For Accordion Awareness Month, You Should Watch These Videos From Asia
June, we hear, is International Accordion Awareness Month (only five more days to celebrate!). Invented in 1822 by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann — according to some, at least — the accordion is a descendent of the Chinese sheng and Laotian khene. And in honor of the underrated free-reed aerophone, we've selected videos of some of our favorite accordionists from Asia.
Youth accordionists from Pyongyang's Kum Song School went viral in February for their rendition of A-ha's 1985 synthpop sensation "Take On Me."
Osakan Hideshi Kibi studied the accordion under Chikaie Yoshida and received various awards in Japan including First Place at the All Japan Accordion Festival held in Tokyo in 1987. He moved to Rome soon after and has been making music and visual art ever since.
Kanako Kato is an accordionist from Hokkaido whose music is inspired by classical, folk and Eastern European music.
Did we miss anything? Post some links in the comments. Long live the squeezebox!