SHIMA on using Kontakt to reimagine Japanese tradition in modern electronic music

Kotos are massive, expensive instruments with very few players worldwide. It is not as common as the guitar, so it is not easy to find authentic recordings. I am very grateful to have a tool like Kontakt, which lets me capture sounds I would not otherwise have access to.

I’d like to work with real koto players in the future, but even then, I’d probably still use Kontakt at least to create the demo track that I would show to the koto player as a reference.

Pro tip from SHIMA: When using your phone’s voice memos for field recordings, always remember to get two of whatever you’re capturing if you want a stereo field, as voice memos are mono.