The Squid's Ear Magazine


Bonjintan (Akira Sakata / Jim O'Rourke / Giovanni Di Domenico / Tatsuhisa Yamamoto): Dental Kafka [V (Trost Records)

The 2nd release from the Bonjintan quartet led by Akira Sakata on saxophone, clarinet & voice, with Jim O'Rourke on double bass, Giovanni Di Domenico on piano & Hohner pianet, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on drums, an international grouping with experimental approaches to improvisation and avant music, yielding unusual results of great character, tension and pointed expression.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Akira Sakata-saxophone, clarinet, voice

Jim O'Rourke-double bass

Giovanni Di Domenico-piano, Hohner pianet

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto-drums


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UPC: 9120036683105

Label: Trost Records
Catalog ID: TROST 197LP
Squidco Product Code: 29331

Format: 2 LPs
Condition: Sale (New)
Released: 2020
Country: Austria
Packaging: Double LP in a Gatefold Sleeve
Recorded at Hoshi To Niji Recording Studio, in Japan, on June 30th, 2018, by Jim OĠRourke.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Dental Kafka is already the sophomore album of Japanese sax hero Akira Sakata international quartet Bonjintan, following a self-titled release on Sakata's label Daphinia in 2017. Bonjintan features Sakata on alto sax, clarinet, and voice, American, Tokyo-based Jim O'Rourke, of Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth fame, on double bass, Italian pianist Giovanni Di Domenico and Japanese drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto.

All four musicians have collaborated before in many formats and outfits during the last decade. O'Rourke initiated recordings of Sakata, did the recording and mixing and produced some of his albums with the Chikamorachi trio (with double bass player Darin Grey and drummer Chris Corsano); Di Domenico took part in few of Sakata's other international quartets and recorded with him a duo album (Iruman, Mbari, 2014). He also recorded with O'Rourke before, including with the Delivery Health trio with drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto; Yamamoto played in a one-off recording of the trio Kafka's Ibiki with O'Rourke and his partner, pianist Eiko Ishibashi and in other trios with Di Domenico, including one with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Dental Kafka was recorded at Hoshi to Niji studio, Kobuchizawa in June 2018.

Sakata sounds as taking a back seat in this quartet, although his voice - literally - is still the most dominant one in this collective. Dental Kafka opens with "Ape Huci Kamuy (God of Fire by Ainu people)", a lament to the marginalized ethnic group in Japan, Ainu, where Sakata recites an angry text to the minimalist, tense music of Di Domenico, O'Rourke and Yamamoto. The title-piece alternates between a fiery, free jazz piece here with Sakata playing the alto sax and leading with a charismatic, organic flow and with a telepathic interplay with Di Domenico, pushed by the massive rhythm section of O'Rourke and Yamamoto, and a simple rhythmic conversation by Di Domenico, O'Rourke and Yamamato.

The other two extended pieces stress a more intimate, reserved, and poetic voice of Sakata, playing the clarinet. His singing solo introduces "Koro Koro Donguri", setting the searching tone for a quiet free-improvisation that highlights the inventive colors of Yamamoto, but mid-piece he lets Di Domenico, who plays the Hohner pianet, to take the lead as he did on the title-piece, before Sakata concludes with a short, complaining speech. The last "Bonjin" is even more introspective. The quartet plays here like a four-headed organism, with great conviction, flowing elegance, and poetic beauty.

That's the beauty of Sakata's music and his bands. At his age, 75, he does not need to prove anything, but he will always will explore new territories surprise even the keen listener. When you go to some wild sonic trips with such an observant marine biologist you know that that there is a chance that you may encounter some engaging beasts and Bonjintan is one of the most fascinating ones."-Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective

Also available on CD.
Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective

Artist Biographies

"Akira Sakata (坂田明; born 21 February 1945 in Kure, Hiroshima) is a Japanese free jazz saxophonist.

Sakata began studying music seriously at high school, where he played clarinet.[1] He played alto sax in a jazz band when at Hiroshima University.[1] He trained as a marine biologist.

