A live multitrack recording from 2009 of the collaboration of Acid Mothers Temple SWR - Kawabata Makoto, Tsuyama Atushi, and Yoshida Tatsuya - with saxophonist Umezu Kazutoki.
Acid Mother Temple SWR merge's AMT's Kawabata Kakoto (guitar, voice,) and Tsuyama Atsushi (bass, vocals, sax) with Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, &c), here in their 6th release, crazy prog-oriented rock of indescribable insanity and skill!
"A memorable first album by this completely improvised band made up of four strong members. The improvisational dynamics of these four artists, who know everything about music, both sweet and sour, have a persuasive power that cannot be...
A subtly complex and sophisticated album of electroacoustic improvisation from the trio of Japanese sound artists Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) and Switzerland-based American drummer Jason Kahn performing live at Ftarri in Suidobashi, Tokyo, during Kahn's stay in Japan, a rich and detailed exploration.
A surprising joining of improvisers and composers from Japanese acoustic guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama playing with Swedish composers and performers, Magnus Granberg on clarinet and Henrik Olsson on percussion and electronics, the latter two part of the chamber ensemble Skogen, for five works of profound calm and center through slow harmonics weaving beautiful aural statements.
Eight duo improvisations on acoustic guitar and piano, with pianist Kawai preparing the piano with bolts, threads, &c. and Akiyama switching between prepared and slide guitar.
Assembled in London to improvise music for Stewart Morgan's film Eddie Prevost's Blood, this release adds much more material beyond the soundtrack, in a superb example of free and charged creative improvisation seeking unique combinations of expression, from Jennifer Allum on violin, John Butcher on saxophones, Ute Kanngiesser on cello and Eddie Prevost on percussion.
Minimalist Chilean guitarist Cristian Alvear and Tim Olive first played together in October 2016, doing three concerts in Japan, Alvear returning to Japan in October of 2017 for additional performances in Kyoto and Osaka, then spending a day recording in Kobe; this single improvised piece he result of that day, heard as it was recorded, with a few structural edits.
Mizuki Wildenhahn adds an unusual percussive instrument through dance to the multi-arts Amu quartet of Wildenhahn, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Satoko Fujii, and percussionist Takashi Itani, heard on the CD and seen on the DVD of this 2-disc set of their unorthodox and absorbing live performance at Kanagawa Prefectural Lake Sagami-ko Exchange Center in 2018.
Recordings from the 2022 Japanese New Music Festival Japan Tour from the trio of Tsuyama Atsushi on bass, guitar & piano, Yoshida Tatsuya on drums, synth and vocals, and Kawabata Makoto on guitar, bass and vocals, selecting the best tracks from the tour into a collection of 15 psychedelic, progressive, experimental and uncategorizable rock forms!
Amorfon continues their exploration of the "voice" of babies, started with "Kindermusik: Improvised Music by Babies" and expanded here as 14 babies are recorded in a single take, expressing themselves before the learning of language, volume, timbre and speech intervals.
A live concert in Quezon City from the Manila based duo of Rich Countryman on alto saxophone and Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, who are joined on one track by acoustic bassist Simon Tan and trombonist Isla Antinero.
During a tour by frequent collaborators, American saxophonist living in the Philippines Rick Countryman and Swiss drummer Christian Bucher, the duo joined with acoustic bassist Tetsuro Hori for five nights in the Kansai region of Japan, on the fifth night performing at the Big Apple in Kobe, Japan where this hard blowing session of free jazz was captured.
Dark and beautiful improvisation from saxophonist and electronics artist John Butcher and harpist Rhodri Davies, an incredible display of timbre, technique, and pacing.
Impeccably recorded inside the Brønshøj Water Tower, in Copenhagen, Denmark, a highly resonant space built 100 years ago, where UK tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher continues his investigations into spaces with natural delay and decay, through 11 improvisations of discriminating pacing as he finds incredible beauty in floating and shifting tones and instrument errata; exquisite.
Rich harmonics and interstitial interactions between two bass clarinets, as Utah-based Katie Porter and Berlin-based Lucio Capece exchanged recordings to develop two compositions, the first focusing on expression in the context of freedom in time, the 2nd using strict time to explore the effects of overlapping-phasing; reference The International Nothing.
