The Squid's Ear Magazine


Turner, Roger / Otomo Yoshihide: The Last Train (Fataka)

UK free improvising drummer Roger Turner meets Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide at the Hara Museum, Tokyo in the winter of 2013 for a performance that balances introspective improvisation with assertive and authoritative playing for a captivating and dynamic album.
 

Price: $13.45



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units


EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Roger Turner-drumset, percussion

Otomo Yoshihide-guitar, amplifier


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Fataka
Catalog ID: 10
Squidco Product Code: 20295

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Hara Museum, Tokyo , Japan, on February 17th, 2013, by Taku Unami.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Utterly beguiling recording of two great improvisers at work in the Hara Museum, Tokyo in the winter of 2013. Drumset, percussion, guitar, amplifier - a simple set up that produces complex and extremely dynamic results, with immense swells of enveloping feedback, fragile cymbal scrapes that hover at the edge of audibility, ecstatic free-rock clatter and slyly resonant melodies."-Fataka



"The Wait," the opening 16 minute-plus improvisation that forms the bulk of this album contradicts that reputation in terms of an absence of sheer noise for the most part.

What is here instead on most of the tracks is more a quietly circling gritty meditation, edgy yes, but not confrontational at all. When did free improv need to be hand-to-hand combat, a question not requiring an answer the duo might even be addressing in their method.

This is a limited edition duo album featuring drummer Roger Turner - known for his work in the 1980s with Annette Peacock and more recently with Isabelle Dutoit and Alexander Frangenheim - performing alongside Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide. Recorded in the Hara Museum, Tokyo in February 2013, rustling percussion and ghostly echoes do much to concentrate the mind as the pair retreat from their own bare soundscapes to very private spaces where you have to listen hard to glean anything beyond even the hum of an amplifier, the biff of something struck or rattled turning into a startling surprise.

Fragments emerge from nowhere, little scuffles of sound or slices of pent-up energy impacting violently, the wildnesses (on 'The Sign' and more of these on the visceral 'Crack') largely fleeting.

If ever there was a case of silences that act to illuminate and harness the non-silences then this is a great example. Like the improv that works way beyond mere moments, something that is incredibly hard to achieve in long passages on record even in ideal circumstances but definitely accomplished here, this amounts to an album that makes you think beyond the music itself while at the same time allowing you to admire the method, musicianship and holistic environment achieved by the performance itself."-Stephen Graham, Marlbank.net



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Get additional information at Marlbank

Artist Biographies

"Roger Turner (born 1946, Whitstable, England) is an English jazz percussionist. He plays the drumset, drums, and various percussion, and was brought up into the jazz and visual art cultures inhabited by his older brothers, playing drums from childhood in informal jazz contexts.

Turner studied English literature and contemporary philosophy at Sussex University, playing with Chris Biscoe for the British Council in 1968, a first concert in improvisation. His move to London gave him contact with the first and second generation improvisers and he began to play primarily with Lol Coxhill, Gary Todd, John Russell, Hugh Davies, Steve Beresford, and Phil Minton.

In the years immediately after 1974 his work was primarily concentrated on opening the way to a more personal percussion language. This was also a period of intense collaborations that structured many of his future approaches to music-making and saw the formation of two long-lasting acoustic duos with Phil Minton and with John Russell. Recordings of these duos document an extreme attention to timbre and pitch, as well as a constantly shifting speed that typified much of his work at the time. The duo with Minton toured extensively throughout Europe, USA and Canada.

In 1979 he established CAW records with John Russell and Anthony Wood, and recorded the solo album The Blur Between focussing on single surface improvisations: a linear and reduced equipment approach he had started using with Carlos Zingaro and others in live performances.

In addition to forming Trump music with Gary Todd to promote improvised music in London, he also involved himself in formative activities of the London Musicians Collective during this period. He was awarded Arts Council of Great Britain bursaries for solo percussion in 1980, and in 1983 for investigation into percussion with electronics. Extensive festival and club solo work followed, including the Bracknell Jazz Festival and the Brussels Festival of Percussion.

