The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now found across West Africa from Guinea to Mali, its common name, balafon, is a European coinage combining its Mandinka name bala with the word fôn'to speak' or the Greek root phono. Believed to have been developed independently of the Southern African and South American instrument now called the marimba, oral histories of the balafon date it to at least the rise of the Mali Empire in the 12th century CE. Balafon is a Manding name, but variations exist across West Africa, including the balangi in Sierra Leone and the gyil of the Dagara and Gurunsi from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Similar instruments are played in parts of Central Africa, with the ancient Kingdom of Kongo denoting the instrument as palaku. Records of the balafon go back to at least the 12th century CE. In 1352 CE, Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported the existence of the ngoni and balafon at the court of Malian ruler Mansa Suleiman.

European visitors to West Africa described balafons in the 17th century identical to the modern instrument. The Atlantic Slave Trade brought some balafon players to the Americas; the Virginia Gazette records African-Americans playing a barrafoo in 1776, which appears to be a balafon. Other North American references to these instruments die out by the mid-19th century; the balafon has seen a resurgence since the 1980s in the growth of African Roots Music and World Music. Most famous of these exponents is the Rail Band, led by Salif Keita; when not still played, its distinctive sound and traditional style has been exported to western instruments. Maninka from eastern Guinea play a type of guitar music that adapts balafon playing style to the imported instrument. In the Malinké language balafon is a compound of two words: balan is the name of the instrument and fô is the verb to play. Balafon therefore is the act of playing the bala. Bala still is used as the name of a large bass balafon in the region of Bobo Dioulasso.

These bala have long keys and huge calabashes for amplification. Balani is used as the name of the high pitched, small balafon with small calabashes and short keys; the balani is carried with a strap and has 21 keys, while the number of keys on a bala vary with region. A balafon can be either free-key; the balafon has 17-21 keys, tuned to a tetratonic, pentatonic or heptatonic scale, depending on the culture of the musician. The balafon is capable of producing 18 to 21 notes, though some are built to produce many fewer notes. Balafon keys are traditionally made from béné wood, dried over a low flame, tuned by shaving off bits of wood from the underside of the keys. Wood is taken off the middle to flatten the end to sharpen it. In a fixed-key balafon, the keys are suspended by leather straps just above a wooden frame, under which are hung graduated-size calabash gourd resonators. A small hole in each gourd is covered with a membrane traditionally of thin spider's-egg sac filaments to produce the characteristic nasal-buzz timbre of the instrument, played with two gum-rubber-wound mallets while seated on a low stool.

As the balafon cultures vary across West Africa, so does the approach to the instrument itself. In many areas the balafon is played alone in others as part of an ensemble. In Guinea and Mali, the balafon is part of an ensemble of three, pitched low and high. In Cameroon, six balafon of varying size perform together in an orchestra, called a komenchang. An Igbo variation exists with only one large tuned key for each player, and while in most cases a single player hits multiple keys with two mallets, some traditions place two or more players at each keyboard. The Susu and Malinké people of Guinea are identified with the balafon, as are the other Manding peoples of Mali and the Gambia. Cameroon and the nations of the Congo Basin have a long balafon traditions. Balafon players will wear belled bracelets on each wrist, accentuating the sound of the keys. In some cultures the balafon was a sacred instrument, playable only by trained religious caste members and only at ritual events such as festivals, funerial, or marriage celebrations.

Here the balafon is kept in a temple storehouse, can only be removed and played after undergoing purification rites. Specific instruments may be built to be only played for specific repertoires. Young adepts are trained not on free-key pit balafons; the gyil is the name of a buzzing pentatonic balafon common to the Gur-speaking populations in northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, southeastern Mali and northern Ivory Coast in West Africa. Among Mande populations in Ghana like the Ligbi and Dyula, the same instrument is known as bala; the gyil is the primary traditional instrument of the Dagara people of northern Ghana and Burkina Faso, of the Lobi of Ghana, southern Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast. The gyil is played in pairs, accompanied by a calabash gourd drum called a kuor, it can be played by one person with the drum and the stick part as accompaniment, or by a soloist. Gyil duets are the traditional music of Dagara funerals; the instrument i

Rei Rei is a 2-episode Japanese hentai original video animation series produced by Aubeck. It is now licensed by a division of ADV, SoftCel Pictures in United States. On April 22, 2003, SoftCel Pictures released the 2 OVA episodes on a DVD. Other releases include May 30, 2006 by Critical Mass, April 13, 2010 by Kitty Media. Kayuga, a Goddess of Love, looks at the moon from her residence in a limbo dimension between it and Earth, she and her faithful servant Pipi note that mankind's various sorrows are but pushing the moon away from the planet. Kayuga decides the only way to stop this is for her and Pipi to go to Earth and save the moon by helping the anguished attain and achieve what they desire the most; as they arrive on Earth, Tanaka, a young luckless romantic, attempts to surprise his dream girl, the wealthy Ikuko, with a bouquet of flowers and tickets to a baseball game for her birthday. Ikuko, harshly rejects Tanaka's attempts, claiming she has no interest in him at all and berates him form making such plans without her consent.