Sakata joined the Yamashita Yosuke Trio from 1972 till 1979 and toured internationally with them. In 1986, he performed with Last Exit with Bill Laswell. This performance was released as 1987's Noise of Trouble: Last Exit Live in Tokyo. Laswell went on to play bass on and produce Sakata albums such as Mooko, Silent Plankton and Fisherman's.com, the last of which also featured the reclusive Pete Cosey (who had worked with Miles Davis) on guitar.[2]

In 1994, Sakata organized a one-month tour of Uzbekistan, Mongolia and China with the Flying Mijinko Band, consisting of 14 members from Japan, Africa and America. Some of those included were Laswell, Anton Fier and Foday Musa Suso.

He has more recently worked with DJ Krush[3] and Chikamorachi (Darin Gray and Chris Corsano)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Sakata)
3/25/2024

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

"O'Rourke was born on January 18, 1969 in Chicago, Illinois. He is an alumnus of DePaul University. He has released albums of jazz, noise, glitchy electronica and rock music. O'Rourke has collaborated with Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Derek Bailey, Mats Gustafsson, Mayo Thompson, Brigitte Fontaine, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Merzbow, Nurse with Wound, Phill Niblock, Fennesz, Organum, Phew, Henry Kaiser, Flying Saucer Attack, and in 2006 mixed Joanna Newsom's album Ys. In 2009, he also mixed several tracks on Newsom's follow up Have One On Me.

He has produced albums by artists such as Sonic Youth, Wilco, Stereolab, Superchunk, Kahimi Karie, Quruli, John Fahey, Smog, Faust, Tony Conrad, The Red Krayola, Bobby Conn, Beth Orton, Joanna Newsom and U.S. Maple. He mixed Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album and produced their 2004 album, A Ghost Is Born, for which he won a Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Album". During the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, O'Rourke collaborated with Wilco member Jeff Tweedy and pre-Wilco Glenn Kotche under the name Loose Fur. Their self-titled debut was released in 2003 with a follow-up in 2006 entitled Born Again in the USA. He also mixed the unfinished recordings that made up a planned third album by the late American singer-songwriter Judee Sill, recorded in 1974 and mixed by O'Rourke for a 2005 release.

O'Rourke was once a member of Illusion of Safety, Gastr Del Sol (with David Grubbs) and Sonic Youth. Beginning in 1999 he played bass guitar, guitar and synthesizer with Sonic Youth, in addition to recording and mixing duties with the group. He withdrew as a full member in late 2005, but continued to play with them in some of their side projects. In the early 1993, O'Rourke formed an avant-rock group with Darin Gray and Dylan Posa called Brise-Glace. The band released one studio album, When in Vanitas..., in 1994. They also released a 7" in the same year titled In Sisters All and Felony/Angels on Installment Plan.

O'Rourke has also released many albums under his own name on a variety of labels exploring a range of electronic and avant-garde styles. His most well-known works may be his series of releases on Drag City, which focus on more traditional songcraft: Bad Timing (1997), Eureka (1999), Insignificance (2001), The Visitor (2009) and Simple Songs (2015). The titles of the first four albums all refer to films by the British director Nicolas Roeg; the first three by direct reference to film titles, the fourth being titled after a fictional album within Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth. With music director Takehisa Kosugi, he played for the Merce Cunningham dance company for four years. O'Rourke received a 2001 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_O'Rourke_(musician))
3/25/2024

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

"Giovanni Di Domenico, pianist, performer, composer, was born in Rome on the 20th July 1977, a significantly tempestuous period in socio-political terms, featuring hostile polarizations and an ostensive paramilitarism, mutinous ideological confrontations and bloody terrorist attacks, rendered infamous in the description 'Years of Lead'. In that particularly caustic summer, the so-called 'Movement of 1977', non-aligned, without any ties to the Parliament and non-violent, broke into the scene of prevalent conspiracy-steeped paranoia condemning the repressive, discriminatory and authoritarian tendencies of the Italian State and demanding equality for minorities and further civil rights. The coinciding liberalization of the media market, putting an end to RAI's monopoly, further defined this period as the prime moment for pirate radio, with the consequence of a libertarian fragmentation of youth culture, epitomised by punk.