In 1982 the trio The Recedents was formed with Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper exploring the possibilities of electro-acoustic music, in which Turner initially played drumset and EMS Synthi A as a means of bending the sounds of various metal percussion instruments. This group, still existing, mixes song, jazz, punk/thrash, with acoustic detail in always shifting sonorities, and has worked throughout Europe, Canada and the UK, also recording for the French Nato label. Involvements with experimental rock musics and open-form song included extensive work in duo with Annette Peacock 1983-5, with whom he toured in Europe and Scandinavia. They recorded the album I have no feelings for Ironic.

In 1984-5, he was invited for workshop residences at Alan Silva's Institute Art Culture Perception in Paris, where long-term collaborations with Alan began, culminating in The Tradition Trio with Johannes Bauer. This group was central to his explorations of forms of free jazz, an interest that has seen him working with musicians on both sides of the Atlantic (including Elton Dean, Irene Schweizer, Cecil Taylor, Roy Campbell, Henry Grimes, The Wardrobe Trio and Charles Gayle).

Since the early 1980s his work has focussed on numerous projects with improvising musicians and groups, touring Europe, Australia, USA and Canada. Perhaps the most important of the later groups would be Konk Pack, formed in 1997, with Tim Hodgkinson and Thomas Lehn, a group whose use of volume and sense of detail continues the exploration of an electro-acoustic dynamic that forms one of his main musical concerns. This group has toured extensively in Europe and USA.

He forged working relationships with Japanese musicians over the years: in the 1980s with Toshinori Kondo in the trio with John Russell, but since the mid-1990s in concerts and recordings with guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi in Austria, Japan, and U.K, and in the recent (2009) Hana-Bi three-day event in London that included the guitarist and the pianist Chino Shuichi.

An active involvement in visual art has always been in dialogue with his music, and an inspiration for it. In the forefront of this is his work with Susan Turcot (the investigation/documentation of music and sound-drawing both in Europe and Canada-including the Being Rich box collection --, and music for her 2008 animation film Bitumen, Blood, and the Carbon Climb.

His music for dance/performance includes work with Alexander Frangenheim's Concepts of Doing, Stuttgart ; Carlos Zingaro's Encontros projects in Lisbon and Macau; and most recently in the Josef Nadj production etc.etc. (premiered Vandeouvre, France, 2008) and which is a continuing involvement.

In March 2009 he was invited to travel and perform on the Arctic island Svalbard, and was also invited to attend and play in the Comprovise event in Cologne, Germany in June 2009, set up to examine any possible relationship between improvisation and composition.

Turner's music-making with international improvisers in ad hoc and group collaborations have since the 1970s to the present day included Toshinori Kondo, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, Otomo Yoshihide, Shelley Hirsch, Joelle Leandre, Keith Rowe, Ab Baars, Barry Guy, Barre Philips, Henry Grimes, Paul Rutherford, Gunter Christmann, Marilyn Crispell, Irene Schweizer, Frederik Rzewski, and Malcolm Goldstein."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Turner_(musician))
11/4/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Otomo Yoshihide - born in 1959 in Yokohama, Japan. As a teenager, he spent time in Fukushima. Staying independent, he has consistently composed a wide range of music from improvisation to noise music and pop, and his music talent has spread all over the world. He has a successful career as a film score composer and has produced more than 70 movie soundtracks. In recent years, he has produced special type of concerts and musical works in collaboration with other various artists under the name of "ensembles". In addition, one of his priorities is,producing musical workshop projects involving handicapped children. In 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake , he started "PROJECT FUKUSHIMA!" along with people in various sectors. He has been active beyond the music scene and this is the reason that he has attracted a great deal of attention. In 2012, he received the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in the category of Promotion for "PROJECT FUKUSHIMA!". In 2013, he received various prizes including the Japan Record Award for his accomplishments, such as composing the theme music for the TV drama "Amachan".

