Named Tenkoo after the Japanese for the Buddhist "Seventh Heaven," the Tenkoo Orchestra are indeed something out of the ordinary. The shaggy group of aging Japanese hippies, wielding an exotic artillery of musical instruments including Indian sitars, surbahars and tablas, the African djembe and Aboriginal didgeridoo, weave a shamanic sound spell that swells and surges, captivating listeners with its indefinable resonance, somewhere between rock, ambient and world music. Founded by innovative composer Hiroki Okano, the group aims, says Okano, "to pick up vibrations from all around and then communicate these through composition and music." In addition to performances at Japan' largest rave Rainbow 2000, the group have also taken their act abroad, where they have appeared at England's Glastonbury Festival and in London clubs. Okano has also, individually, created a series of sound installations, hanging over 1000 wind-bells in diverse, natural surroundings to shape a music which is created "by and in harmony with nature." For its upcoming Aoyama Cay performance, the Tenkoo Orchestra team up with Haruomi Hosono, former member of the influential '80s synth-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, and a founding father of Japan's ambient techno and new age music scenes.

Tenkoo Orchestra perform with Haruomi Hosono at Aoyama Cay on July 22. See listings for details.