Aco Takenaka is the founder of Kazoku, The Singing Tribe, an overtone choir that’s become a fixture in Japan’s nature-and-connection-loving communities. Takenaka has made a name for herself by doing something most people wouldn’t dare attempt: making ancient music feel relevant. Her previous work caught the attention of American Songwriter 50, particularly tracks like “Swimming” and “Beyond My Heart,” while “Kamenozoki” has become a favorite among Kyoto lovers worldwide. She writes in both Japanese and English, collaborates with everyone from Shinto researchers to filmmakers.
“Ancient Seeds”, is basically a rescue mission for songs that are one generation away from extinction.”
Working alongside Japanese composer Toshiyuki O’mori (who’s done serious time in the anime music world), Takenaka has assembled eleven tracks that pull from traditional chants and mantras spanning Japan, Tibet, India, Africa, and North America. Japanese percussionist Tamao Fuji has played everything from pop to classical to electronic, giving her the range to handle whatever this project throws at her. Then there’s world-renowned sho player Ko Ishikawa, Hiroki Okano on Native American flute, Masashi Yamaguchi on jinlei, plus various chorus arrangements that layer voices until they become something else entirely.
In “Ancient Seeds”, Takenaka asks: What if we still need these things? What if, in our age of constant distraction and atomized living, songs designed for presence and community aren’t nostalgic relics but tools we desperately need? It creates this effect where a single voice seems to multiply, where individual expression opens into something collective. These songs were never meant to be performed by one person for an audience of passive listeners. They were participatory, communal, alive in a way most contemporary music isn’t even trying to be. The real achievement here is that Takenaka has made an album about endangered traditions.
“Ancient Seeds” offers something increasingly rare: music that asks you to slow down, to sit with it, to maybe even think about why humans started singing together in the first place. These ancient seeds, properly tended by someone who clearly cares about their survival, are still growing.
Muse Chronicle 
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