"I use my real name "Otomo Yoshihide" as my stage name. When you write your Japanese name in English alphabet, many people often write their given names first, then their family names, following in the Western traditional culture. But originally, some Asian countries, including Japan, write their family names first, and then their given names follow after that. In my opinion, there is not only one standard for people's names and we should respect the values each person attaches to their name. Calling someone by his first name is a wonderful custom in Western culture to express familiarity with each other but that custom is not necessary in Japan because nobody has ever called me by my first name. It does not mean that people are unlikely to become close friends with me. It is just that calling me "Otomo" seems easier. There are some places with such customs in the world; where people friendlily call you by your family name. I am definitely not a nationalist but I have a feeling that something is wrong with those people who do not only disregard the tradition I am familiar with, but would rather follow Western standards.

For this reason, I would like to continue using the notation "Otomo Yoshihide" as before. When you call me, please call me "Otomo" as before. This will not cause any problems in its use. Until now, many people have written my name "Yoshihide Ōtomo" or "Yoshihide Otomo" but please understand those notations are not my intention. I am sincerely grateful for your consideration."

-Otomo Yoshihide Website (http://otomoyoshihide.com/en/?page_id=4)
11/4/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. The Wait 16:28

2. The Sigh 8:21

3. Crack 11:41

4. Run 3:53

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Yoshihide, Otomo
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Duo Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items

