Midori Takada

Midori Takada is a Japanese composer and percussionist. She is a pioneer of ambient and minimalist music.

Takada graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and began her musical career as a percussionist with the Berlin RIAS Symphonie-Orchester in the mid-1970s. She became dissatisfied with the Western classical musical tradition and returned to Japan to study African drumming and Indonesian gamelan, as well as the early minimalism of Steve Reich and Terry Riley. She channeled these influences into the group Mkwaju Ensemble which she formed with Joe Hisaishi, Yoji Sadanari, Junko Arase and Hideki Matsutake. 

Mkwaju Ensemble released two albums in 1981, Mkwaju and Ki-Motion, and she also performed on recordings by Toru Takemitsu and Satoshi Ashikawa around this time.

Takada recorded her first solo LP Through The Looking Glass in three days in early 1983. She performs all parts on the album, with diverse instrumentation including percussion, marimba, gong, reed organ, bells, ocarina, vibraphone, piano and glass Coca-Cola bottles.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Takada performed in various ensembles, composed for theater director Tadashi Suzuki and taught at various universities in Tokyo. She also performed with the improvisational group Ton-Klami and collaborated with pianist Masahiko Satoh (Lunar Cruise) and Ghanese percussionist Kakraba Lobi (African Percussion Meeting), but did not record another solo album until Tree of Life in 1999.

There was a resurgence of interest in Takada's work following the reissue of Through The Looking Glass and she has since performed extensively across Europe, the United States, Australia, Israel and Japan.