ASA-CHANG & Junray

Percussionist Asa-Chang started Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra but left the band 1993, just when they were becoming successful. Several years later, he founded the two-piece Asa-Chang & Junray with Hidehiko Urayama, producer and composer of film music (and guitarist with the group Arepos at the end of the eighties). Their first EP, Tabla Magma Bongo, came out in 1998. However, Hidehiko Urayama doesn't play live, his amazing vocal collages are all studio work. So Asa-Chang & Junray took on a third member in 2000, U-zhaan, a peerless tabla player who follows the teachings of the master Ustad Zakir Hussain.

With the track Hana, Asa-Chang & Junray gained a reputation outside of Japan, and an album of the same name was released in England on The Leaf Label to much critical acclaim. John Peel played Hana on his show on BBC Radio 1, and in 2002 the album was voted fourth best album of the year by magazine "The Wire." It was also in the top 40 albums of the year in Mojo that year. In Japan in 2004, the track Senaka, a collaboration with singer Kyoko Koizumi, gave the band wider exposure. Senaka was also remixed by Rei Harakami on the album Minna No Junray, out in 2005.

Disturbingly sensitive, Asa-Chang & Junray have invented a new music that is played at ground level on woven straw mats or in the middle of gardens. It is difficult to qualify, cinematic and almost excessively expressive. The group occasionally works with the dance troupe Idevian Crew. Asa-Chang also plays with the big band Asa-Chang & Blue Hats, and U-zhaan can be found in the company of various different musicians, L?K?O amongst them, with whom he released a debut album, Borsha Kaal Breaks, under the name Oigoru in 2008.