Listening to performances by Kenban Danshi may change your ideas about piano duos. With a fresh pop sound, their music may represent an evolved form of the genre, and, in fact, the men call themselves a "future-oriented piano duo." Their duo name literally means "keyboard boys."
Takeshi Oi and Kunihiro Nakamura made their major label debut as a duo in November, releasing their first album "The future of piano" on the Warner label. After they performed on a morning TV variety show, the duo's name appeared among the most-searched terms on the internet.
Oi is a piano prodigy who went to Germany and Britain to take lessons during his childhood and has also performed there. He's released his own albums as a solo pianist, and has also been in the spotlight for his good looks, as he is said to resemble popular actor Hideaki Ito.
Nakamura works as a composer-arranger, covering pieces from classical to pop music. He is also an accomplished pianist.
The pair first met when they both served as accompanists for Legend, a group of five opera singers. Oi and Nakamura began accompanying the group together to play orchestral opera scores on the piano to their best advantage -- an approach that grew popular enough among audiences for the two to eventually hold concerts of their own.
"It's been 10 years since we got to know each other," Oi said. "So we have great chemistry even when improvising because both of us know each other's cards."
Kenban Danshi have the advantage of having an outstanding composer. Music written by Nakamura, who studied composition at a music college, brings out the piano's strikingly rich sonorities.
"The piano is an instrument with few overtones," he said. "By using techniques for writing orchestral music, I can give it solid sounds, even in the higher notes.
"However, the audience doesn't need to know that our music is created based on logic and academic theories. I'm happy if they simply listen to it and find it good and pleasant."
The piano duo's repertoire is full of different colors, from their original pop numbers to arrangements of classical pieces such as "Bolero" and covers of British rock by Radiohead, Coldplay and other artists.
"It's irrelevant whether it's classical," Nakamura said. "I like classical music, but I like music even more."
Kenban Danshi also tackle innovative ideas, such as using repetitive and complicated phrases that sound like programming. "In fact, that kind of performance is the most difficult," Oi said with a wry smile.
They upload videos online of their performances of familiar pieces, such as the vocaloid (voice synthesizer) piece "Senbonzakura" (Thousand cherry trees) and "Anpanman no March," the theme song of the popular anime "Anpanman." Their arrangements and performances turn those works into surprisingly stylish pieces.
The video for the album's title piece also employs an innovative approach: The men's hands on the keyboard of a piano are filmed from above to show a combination of their playing and projection mapping technology.
The duo say they believe there is still great potential for piano music.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
