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BEST GLOBAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE
OXUM
ABOUT ACO TAKENAKA
Aco Takenaka is a Global Music artist whose work blends ancient chants, world cultural traditions, and contemporary ambient landscape into a distinctive sound. Her album Dear My Land earned recognition on the GRAMMY® ballot for Best New Age Album and Best New Artist, while her debut Moon Chant was featured as a Frequent Played Artist on Pandora Radio. Most recently, her single Oxum debuted at #1 on the MMD singles chart upon its release. Her music video Oyasumi was honored at international festivals such as Cannes Shorts, the UK’s International Music Awards, and the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival. With each project, Takenaka continues to bridge global deep traditions and bring ancient resonance into the present, reaching listeners worldwide.
ABOUT OXUM
Oxum revives a traditional Yoruba song to the water goddess OXUM, unfolding as a tapestry of ancestral chant and Aco Takenaka’s prayer to water. The piece honors the flowing strength and radiant beauty of rivers and seas, and the abundance they bestow upon all living beings. Produced in collaboration with Toshiyuki O’mori, a renowned Japanese anime and film composer, Takenaka’s layered vocals rise with evocative marimba and percussion, holding a space that carries both intimacy and breadth. At its heart lies a prayer for life itself—that the waters of the Earth remain pure and luminous, that every source be cherished and protected, and that humanity’s ancient devotion to water may continue to flow into the future.
What they're saying
Today’s trip to the wonderful world of new age vocal music was provided by the new fresh and exciting single called Oxum, recorded and gifted to the planet by the quite breathtaking Aco Takenaka, is a new manifestation that will light up the genre… The rhythm is flawless, the tonal delights utterly magical. This one is a certain chart hit with ease for Aco Takenaka and Oxum – spectacular, beautiful and picturesque.
Steve Sheppard,
One World Music Radio
If you are searching for something entirely different from the new age genre, then Oxum, the latest track from Aco Takenaka, will satisfy that need. The track is from her forthcoming album Ancient Seeds, due out in October.
Although she is singing in another language and you may not understand her, the vocals are mesmerizing and soothing as can be.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck, NAMR Founder
A beautiful pop hymn to the African goddess of Fertility, female power and fresh waters – sung and chanted clearly and cleanly by Aco, through which the listener truly feels the blessing of a goddess.
Carman Moore, Internationally acclaimed composer, professor, and former Village Voice music critic
Oxum is a breath of sonic fresh air – confident, soulful, and filled with peaceful energy. There is sweetness and soul in her vocal performance. The wonderful arrangement and production enhances her voice and the song. It’s now on my ‘Peaceful’ playlist to listen again and again.
Peter Bliss,
Songwriter, Producer, Former Director of New York Songwriters Circle
Ancient Seeds, featuring "Oxum" as the first single, is a testament to the power of musical convergence, an exploration of global traditions, seamlessly woven together to create a new, deeply resonant tapestry, an experience to be felt, a reminder that in our turbulent world, the most profound truths can be found in the ancient, sacred sounds that live within and around us all.
Robin James,
Contemporary Fusion Reviews