MUSIC REVIEW : Kodo Drummers at Bridges Auditorium

The Japanese percussion ensemble called Kodo brought its “One Earth Tour ‘93” to Bridges Auditorium in Claremont and astonished a large crowd with more than 90 minutes of mainly nonstop pounding.

After making a festive entrance onto the stage through the hall itself, the company opened its performance with joyous sounds of drums, cymbals and exuberant shouts.

Formed in 1971 as a retreat-like community on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan, Kodo continues to attain its remarkable musical impact through the purity of self-effacing ritual and dress combined with a superb theatrical sense, which, Tuesday night, had each member of the audience firmly in its grasp.

The varied program of nine set pieces, ranging from the visceral frenzy of five drummers in “Chonlima” to the delicate poetry of a dance for the dead called “Nishimonai.” It also included a dazzling solo performance on the three-stringed shamisen, and climaxed with the enormous “O-Daiko,” in which two nearly naked drummers beat a tremendous, 800-pound miyadaiko drum, carved from the trunk of a single tree and carried onto stage as if it were a god, for more than 15 exhilarating minutes, ending in a flourish of massive single strokes.

Creating electricity as much by musical means as by sheerly physical ones, Kodo’s ability to build crescendos, reveal intricate detail within the most complex drumming patterns and temper even the final awesome moments with the sad poetry of a wood flute made the ensemble’s obvious spirituality absolutely convincing.

And, as the group’s full name, “Heartbeat Drummers of Japan,” implies, even at their loudest and most rackety, the drums of Kodo possess a soft, human texture, richly enhanced here by Bridges’ warm acoustics.

Unfortunately, the hall’s poor sight lines had the audience continually squirming in its seats trying to see more than 50% of the stage.

After appearing in Beckman Auditorium at Caltech in Pasadena, Wednesday night, the current Kodo tour goes to San Diego, for a three-day engagement at the Spreckels Theater, Friday through Sunday.