She tells him to never contact her or come by her place again, before running off, leaving Tanaka devastated and heartbroken over her rejection, which Kayuga and Pipi witness. Ikuko makes her way to the apartment of her lover and governess, Dr. Manami Shibata, whom she has become devoted to since they had sex after their first meeting, who suggests a dinner outing to celebrate Ikuko's birthday. Unbeknownst to her, Manami has grown tired of her and Ikuko's love affair, due to both Ikuko's clinginess and because she has become engaged to a fellow male doctor from her hospital, Akihiro Okabe. However, she does not wish to break it off with Ikuko. To that end, Manami conspires to murder Ikuko and disguise it as an accident in order to be rid of her, keep her inheritance, marry Okabe. Before they go out to dinner, Manami injects Ikuko with egg yolk, disguising it as a booster shot, which both Kayuga and Pipi witness, they bring a still-distraught Tanaka and bring him to the restaurant to see Ikuko and Manami together, which enrages him so much that he dashes off in a blind rage and has to be retrieved by Pipi.

Meanwhile, Ikuko eats a dish. Ikuko is rushed to Manami's hospital at the latter's instruction, with Tanaka returning just in time to see her off, much to his distress; as Ikuko lies in intensive care, Manami rendezvous with Okabe and the two share a kiss. Unknown to them, Kayuga witnesses this, she takes Ikuko's soul to her dimension and to the Bridge of Dreams, which Pipi instructs that she must cross without looking back to achieve her greatest desire. When asked what her said desire is, still unaware of Manami's murderous plot, says that she hopes Manami will love her in death. Kayuga tries to convince her to ask for something else, but Ikuko's devotion to her doctor is too strong. Back on Earth, Kayuga expresses disappointment in Ikuko's choice and asks Tanaka if he still wishes to help her. Tanaka confirms this, Kayuga and Pipi show him Manami's affair with Dr. Okabe, upsetting Tanaka. Manami goes to Ikuko's room and injects her IV with more egg yolk, thus spelling her demise for certain.

Back in Kayuga's dimension, she properly introduces herself and tries again to make Ikuko see sense, but Ikuko refuses to listen. Kayuga takes her back to the real world and reveals Manami's relationship with Dr. Okabe by showing them having passionate sex, exposes Manami's evil intentions by causing her to have a waking dream in which Okabe points out Manami's murder plot and Manami is haunted by Ikuko's ghost. Seeing the truth, Ikuko breaks down, heartbroken over Manami's betrayal, before Kayuga returns with her to her dimension. Elsewhere, Pipi attempts to comfort an enraged and drunken Tanaka, who swears he'll do anything to avenge Ikuko. Kayuga decides to grant him his wish by transforming him into a girl, she encourages him to figure out what to do with his new body before leaving him. The next day, the still-female Tanaka goes to Okabe's office and is able to use his new body to seduce him before Manami interrupts them, he does so again after encountering Okabe again on the doctor's jogging route.

Back in Kayuga's dimension, Ikuko continues to cry over Manami's betrayal and the belief that nobody loves her. But Kaguya proves her otherwise by showing her how far Tanaka was willing to go to avenge Ikuko after her previous rejection of him. Back on Earth, Ikuko's funeral ends and her body is taken to be cremated at Manami's instruction, in order to erase all evidence of her crime. Pipi rushes off. Meanwhile, at Okabe's apartment, he and Tanaka are about to have sex, but Tanaka stops him, reminding him of his engagement to Manami. Manami storms in, catches the two together; when Okabe proclaims that Tanaka is his true love, Manami and dis

Aeon is the second studio album by the Norwegian blackened death metal band Zyklon. It was released in 2003 through Candlelight Records. Music by Zyklon. Secthdamon – vocals, bass guitar, synth arrangements, programming Destructhor – lead guitar, synth arrangements, programming Samoth – rhythm guitar, synth arrangements, programming Trym Torson – drums, synth arrangements, programming Thorbjørn Akkerhaugen: Synth Arrangements & Programming Matt Jarman/Dissident Sound Industries – outro arrangement & programming on “Electric Current” Daemon – backing and additional vocals on “Two Thousand Years”, “The Prophetic Method” *and “Electric Current” Ofu Kahn – lead vocals on “An Eclectic Manner” Lrz – additional drones and programming on “An Eclectic Manner” Produced By Thorbjørn Akkerhaugen, Fredrik Nordström and Zyklon Recorded, Engineered & Mixed By Fredrik Nordstrom Mastered By Tom Kvålsvoll and Samoth Designed by Stephen O'Malley in co-operation with Samoth