Search for other titles on the label:
Fataka.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Cutler, Chris
Compositions And Collaborations 1972-2022: In A Box [10 CD / DVD / BOOKLET BOX SET]
(Recommended Records)
An amazing collection and reflection on the work of percussionist, composer and connector Chris Cutler of Henry Cow fame and founder of the highly influential Recommended Records label and distribution service, through 10 CDs, 1 DVD and two books of documentation, artwork, photographs, published and unpublished texts in a sturdy box, with over five hours of unreleased materials.
Hirose, Junji / Otomo Yoshihide
DUO-1
(Ftarri)
Three decades after their 1989 album on the Tanga-Tanga label, Silanganan Ingay, turntablist Otomo Yoshihide reunites with improviser Junji Hirose, who more typically performs on saxophone, but in this duo uses his self-made sound instruments created by combining a variety of devices and everyday objects, recording these three "Scenes" live at Pool, in Tokyo.
Doneda / Frangenheim / Turner
NAIL in Ulrichsberg
(Concepts of Doing)
Working together many years in various formations--saxophonist Michel Doneda & drummer Roger Turner with John Russell; bassist Alexander Frangenheim & Turner in quartets with Pat Thomas or Phil Wachsman; Doneda & Frangenheim's own duo--this concert at Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg recorded during their European tour shows their incredible compatibility and seemingly telepathic conversations.
Armaroli, Sergio (Armaroli / Minton / Schiaffini / Turner)
I Dream I Was An Earopean
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Two percussionists--vibraphonist Sergio Armaroli and drummer/percussionist Roger Turner-- and two brass players--trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini and trumpeter Phil Minton, who doubles on voice improvisation--are heard in these studio recordings from Udine, Italy for nine "Dreams" that turn introspective slumber into restless visions through profoundly paced playing.
Fujii, Satoko / Otomo Yoshihide
Perpetual Motion
(Ayler Records)
Expanding their instruments into sonic sculpture, this first meeting between acclaimed Japanese improvisers Satoko Fujii, performing inside and out of the piano, and electric guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, demonstrates their incredible compatibly as heard in these live recordings at Tokyo's Pit Inn, part of an annual festival organized by Fujii & trumpeter Natsuki Tamura.
Minton, Phil / Pat Thomas / Dave Tucker / Roger Turner
Scatter: On A Clear Day Like This
(577 Records)
Formed in 1992 by UK keyboardist Pat Thomas, originally with the intention of exploring the energy of rock forms within non-idiomatic ea improv, this 2017 album with Dave Tucker on acoustic & electric guitars, Roger Turner on drums & percussion and Phil Minton on voice, was captured live at Cafe OTO in London for two extended, sometimes perplexing, but consistently amazing improvisations.
Leimgruber / Turner / Dorner / da Boff / Flesh
London / Leipzig / Luzern
(Euphorium)
A powerful concert of free and electroacoustic improvisation from Urs Leimgruber on tenor saxophone, Axel Dorner on trumpet, Roger Turner on percussion, and Ra Ra da Boff (aka Oliver Schwerdt) & Ribo Flesh on electric organs, performing live at NuR in Leipzig, Germany in 2015 for two extended performances; see all Axel Dörner-Untitled (Berlin) & Urs Leimgruber-Untitled (Luzern).
Dorner, Axel / Roger Turner / Ra Ra da Boff
London Leipzig Berlin
(Euphorium)
Ra Ra da Boff is an alter ego for keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, here performing on electric organ in a trio with trumpeter Axel Dörner and percussionist Roger Turner, the three turning free improvisation on its ear through extended and unusual approaches to their instruments in an impressionistic set of three impressive and slowly tumultuous extended conversations; exemplary!
Fousatt, Jean-Marc
Nouvelles [VINYL 2 LPs + DVD]
(Fou Records)
A vinyl reissue of improvising synth, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Marc Foussat's 2001 Potlatch album, originally released as a CD-ROM and here with an accompanying DVD titled "Hope for Happiness" including 3 silent films, two of which relate to the album; performed with Pascal Bouscailloux, Jac Berrocal, Jean-Francois Pauvros, Roger Turner, &c.
Regenorchester XII
Relics
(Trost Records)
Franz Hautzinger formed the orchestra in 1995 as an ensemble for experimental music, developing into an advanced improvising band that incorporates a shifting and diverse set of styles, heard here at Klangspuren Festival in 2019 with Hautzinger on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on guitar & laptop, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar & turntables, Luc Ex on bass, and Tony Buck on drums.
Satoh, Masahiko / Otomo Yoshihide / Roger Turner
Sea
(Relative Pitch)
After their Doubtmusic CD "Live at Hall Egg Farm", capturing the trio of Masahiko Satoh on piano, Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar & whistle, and Roger Turner on drums & percussion in Fukaya City, this new chapter in the trio's activities finds them live at Shinjuku Pit Inn, in Tokyo the following year, for two energetically active and captivating conversations.
FEN (Otomo Yoshihide / Ryu Hankil / Yan Jun / Yuen Chee Wai)
No One's Island
(Mikroton Recordings)
FEN (Far East Network) is comprised of improvisers from Singapore (Yuen Chee Wai), Japan (Otomo Yoshihide), China (Yan Jun), and Korea (Ryu Hankil), using electroacoustic instrumentation to create a unique merging of cultural and personal aesthetic, in their 1st album recorded in NYC using electronic feedback, computer noises and guitar; intriguing and unconventional.