One could argue that Giovanni, self-taught until the age of 24, inherited - in philosophy, politics and artistically - the most benign and affirmative traits of that period, diversifying his action in the context of a recently unified Europe, promoting improbable connections, exploring varied geographies, comfortably manoeuvring aesthetical fringes and making a commitment to live performance at its most liberating and engaging. Surprisingly, the path that lead him to that point had an unexpected detour: following his father's consecutive assignments as a civil engineer he actually lived out his first decade in Africa - until he was five in Libya, from then until his eight anniversary in the Cameroons and until ten in Algeria. His far off native country was not synonymous with civil unrest as much as with opera, whose arias he would memorize with his siblings in order to practice the language and provide some family entertainment. The condition of expatriate had a strong influence in his education - he clearly remembers the calls of the muezzin, the sound of exotic musical instruments in local markets, the ritualistic expression music took in the streets of Yaoundé, or the songs he heard from his nanny in the Cameroons.

When he finally enrolled in music school - majoring in 'jazz piano'- he further built on an encyclopedic technique; rhythm, harmony and tone are informed by non-western traditions yet equally sensitive to Debussy's "Préludes", Luciano Berio's "Sequenzas", to the 'ambi-ideation' heard in Borah Bergman's Soul Note recordings, Cecil Taylor's polissemic density, Paul Bley's bruised transparency and of course, the most radical manifestations stemming from the underworld of pop music, invariably tied together by his own original praxis. A distinction - one would call it generational - he shares with many of the musicians he has crossed paths with recently, artists as different as Chris Corsano, Jim O'Rourke, Akira Sakata, Tetuzi Akiyama, Okkyung Lee, Balasz Pandi, Nate Wooley, Yan Jun, John Edwards, Darin Gray, Roger Turner, Steve Noble, DJ Sniff, Terrie Ex, David Maranha, Manuel Mota, Arve Henriksen, Norberto Lobo, Peter Jacquemyn, Alexandra Grimal, John Duncan, Tony Allen, Rafael Toral or Toshimaru Nakamura. Di Domenico has founded his own label, Silent Water, home of an eclectic and occasionally unclassifiable production. He lives in Brussels."

-Giovanni Di Domenico Website (Giovanni Di Domenico)
3/25/2024

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

"Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, born on Oct 25, 1982, in Yamaguchi, Japan, is a pure acoustic drummer, not an electric drummer. He plays primarily improvised music, and participates in a variety of bands, projects, supporting singers, and has produced multiple recordings. Yamamoto's solo acoustic performance succeeds in combining dynamism, melodicism and polyrhythm, fusing overwhelming volume with delicate technique.

Yamamoto has also collaborated with artists such as Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O'Rourke, Sachiko M, RUINS, Seiichi Yamamoto (ex.boredoms), Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Keiji Haino, Akira Sakata, Kumio Kurachi, Daisuke Takaoka, Makoto Kawabata (AcidMotherTemple), Munehiro Narita(HIGHRISE), Mitsuru Tabata(ZENI-GEVA/AMT&TCI), Masahiko Sato, Yuji Takahashi, Gianni Gebbia, Ned Rothenberg, Daniele Camalda, Alan Silva, and many others.

Yamamoto's main projects are SSW, a duo with "Eiko Ishibashi"; "NATSUMEN", a band lead by AxSxE; acoustic & synthesized drums duo with Muneomi Senju (ex.Boredoms); "Plus Minus Zero"a live electronica & psychedelic prog jam trio with Yuji Katsui (ROVO) and marron a.k.a. dubmarronics; "FirstMeeting," an acoustic noise improvisation Quartet with Natsuki Tamura, Satoko Fujii, and Kelly Churko; "Ohanami," a unit with Yoshio Machida on the steelpan; as well as recordings with the Kahimi Karie band featuring Otomo Yoshihide and Jim O'Rourke. Recently he has been performing regularly with Jim O'Rourke. He participates in, and organizes multiple projects around Tokyo."

-Cafe OTO (https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/artists/tatsuhisa-yamamoto/)
3/25/2024

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


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Ape Huci Kamuy (12:15)

SIDE B



1. Dental Kafka (16:53)

SIDE C



1. Koro Koro Donguri 2 (15:58)

SIDE D



1. Bonjin (10:45)

Related Categories of Interest:


Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
Spoken Word
Asian Improvisation & Jazz
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
O'Rourke. Jim

Search for other titles on the label:
Trost Records.


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