"Midori Takada (Japanese: 高田みどり) is a masterful Japanese percussionist whose output over the past 40 years weaves through solo, group and theatrical practices. Her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language are captured on a series of now highly sought after albums including her masterpiece Through The Looking Glass (1981/RCA) and her collaboration with Masahiko Satoh Lunar Cruise (1990/Epic-Sony), both of which will be reissued on WRWTFWW / Palto Flats in 2017.

In chime with the peak period ambient and Fourth World musics explored by Jon Hassell, Don Cherry and Brian Eno, but born of a distinctly Japanese ceremonial and meditative musical sensibility, her work has a crystalline quality that distills rhythms from around the world into transfixing minimalist dreamscapes.

To coincide with the reissues, Midori will be touring her solo percussion performances to festivals and concert rooms around Europe.

She debuted on the scene of Berlin Philharmonic, performing with the RIAS Symphonie-Orchester Berlin just after graduation from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974. She continued her career with solo concerts in Japan and abroad.

In the 1980s she began to explore the traditional music of Asia and Africa. Her fascination resulted in joint projects with Kakraba Lobi from Ghana, Lamine Konte from Senegal, Farafina Band from Burkina Faso, and Korean musicians: zither player Chi Seong-Ja, flute player Won-Il, and saxophone player Kang Tae-Hwan. She also performed with a free-jazz band, Ton-Klami, and led Mkwaju Ensemble's innovative percussion project.

In the past 20 years, Midori has spent more time in theatres than in concert halls - composing and performing for live music for theater. She has worked with Tadashi Suzuki and his Suzuki Company of Toga on their adaptations of 'Electra' and 'King Lear'.

Midori's compositions have a remarkable way of affecting the imagination. Her minimalist, contemplative music is filled with the concept of infinity and reminiscent of a moon voyage, falling stars, a journey into the ocean, or a walk in the garden. The transcendent melodies, initially simple, begin to loop and splinter, their rhythm breaking and thickening, slowly drawing the listener into another reality."

"Kang Tae Hwan (강태환 (姜泰煥) ) is a Korean free saxophonist, born in 1944 in Seoul, Korea. In elementary school he began playing clarinet, later, while attending art high school, he started on the alto saxophone. In 1978 he formed a free jazz trio and developed experimental improvisations. He is a member of Kang Tae Hwan Trio, and Ton•Klami."

"Masahiko Satoh (佐藤允彦 Satoh Masahiko, born 6 October 1941) is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and arranger.

Satoh was born in Tokyo on 6 October 1941. His mother was Setsu and his father, who owned small businesses, was Yoshiaki Satoh. The house that his family moved into in 1944 contained a piano; Masahiko started playing it at the age of five. He began playing the piano professionally at the age of 17, "accompanying singers, magicians and strippers at a cabaret in the Ginza district".

By 1959 Satoh was playing in Georgie Kawaguchi's band, together with alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe and tenor saxophonist Akira Miyazawa. Satoh graduated from Keio University.

At the age of 26, Satoh moved to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music. He stayed for two years, during which he read about composing and arranging. He earned money working in a food shop and playing the piano in a hotel. In 1968 he wrote the music for, and conducted, a series of pieces that were combined with dance and performed in New York. After returning to Japan, he recorded Palladium, his first album as leader, and appeared on a Helen Merrill album.

In his early career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Satoh played in a free, percussive style. Satoh played at the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival as part of a trio; he used a then-unusual ring modulator to alter the sound. Also in the early 1970s, he recorded with Attila Zoller, Karl Berger, and Albert Mangelsdorff. He wrote the psychedelic music for the 1973 anime film Belladonna of Sadness.

Satoh has written arrangements for recordings led by, among others, Merrill, Kimiko Itoh, and Nancy Wilson. He also arranged for strings and quartet on Art Farmer's 1983 album Maiden Voyage.

In 1990 Satoh formed a large group, named Rantooga, that combined various forms of folk musics from around the world. In the early 1990s he composed music for a choir of 1,000 Buddhist monks. In the early 1990s he was reported as stating that 70% of his time was spent on arranging and composing, and the rest on playing and recording.

Satoh has composed for film, television and advertisements. For instance, he made the music of Kanashimi no Belladonna, a film in which the sound is very important ; all the songs of this movie are performed by his wife, Chinatsu Nakayama.

Some of his compositions are influenced by the space in the works of composer Toru Takemitsu. Satoh has also composed for traditional Japanese instruments, including the shakuhachi and biwa."