For nearly thirty years, Kodo has explored the boundless potential of the ancient Japanese drum, the taiko. Inspired by the powerful natural beauty of their home on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan, Kodo infuses traditional forms with fresh global influences to create new musical expressions that are utterly unique.

Since 1981, Kodo has delivered over 3,200 performances in 46 countries.

Kodo's highly acclaimed One Earth Tour returns to Europe this January with an exuberant new performance. Inspired by their recent creative explorations, the cast of seven men and five women will deliver a potent selection of Kodo's vast repertoire distilled to its core essentials. The result is an intense and elegant amalgam of exotic elements and primal forces; in other words, pure Kodo.

Highlights of the program will include Chonlima, a piece not seen in recent years in Europe, which evokes the thunder of a great horse galloping across an open field at full speed. Likewise Miyake, and its tight formation of drummers crouched low to their instruments and striking horizontally, pushes the minds and bodies of the performers to their limits with its demands of strength and rhythmic precision. Quintessential Kodo compositions such as O-daiko and Yatai-Bayashi are rendered with such force that they can literally be felt.

About the One Earth Tour

The world is a kaleidoscope of people and cultures. In this age of exploding populations and lightening-fast communication, it is more important than ever that diverse cultures learn to recognize and accept each other so that all may share our increasingly shrinking planet in harmony.