The mighty thunder of huge taiko drums.  Intricate and fascinating rhythms and soundscapes played on a wide variety of drums and percussion.  Moving on from purely traditional rhythms into "drum music" or "melodic drumming".  Information about the artist, music and the drums used in English, German, French and Spanish.

Written and devised by American poet, Linda Chase, and put together by artists, actors and IT experts to create a truly original poetry format.

The poem comes to life through a map of the Rochdale Arms (see pic), telling the story of eight people living in this North of England hotel.  Click on Miss Bridstocks's room and you can hear her speaking about her world, click on Mr Broadbottom's room and you hear him deep in his world.  Clicking as you wish around the hotel layout, you decide who speaks first and how much you hear of each character.  Or you can listen to the narrator's 'storytelling' the events with their characters.

The structure of the poem is totally flexible.  You can read it forwards, backwards, sideways or in bits, by yourself or with friends.  The poetry itself invites you to roam around.  Cute fun and very original.

Linda Chase is an American poet living in Manchester. Her latest collection 'The Wedding spy' was published by Carcanet in December 2001. Her previous collections include the pamphlet 'Young Men Dancing' (Smith/Doorstep) and 'These Goodbyes' (Fatchance). Her poems have won many prizes and have appeared widely in magazines. She has recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University where she now teaches poetry workshops to students, as well as teaching verse at the Arden School of Theatre. Linda also has a long standing devotion to the studying and teaching of Tai Chi.  

Going on stage with the moon rising over the ocean at half past Saturday midnight, and with 500 people packed into the open air Paleohora Club, by the sea, in south-west Crete, this energy laced performance is not of the 'laid back' 'chilled out' type.  This is the CD to wake you up - ideal for gloomy mornings and overcast winter days when you need a kick start.

With Noh and Kabuki style flute solos, classical piano phrasings, traditional Japanese folk songs, modern keyboard riffs, and dramatic Taiko drumming underpinning Joji Hirota's amazing percussion solos, this combination of contemporary composition, modern arrangement, and artistic spontaneity draws deep from the immense and fascinating resource of Japanese music, 10 tracks, 76 minutes and great atmospherics!