., with a free workshop at 7 p.m. Friday
in Rackham Auditorium. Rush tickets will be available
Friday. Full-price tickets, $12-$18, can be purchased
at Burton Tower, the Power Center Box Office, or by
calling 763-TKTS.

Warhol lives
in Factory
BY JENNI TALBOT
LOU Reed and John Cale may
not have come anywhere near
Ann Arbor when staging Songs
for 'Drella, their tribute to Vel-
vet Underground mentor Andy
Warhol, but that doesn't mean
Ann Arbor will be without a sim-
ilarly conceptualized tribute to
this art world figure.
"It's been a long time since
Andy Warhol was featured in Ann
Arbor, and with the release of the
newly restored films and an up-
coming Warhol exhibit at the De-
troit Institute of Arts, it seemed
very timely," said Yuji Oniki,
the imagination behind
WARHOL: The Factory Years, a
tribute inspired by Oniki's view-
ing of 'Drella.
The evening will include two
of Warhol's early films, with the
black-humored Vinyl being
shown first. The film is notori-
ous because it was responsible for
Edie Sedgwick's rise to the status
of New York's underground star.
The original version of the second
film of the evening, Empire, was
seven hours long but has been re-
stored to a less time-consuming
48 minutes.
In keeping with the theme of
'Drella, the relaxing music of
Plastic Oniki Band will accom-
pany Empire and will also pro-
vide the live soundtrack for other
films featuring Warholesque su-
perimposition. The band, which
has been compared to The Velvet
Underground, is currently promot-
ing its album Shonen Blue. "We
try to use very little drum. Our
music is mellow and atmo-
spheric,"'Oniki said.
THE FACTORY YEARS takes
place tonight at 9:30 p.m. in the
Halfway Inn in East Quad. $4.

La vie de France
Two women converse behind prison walls in Prisonnieres, one of the
films featured in Cinema Guild's French film festival. The film focuses on
the relationships and tensions between women prisoners and the prison
staff. Prisonnieres is directed by Charlotte Silvera, who will also speak
after the screening on Friday at 7 p.m. Other films being shown as part of
the festival are Radio Corbeau, Les Innocents, and Camomille. All of the
films to be shown bring out different aspects of French society, including
racism, homosexuality, the media and war. This package of films is part of
a nationwide premiere that will be touring the country. Double features
start at 7 p.m. tonight, tomorrow and Sunday in Angell Hall Auditorium A.
- Ami Mehta
Sex and death thrive in Spain
My friend asked me "what do He-Man and Assumpta Serna have in
common?" "Simple," said I, "in many ways they are both the embodiment
of a conflation of sex and violence." "Oh," he said, continuing to chew on
his falafel.
It's true. Matador, the latest film by Pedro Almodbvar to be released in
the United States, is about the underlying violence surrounding our
everyday sexual politics. It takes place in present-day Madrid and
concerns the investigation into a bizarre series of murders where the
male victim is brutally slaughtered, bull-like, after having anonymous sex
with a mysterious woman. A young, insecure man, having failed at rape,
confesses to these murders. His case is taken on by a young, beautiful,
aggressive, feminist lawyer and is investigated by a well-dressed cynical
detective. As the film progresses, these and other absurd characters
revolve in eccentric circles around the idea that sex, when approached
from a certain direction, is violence.
Like most Almodbvar films, it's not what happens on the screen, it's
what the characters represent that matters here, and it's not the plot, but@
the metaphor (which works amazingly well), that brings home the absurd*-
sexual convolutions imposed by our mores. The Ann Arbor Film Co-op pre-i
sents Matador Friday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at MLB3. Admission is $2.50.
-Mike Kuniavskg

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THE HOTTEST
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Golden Key
National Honor
Society
:ome by our Information Table

in the Michigan Union Basement
January 24-26, 9:00-4:00
Golden Key is a national academic honors organization
dedicated to excellence with over 100 chapters nation-wide.
Stop by our info table to see what we are all about.
"Scholastic achievement and excellence."
AT $6.00 AN HOUR
WHO YA GONNA CALL?0

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PETER MURPHY
Deep
@iAfeatures:
The lane Between The Devil's Teeth
Cuts You Up/A Strange Kind Of Love

THE SILENCERS
A Blues For Buddha
features:
Razor Blades Of Love
Scottish Rain
\~'~U.* The Real Mc Coy

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9877-1-H
Also available on CD.

9960-1-R
Also available on CD.

Bauhaus voice Peter Murphy explodes with
"The Line Between the Devil's Teeth"
Touring soon!

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