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Nakatani Gong Orchestra

NGO, Live in Ojai, California [VINYL GOLD]

Nakatani Gong Orchestra: NGO, Live in Ojai, California [VINYL GOLD] (Weird Cry Records)

A 17-piece ensemble of bowed and struck gongs directed by percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, recorded live with local musicians from Ojai, California in 2023, creating massive resonant waves, shimmering overtones, and dynamic swells through real-time conduction, as Nakatani sculpts an immersive, communal sound world of meditative intensity and textural depth.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Tatsuya Nakatani-composer, conductor, performer

Eddie Chaffin-performer

Joanne ColdSteel-performer

Abe Gibson-performer

Mike Glover-performer

Finn Forest Green-performer

Scott Haller-performer

Daniel Harlan-performer

Ian Hawk-performer

Haydee JimŽenez-performer

Beth Katte-performer

Angel Lin-performer

Rob Magill-performer

Daniel Masiel-performer

Mike Meanstreetz-performer

Ted Nava-performer

Christopher Weeces-performer


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Weird Cry Records
Catalog ID: WCR106LP002
Squidco Product Code: 36470

Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: USA
Packaging: LP
Recorded Live at the Ojai Valley Woman's Club, in Ojai, California, on September 24th, 2023, by Rob Magill.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Tatsuya Nakatani's Gong Orchestra is a large-ensemble project he's been leading since around 2011, touring internationally and working with local musicians in each city. The ensemble is composed entirely of gongs — each player equipped with a single large gong, bowed and struck using Nakatani's custom mallets and techniques. Nakatani conducts the group in real time using a blend of hand signals and physical cues, shaping evolving waves of sound, intricate overtones, and dynamic swells. It's both a community-based project — often with performers who have never played a gong before — and a deep exploration of resonance, texture, and collective listening. Performances are meditative yet intense, moving from near-silence to massive, shimmering crescendos.

This live performance 2023 performance at the Ojai Valley Woman's Club of the Nakatani Gong Orchestra transforms 17 large gongs into a breathtaking mass of sound. Nakatani conducts a specially assembled ensemble of local musicians. Deeply physical yet spacious, the performance merges ritual, improvisation, and orchestral discipline into a singular listening experience.


Artist Biographies

"Tatsuya Nakatani. Acoustic Sound Artist, Master Percussionist. b. 1970, Osaka Japan

Tatsuya Nakatani is an acoustic sound artist and master percussionist originally from Osaka, Japan. He has released over eighty recordings in North America and Europe. Residing in the USA since the mid-nineties, he has performed countless solo percussion concerts and has collaborated with hundreds of artists in international music festivals, university concert halls, art museums and independent venues. Infamous for his constant touring, Nakatani criss-crosses the country every year inspiring audiences with his pioneering sound. In addition to his solo performances, he conducts the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO), a mobile community engagement project which organizes local ensembles performing on multiple bowed gongs.Nakatani teaches master classes and workshops at universities, giving students an opportunity to share his unique musical approach and philosophy for creating visceral, non-linear music.

He has created his own instrumentation, effectively inventing many instruments and extended techniques. Utilizing drums, gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, wooden sticks, metal objects, and the bows and mallets he handcrafts in his Kobo; he creates an intense, intuitively primitive, expressive music that defies genre. His work references improvised-experimental music, free jazz, and noise, while still retaining the sense of space and beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music."

-Tatsuya Nakatani Website (http://www.hhproduction.org/tatsuya_bio.html)
8/13/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Angel Lin is a percussionist and sound sculpture artist based in Southern California.

-Angel Lin Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/angellinsounds/)
8/13/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Rob Magill is a Southern California based composer/improviser/multi-instrumentalist/singer-song writer. Started recording solo material in 2010. Inspirations of music drawing from, 17th-21st century Classical Music, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Delta Blues, Psychedelic Rock, Soul, Post-Hardcore, Punk, American Folk, Indigenous Folk, Noise, Improvised Logics, and so forth. Using these ideas freely within specific contexts, along with unknown aspects of sound."

-Weird Cry Records (http://weirdcry.com/rob-magill/)
8/13/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Daniel Masiel is a West Coast guitarist an dpainter, born 04 January, 1988, 0906 hrs PST at Santa Barbara, California, USA. Current residence Ojai, California, USA. Composer of tape editing, song crafter of folk/psychedelic rock."

-Daniel Masiel Bandcamp (https://dsm-v.bandcamp.com/)
8/13/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



Side A



1. 20:38

Side B



1. 20:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Percussion & Drums
Large Ensembles
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New in Improvised Music
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