2006 recordings from this avant Serbian folk band singing in English, Serbian, French, German, Czech and Japanese, naive and intellectual approaches to songwriting.
During his 2018-19 Canadian tours, Tim Olive joined Vancouver residents Joda ClŽment and Mathieu Ruhlmann for two trio performances, after which they went into the studio to record these four detailed improvisations using synthesizer, harmonium, glockenspiel, field recordings, feedback, magnetic pickups, preamps, octave generators, ukelin, cymbal, tapes, and objects.
Distributing the group--John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte, Lee Patterson, Pat Thomas, and Rhodri Davies--inside the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Butcher chose 4 shamanic objects from the museum's ethnographic collection, evoking water, air, earth, spirit, ritual and utility, used as a score orchestrating varying combinations of players; intense and profound improvisation.
Three solo tracks by Zhao Cong, who develops suspenseful sonic environments over which she inventively and patiently adds daily objects, sounds from her mixer, condenser microphone, her voice, a cardpaper tube, no input feedback, contact microphones, and a home ballroom light, each piece evolving with a unique disposition towards certain associative sounds; fascinating.
After a performance in 2019, Kobe-based Canadian sound artist Tim Olive and Calgary percussionist, experimenter and Bug Incision lAfter a performance in 2019, Kobe-based Canadian sound artist Tim Olive and Calgary percussionist, experimenter & Bug Incision label leader Chris Dadge recorded these two studio pieces using Dadge's amplified percussion, small instruments & electronics, as well as Olive's magnetic pickup/electronics system, running through a number of guitar & bass amplifiers.abel leader Chris Dadge recorded these two studio pieces using Dadge's amplified percussion, small instruments & electronics, as well as Olive's magnetic pickup/electronics system, running through a number of guitar & bass amplifiers.
Chris Watson recorded John Butcher on acoustic & amplified sax and Rhodri Davies on acoustic & electric harp in Routing Lynn in Northumberland, then joined them live at a festival in Gateshead where the duo played alongside Watson's reworked recordings.
The trio of pianist Jacques Demierre, trumpeter Axel Dorner and accordionist Jonas Kocher recorded these live improvisations at Theatre Le Colombier in Les Cabannes, France, each performer then assembling a complete album selecting from the fourteen recordings, unique to each performer's aesthetic selection, sequencing and length, creating three distinct yet deeply attached albums.
Meeting in sound artist and vocalist Yan Jun's studio in Berlin in 2017, trumpeter Axel Dörner and no-input mixer artist Toshimaru Nakamura recorded these four active and bristling improvisations, Dörner using every inch of his instrument and treating it with electronics to create the controlled chaos and richly jarring recordings that make up this, their 2nd album together.
A challenging live quartet made of two duos: trumpet & piano, with Satoko Fujii & Misha Mengelberg at the former and Angelo Verploegen & Natsuki Tamura at the latter.
Two beautifully subtle works for an ensemble of strings and electric piano from French composer Bruno Duplant, realized by the Boston-based Ordinary Affects ensemble or Jordan Dykstra, Morgan Evans-Weiler, JPA Falzone, Luke Martin and Ashley Frith, the first a quintet and the second a string quartet, creating illusory affects of motion and space through abstraction.
Trumpeter Tamura in an album of improvisational fragmentation, textural and timbral explorations, and rapid-fire juxtapositions that create kaleidoscopic sound collages.
US sound artists Heather Frasch and UK Ryoko Akama, who together run the mumei journal exploring the relationship between text and sound, in works commissioned by Bruno Duplant based on written texts, each interpreted, recorded and edited by the other using objects, field recordings, electronics, cello & voice, with one piece from Frasch and two versions from Akama.
Pianists Fujii & Melford met in Berkley to record these masterful and challenging duo works, impressionist excursions in the water inside and out of the piano.
Satoko Fujii Orchestra in original compositions, an amazing lineup of mostly New York players including Steven Bersteain, Herb Robertson, Briggan Krause, etc.
