Drifter is a Japan-based art and music company led by composer and music director Taro Ishida. We work with Japanese traditional musicians and international partners to develop recordings, compositions, concerts and lectures. Our projects connect the experience of performers with the ideas of filmmakers, composers, presenters and educators.
You may be looking for an instrument for a score, a concert for your festival, or a way to introduce students to Japanese music. We begin with what you want to make and who it is for, then consider the sounds, people and format that can give it shape.
Recording & composition · Concerts · Lectures & demonstrations
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An instrument brings more than its range of notes. A phrase may depend on breath, the resistance of a reed, the decay of a plucked string or the way musicians listen to one another. These qualities matter when a traditional instrument enters a film score, a new composition or an unfamiliar concert setting.
Ishida approaches these encounters as a composer. He works with performers to understand what an idea asks of an instrument, where an arrangement needs to change, and what the musician might propose in return. That conversation can alter the music itself. Drifter helps carry it through into a recording session, a programme or a live event.
Gagaku, Japan’s classical court music tradition, is a particular focus of our work. Our collaborations also involve other Japanese musical traditions, alongside strings, piano and electronic sound. Each project has its own musical and cultural context.
We work with composers, music producers and creative teams on original composition, arrangement and Japanese instrument recording. These are different ways of working: Ishida can compose for a project, develop instrumental parts alongside an existing composer, or help prepare and record a specific part.
For the first season of FX’s Shōgun (2024), Ishida arranged Japanese traditional music and coordinated recording in Japan. The original score was composed by Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross and Nick Chuba. Musical ideas travelled between their team in Los Angeles and the performers in Japan, developing through arrangements, recordings and further discussion.
Read about the Shōgun collaboration · Discuss recording, composition or arrangement
Ishida’s TOKOYO brings gagaku instruments into dialogue with strings, piano and electronic sound. The project attends to different senses of time and resonance, making room for the particular character of each instrument. Its concert programmes place inherited music alongside new work.
In spring 2026, Ishida presented concerts and lectures in Germany and France. At the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, a gagaku introduction with live musicians preceded a TOKOYO concert. In Cologne, he joined the Cologne Gagaku Ensemble for a programme combining performance and explanation. These were different ways of meeting an audience, developed with the people and institutions involved.
For presenters, we can discuss a work-led concert, a lecture-concert or a collaboration shaped around a particular venue or artistic programme. The repertoire, ensemble and production needs follow from that conversation.
Explore the 2026 international tour · Plan a concert with Drifter
A lecture can open a way into an unfamiliar sound. Ishida draws on his work as a composer to explore how Japanese instruments are played, how music is passed on, and what happens when traditional practices enter new creative situations. Participants can move between listening, explanation and questions.
Programmes can be developed for universities, conservatoires, cultural institutions and younger audiences. In Japan, Minna no Gagaku (“Gagaku for Everyone”) introduces children to the music through live performance, instrument demonstrations, singing and movement. It offers a practical example of adapting a programme to its listeners.
A lecture can also accompany a concert, giving an audience time to encounter the instruments before hearing a complete programme. Language, interpretation and the role of live demonstration are planned with the organiser.
Explore lectures and educational programmes
Ishida’s practice spans gagaku, piano, electronic music, music for screen and music for spaces. Based in the forests of Nasu, Japan, he explores how music relates to place, nature and other people. His work with traditional instruments is part of that wider practice.
He co-founded Drifter in 2018 with art director Yuuki Mashiko. The company works across art and music, with management led by Kikumi Yoshioka. Ishida became a visiting professor at Kyoto University of the Arts in April 2026. Read the team’s profiles.
Send us the details you already have. An outline is enough to start a conversation; you do not need to have every part of the project settled.
Discuss a project with Drifter or email mail@drftr.co.jp.
Related: Recording & composition · Concerts for presenters · Lectures & demonstrations
