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Itaru, Oki / Leena Circus: Zanshin (Improvising Beings)

The Leena Circus trio of Antoine Letellier on sax, trumpet & guitar, Nicolas Moulin on guitar, and Guillaume Arbonville on drums, joins with trumpeter Itaru Oki for an album of open-ended and downright psychedelic free improvisation, a superb achievement in creative music.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Itaru Oki-trumpet, flugelhorn, flutes

Antoine Letellier-saxophone, trumpet, guitar

Nicolas Moulin-guitar

Guillaume Arbonville-drums


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UPC: 641243280301

Label: Improvising Beings
Catalog ID: ib45
Squidco Product Code: 22007

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: France
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at Le Chalet Studio, Reims, France, February 17th, 2015 by Julien Jacquin.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"One thing you can be sure of when it comes to releases on France's Improvising Beings label. You are NOT going to get anything that has been watered down. You are going to get something on the edge of modern avant improvised music. This is most certainly the case with their album by the group Leena Circus with Itaru Oki, Zanshin (Improvising Beings ib 45).

It is a dedicated quartet on a cosmic jaunt into the nether regions of space, free music that manages to be very electric and non-compromising. It is a well-rounded assemblage of Itaru Oki on trumpet and flugel, Antoine Letellier on electric guitar, sax and trumpet, Nicolas Moulin on electric guitar, and Guillaume Arbonville on drums. Oki is the especially accomplished improvisor of the four, with excellent inventions here. But then the other three make a kind of joyful noise that gives this music a grand expanse, with the electricity of the guitars, the continual outward orbital thrust of the drums, and the sax and secondtrumpet effusions of Letellier when he is not playing the guitar.

There are times when the band occupies a somewhat cavernous aural space and the music becomes soundscaped. And there are other times when there is a more-or-less directly dry matter-of-fact sound. But either way Lena Circus makes a focused and consistently interesting go of it all, sometimes a kind of concerted free space for Oki and caverned psychedelicized "orchestra," other times a equal four-way ensemble sound. It is music that gains traction as you hear it more than once, like the best kind of advanced music. It got my attention more each time I heard it. And in the end I must say that I ended up admiring the music a great deal."-Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review


Get additional information at Gapplegate Music Review

Artist Biographies

"Itaru Oki (沖至) was born in Suma-Ku, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan on 10th September 1941. Oki Itaru was raised in a rich musical environment; his father was a player of the Shakuhachi (Japanese vertical flute) and his mother was a master of the Koto (Japanese horizontal harp) of the Ikuta School. He started to play the trumpet in his high school brass band before playing in a Dixieland style band and then in a bop band. In the late 1960's, the trumpeter began playing free jazz. He changed his place of performance from Kansai (a western area of Japan) to Tokyo in 1965. After improving his skill in many groups, he joined an experimental unit "ESSG" of Togashi Masahiko and Sato Masahiko. Oki made his first tour to Europe with the ESSG in 1969. After being back from Europe, he formed the Oki Itaru Trio, which later grew into a quartet. In June 1974, he moved to Paris, France. After living in Lyon for a while, he moved back to Paris in December 1999. Until the present, Oki has continually performed at concerts and festivals in France and various other countries in Europe."

-Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/music/Itaru+Oki/+wiki)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Doomo Doomo 14:15

2. Ou Est Moi 4:09

3. Misu No Kokoro 4:15

4. Caravane 11:32

5. Like Someone In Love 4:38

6. Dusty 4:48

7. Eau Rouge 5:21

8. Love For Sale 6:15

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Japanese & Asian Improv/Rock
Quartet Recordings
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Search for other titles on the label:
Improvising Beings.


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