Kuchen, Martin / Ed Pettersen / Roger Turner
The End Of The Universe
(Split Rock Records)
Swedish saxophonist Martin Kuchen (Angles), US guitarist Ed Pettersen, and UK percussionist Roger Turner join together in London for a studio album of improvisations referencing the vastness of space through the exploration of textures and sounds, influenced by the "Interstellar Transmissions" album that improvised with the sounds of the Voyager spacecraft.
Various Artists
Asian Meeting Recordings #1
(Doubtmusic)
Otomo Yoshihide started The Asian Meeting Festival in 2005 to foster creative interaction between Japanese and other Asian musicians, since 2014 curated by DJ Sniff, and here in the 2017 edition at GOK Sound, in Tokyo, Japan with a who's-who of players including Yoshihide, Ryoko Ono, Ko Ishikawa, Son X, KEITO, Yuji Ishihara, Yuen Chee Wai, &c. &c.
Tin (Dominic Lash / Axel Dorner / Roger Turner)
Uncanny Valley
(Confront)
A new trio at the time, TIN is trumpeter Axel Dorner, bassist Dominic Lash, and drummer/percussionist Roger Turner, captured live in three locations during their 2015 UK tour, presenting masterful avant improvisations of sound-oriented work using an immense technical vocabulary to creative inventive and captivating dialog.
Wachsman / Thomas / Turner / Frangenheim
Gateway '97
(Creative Sources)
An excellent quartet of UK and European improvisers recording at Gateway Studio, London in 1997, a set of 8 intriguing recordings emphasizing the acoustics end of free improvisation with accented electronic interventions.
Musique Action #4 (Marclay / Jauniaux / Minton / Yoshihide / Parkins / Weston / Vatcher / Luc Ex)
Madame Luckerniddle - Tribute to Tom Cora
(Vand'Oeuvre)
The fourth of a collection dedicated to the French Musique Action Festival, here in a tribute to Tom Cora recorded in 1998 with Catherine Jauniaux, Phil Minton, Zeena Parkins, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Veryan Weston, &c. &c.
Various Artists
Minima~list
(List)
Other Recommended Releases:
Sea Trio, The (Satoh / Yoshihide / Turner)
Live in Munich & Bonn [2 CDs]
(Confront)
Their second recording after their 2015 trio album Live at Hall Egg Farm on Doubtmusic, the now properly named Sea Trio of Masahiko Satoh on piano, Otomo Yoshihide on electric guitar and Roger Turner on drums & percussion reunite for two impressive 2023 concerts of masterful and often fiery free improvisation, captured in Munich and Bonn, Germany.
Gallio, Christoph / Roger Turner
You Can Blackmail Me Later
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
During a sabbatical in London, Swiss saxophonist Christoph Gallio (Day & Taxi) renewed his friendship with percussionist Roger Turner, with whom he had performed in a trio with Urs Leimgruber; meeting at Turner's London flat, they developed the spontaneous language heard on this freely improvised album, Gallio on soprano, alto & C-melody saxophones and Turner on drums & distinctive percussive devices.
Yoshihide, Otomo
Hummingbird and Four Flowers: Turntable and Harmonium Solo Live
(Hitorri)
Part of a concert to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of Ftarri's physical store in Suidobashi, Tokyo, drawing on performers from the Improvised Music From Japan imprint, turntable and sonic legend Otomo Yoshihide performed this solo concert in two sets, first using a turntable and the Ftarri store's harmonium (pump organ), and then on the turntable alone.
Gianfratti, Antonio Panda / Marco Scarassatti / Otomo Yoshihide / Paulo Hartmann
Psychogeography, an Improvisational Derive
(Not Two)
Recorded at the 2017 Improfest (Festival Internacional de Improvisacao e Arte Sonora) in Sao Paulo, the quartet of Marco Scarassatti, Antonio Panda Gianfratti, Paulo Hartmann, & Otomo Yoshide bring viola de cocho, percussion, self-made instruments, turntable, guitar, and prepared chiquita to a superb concert of wide-ranging improvisations named by geographical location.
Vertrek Ensemble
Another Idea Of North
(Volatile Records)
The Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Vertrek Ensemble of Vadim Budman on guitars and trumpet and Ron de Jong on percussion, in their first album, collecting solos, duos, and trios with guests Mark Kelly on banjo and Ian Birse on guitar & effects, predating their albums with legendary improvisers Derek Bailey and Euguene Chadbourne.
Van Hove, Fred / Roger Turner
The Corner
(Relative Pitch)
Pioneering improvising pianist Fred Van Hove at UK's Cafe OTO for the first time, captured in a duo with UK drummer/percussionist Roger Turner, their first recording together, for a night of exceptional improvised interplay, sophisticated and complex playing that is constantly buoyant and charming, an enthralling conversation between two veteran players.
Leimgruber, Urs / Roger Turner
The Pancake Tour
(Relative Pitch)
2011 live recordings from The Loft in Cologne of Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber and London drummer/percussionist Roger Turner, 7 improvisations that shifts from introspective to highly active discourse using extended and unusual techniques.
Akchote / Foussat / Turner
Acid Rain
(Ayler)
A burning release mixing free improv and ea forms from the trio of Jean-Marc Foussat (analog Synth), Noel Akchote (guitar) and Roger Turner (drums), recorded in Poitiers at Le Confort Moderne during a recent European tour.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC