Those Years

Those Years – an album of ocarina and ukulele performance

My last album, Traveling with an Ocarina and a Ukulele, created a certain resonance. Many friends said things to me like, “Occasionally making this sort of popular music, interpreting the ocarina and the ukulele together, feels new and extraordinary. Especially this album, which has Japanese style songs, every song is really a classic. Listening to it makes me love it.” To be honest, hearing this sort of reaction made me feel a lot of pressure. And when I started to think about my next album, I wondered what other kind of breakthrough I could make. I wanted everyone to know that Ocarina Azhi is always working hard.

We spent a lot of time selecting the songs for this album, Those Years. We visited many schools and sought out many people and asked them to write out a list of the thirty songs that were most significant to them. Only after we gathered nearly a thousand of these did we select the twelve most popular songs, and these twelve became those on this album.

I am very happy that Axin joined me in creating this album. Axin is a great musician and part of a new generation of ukulele players in Taiwan. When we first took these twelve songs and sat down together, we both had many images from Those Years come to mind. Then our planner suggested, “Let’s just have the music of this album take you back to visit Those Years.” That’s what we did, and the concept for this album was there. And because of that, Axin and I started our little trip.

You Xuezhi – an emerging ocarina performer in Asia

Ocarina Azhi is the leader of the Taipei Ocarina Group and teaches ocarina at many schools throughout Taiwan. In recent years, he has worked hard to expand the teaching of the ocarina in Asia, and has worked together often with outstanding performance groups from Japan, Korea, and mainland China.

Since his first ocarina album Ocarina in Wonderful land in 1999, he has released Ocarina Fantasia , Republic of Ocarina , Ocarina flyer, Best wisher form Ocarina, Ocarina Dreamer, The Steadfast Palm Grass, and Traveling with an Ocarina and a Ukulele, making Those Years his ninth album. He has also published books for learners of the ocarina, including Learn the Ocarina in Five Easy Minutes, The Six-Hole Ocarina Text Set, The Twelve-Hole Ocarina Text Set, The Ocarina Kingdom of You Xuezhi – Ocarina Azhi, The Forest Park of the Ocarina, The Fantasy Park of the Ocarina, and more.

Chen Xinyuan – One of the New Generation of Ukulele Players in Taiwan

Chen Xinyuan now works at MINIMA Artistic Direction and the Tian lai zhi yin Music Center. Founder of the Taipei Ukulele Club (TPUC) and Minima Colorful Ukuleles. He plays bass guitar and ukulele for the Chocolele Band. In 2012 Chen Xinyuan represented Taiwan at the 42nd Annual Ukulele Festival Hawaii. He promotes the ukulele at many schools in Taiwan and has published songbooks for the ukulele including Christmas on the Ukulele and Children’s Songs for the Ukulele.

Those Years

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