Satoko Fujii's excellent trio with Mark Dresser on bass and Jim Black on drums: spiritous, technically impressive, melodically and conceptually adventurous music not to miss!
8 remarkable and collaborative duets from pianists Satoko Fujii and free jazz legend Paul Bley, and 3 lovely solo pieces of extended technique and color.
On their 5th album together, pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura push the limits on approach and technique with their instruments, creating otherworldly and captivating improvisations, both players deciding against using "normal instrumental sounds", instead using preparations and textural approaches to create truly unique music.
Satoko Fujii leads her 13-piece big band through 5 thrilling and insightful compositions with a who's-who of NY improvisation: Nels Cline (guitar), Ches Smith (drums), Joe Fiedler & Curt Hasselbring (drums), Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin, Briggan Krauss, Andy Laster & Tony Malaby (sax), Herb Robertson, Natsuki Tamura & Dave Ballou (trumpet) & bassist Stomu Takeishi; wow!
Having played in trio settings before, pianist Satoko Fujii and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez seized the opportunity to record as a duo in the studio in NY, bringing just two Fujii compositions to guide them, they began freely improvising, creating this stunning album of elegant interaction, peaceful yet detailed, intuitively beautiful and sophisticated music.
A double CD of Satoko Fujii compositions, 56 short compositions from a series she started around 2005 to expand her skills as a composer, many of which fueled her many band's repertoires; in 2018 she asked respected classical pianist and educator Yuko Yamaoka to record this set of compositions as part of her 60th birthday monthly album set.
A book of scores to accompany the double CD of 56 Satoko Fujii compostions titled "Diary 2005-2015", performed by respected classical pianist and educator Yuko Yamaoka, released as part of Satoko Fujii's ambitious 60th birthday monthly album set.
After bringing her band Kaze to the Cortez club in Mito, Japan, the owner asked pianist Satoko Fujii back to perform a solo show, captured here across two CDs showing her extensive technical skills and passionate approach to playing, in a mix of new work and new takes on previously recorded compositions.
Satako Fujii's 2008 release introducing her then new ma-do quartet of Satoko Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Akira Horikoshi on drums, and late bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu, the band name signifying "window" and "the silence between notes", in an album of superb, lively, eclectic and absolutely exciting improvisation from 9 original Fujii compositions.
After studying jazz and classical music, pianist Satoko Fujii became interested in Min-Yoh, which means folk music in Japanese; this is her 2nd lovely and powerful release with her Min-Yoh Ensemble.
A set of new trio compositions from pianist Satoko Fujii with bassist Todd Nicholson and drummer/percussionist Takashi Itani, a magnificent set of compositions for the transformative season.
Satoko Fujii's amazing Orchestra New York returns with a composition that she describes as "a picture that extends beyond the canvas", performed with Oscar Noriega, Briggan Krauss, Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby, Andy Laster, Herb Robertson, Steven Bernstein, &c &c.
Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York in a work based on the Chinese zodiac, referred to as "Eto", in a celebration of husband and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's 60th birthday, and of the 12 animals of the zodiac.
Diverse aspects of the 2011 disaster at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant brought on by a tsunami orchestrated in sound by composer/pianist Satoko Fujii and rendered in remarkable ways from some of New York finest improvisers, including Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin, Oscar Noriega, Herb Roberts, Joe Fiedler, Stomu Takeishi, Nels Cline, &c &c.
Satoko Fujii's 15-piece Orchestra New York with an all-star cast including Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby, Herb Robertson, Steve Berstein, Joe Fiedler, &c. &c.
Pianist Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Tokyo + the band Kaze, bringing guests trumpeter Cristian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins alongside trumpeter Natsuki Tamura into a spectacular big band of great power but also subtle meditation, in four works that include a tribute to the late guitarist and Fujii collaborator Kelly Churko.
Completing a year of monthly albums for pianist Satoko Fujii's "kanreki", or 60th birthday, is this impressive and cathartic album written for Fujii's Orchestra Tokyo as a tribute to late tenor saxophonist and 10 year orchestra member Masaya Kimura, with four compositions from Fujii and two from trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, in an album of both profound testimonly and celebratory release.