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The Squid's Ear Magazine

Saito, Naoko

The Moon In Diffuse Reflection

Saito, Naoko: The Moon In Diffuse Reflection (Armageddon Nova)

Japanese alto-saxophonist Naoko Saito living in Tokyo presents a full solo effort, shaping airy subtones, soft breath, and tentative melodic fragments into a ghostly, introspective soundscape - a contemplative and quietly expressive improvisational voice that marks her emergence as a distinctive new presence on the Deathrash Armageddon roster.
 

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Naoko Saito-alto saxophone

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Label: Armageddon Nova
Catalog ID: AN-R 11
Squidco Product Code: 36995

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: Japan
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at Studio Penta Shibuya Cityside, in Shibuya, Japan, on September 10th, 2025.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

Naoko Saito is a Japanese alto-saxophonist and free improviser whose work has appeared on the imprint Deathrash Armageddon / Armageddon Nova. Her profile rose through her participation on the 2020 compilation The Region of Braille Respiration, contributing the track "A Song 0923." According to the label and the discography for her debut solo project, she has since relocated to New York.

Her music embraces a lyrical yet spontaneous approach to alto sax improvisation: on the comp track she offered a playful, melody-driven solo featuring tempered momentum shifts, restrained overblows and bursts of breathy flutter, resisting the kind of extreme noise tactics sometimes associated with "free improv," and instead building a gently expressive, personal voice.

Though information remains limited, Saito's emergence - first on a compilation, now with a dedicated solo release - positions her as a promising voice in the often underrepresented field of female-led saxophone improvisation, and a bridge between Japanese and global free jazz circuits.

-Squidco 1/14/2026

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


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
Asian Improvisation & Jazz
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Improvised Music
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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC

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