Taiko artist and music producer Isaku Kageyama has released the Spooky Yokai Sound Pack, a free collection of eerie sounds inspired by yokai, the supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore.
Built from taiko drums and shinobue (Japanese bamboo flute), the pack is made for composers and music producers working on Halloween, horror, and fantasy projects. The pack borrows ideas from kabuki theater, which has long used music and sound effects to bring ghosts to the stage. Highlights include dorodoro, the kabuki drum pattern that traditionally signals the appearance of a ghost, and the low, uncanny groan made by rubbing mallets across a taiko drumhead.
Kageyama performed the sounds with David Wells and Tatiana Koike, then heavily processed the recordings to meet the needs of today’s film and media composers. The pack contains 44 WAV files (267 MB), organized into folders named for the sound inside, such as “Howling Wind,” “Let Us In,” and “Circulating Rumors.”
“Japanese folklore is full of ghosts and yokai, and traditional Japanese music developed its own sounds for bringing them to life,” said Kageyama. “I’m happy to share some of those sounds with fellow composers and producers, and I hope they have fun with them this Halloween.”
The Spooky Yokai Sound Pack is available now as a free download at mailchi.mp/d45c9035a30b/spookyyokai. All sounds are royalty-free.
