Taiko was born in Sapporo in Japan. She has her own musical language, which comes from diverse musical
influences. Her varied musical activity is not only in classical music,
but also in jazz and other music.
Taiko is the winner of the 3eme Concours International de Vibraphone
Claude Giot in October 2005, As a
Solo-Marimbist she won the 3rd prize in the world marimba competition in
Stuttgart in 1996. As a composer she received the originality award
with the composition “Landscape? for Marimba Solo†(published by Norsk
Musikforlag) from the international Marimba Competition Belgium 2004.
Niko was born in Hannover Germany, began to play piano at age 7, guitar and saxophone later. He wrote music for muvies, TV-, theatre-radio- and CD- productions, for such groups as the RIAS- and NDR radio bigband.
Extremely soft music which harbors many suprises. Music which does not overcome you but is delicately
enticing. And music which creates refined moments of confusion with intermediate sounds. Let yourself
become immersed and experience the fantasy: this is the invitation transmitted by the pieces of Koko Duo.
After all, the two musicians, the vibraphonist and marimba phone player Taiko Saito and the pianist Niko
Meinhold originate from different musical worlds which supplement each other extremely subtly and full
of quiet tension. They are mainly the worlds of classical music from the twentieth century and jazz from the
Far East and the West. “A fusion of impressionist jazz and modern classics†is cautiously presented by the
musicians themselves as a contemporary category.
