Mitsune, a band from Japan, is our last review from a highly weekend for Cambridge Folk Festival. To help you capture the flavour of the festival we have included the links to all the articles featured over a 3 day period.
Mitsune took to the stage – with a flourish. There was an idiosyncratic array of percussion which turned into a comic display that delighted the audience.
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At times, it sounded like they were using tin cans.
One band member – dressed like a clown, dropped dustbin lids – but always in time to the music. This was precision clowning.
The Japanese band wore an exaggerated version of traditional Japanese costumes, and they played traditional Japanese instruments with great panache. The singing was in an authentic Japanese folk style.
But the music wasn’t, not all of it – it was blended with rhythms of rock and jazz and even film score. A fast pace and plenty of humour was kept up throughout the performance. It was joyous and colourful, and the audience went wild for it.
Mitsune who marvellously entertained the Stage Two audience at Cambridge Folk Festival as the penultimate act on Sunday evening, are a Japanese band from Berlin.
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The core of the band is a female trio who play the Tsugaru shamisen, a three-stringed lute once played by blind musicians and itinerant musicians across Japan. In Cambridge, they performed as a five piece, fronted by the three shamisen players, integrating traditional Japanese music with rock and jazz notes.
Members of the band are from Japan, Australia, Germany, and Greece but all influenced by Japanese traditions. Formed in 2018, they have toured extensively.
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They perform reimagined Japanese folk songs and original compositions. They are described as where tradition meets avant-garde.
So, if anything sums up the eclectic – we look back, forward and all the world about us – attitude of Cambridge Folk Festival, Mitsune has to be it.
