AKIKO MORIYAKO

AKIKO MORIYAKO

Akiko Moriyako is a pianist, vocalist, percussionist, singer-songwriter and music producer. Akiko has toured with world acclaimed artists including Maxi Priest, Big Mountain, Beanie Man, Shaggy and UB40. The Vibes, her first solo album, was produced by Maxi Priest and Livingstone Brown. "Sublime" reached the top 10 on Japan's iTunes World Song Chart Akiko Moriyako is a musician of rare elegance whose sound poems whilst wholly contemporary convey a depth and tranquillity that could only be inspired by ancient Japanese tradition. For this extraordinary debut album she is chosen to reinterpret the work of international reggae star Maxi Priest or rather those songs that in Akiko own words remain hidden. She uses the analogy of a Samurai sword left unsheathed because whilst some of them were hits the majority can only be found on Maxi albums and have seldom been performed on stage. That is because despite their obvious merits they were among the more gentle and restrained songs of his repertoire. Akiko approach is an unusual, yet richly rewarding one. Unlike say Charlie Hunter or Ernest Rang who translated reggae classics into jazz she is chosen to reach into the very heart of these songs and reinterpret them with the same delicacy of awareness as a master of Ikebana or Kado the Japanese way of flowers would wherein nature and humanity and in her case, music are joined together in perfect harmony. The results are often trance like and impressionistic as heard in the best of New Age music.