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.
"Guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama is an influential improviser who performs inside and outside Japan and has numerous CD releases on Japanese and overseas labels. The five tracks on this CD are improvisational performances by the trio of Akiyama and Swedish musicians Magnus Granberg and Henrik Olsson, studio-recorded when Akiyama visited Stockholm in November 2013. Magnus Granberg is active as a composer through projects such as his own ensemble, Skogen, and as an improviser using mainly the clarinet. Percussionist Henrik Olsson incorporates non-instrument objects, electronics and other elements in creating new types of sonic resonance. On this CD, Akiyama uses acoustic guitar; Granberg, clarinet; and Olsson, percussion, contact microphones, mixing board and loudspeakers. Each musician plays quietly and calmly, as if carefully selecting each sound he produces. These exquisitely spun sounds overlap and sometimes pause for breath."-Ftarri
"The trio disc by Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar), Magnus Granberg (clarinet) and Henrik Olsson (percussion, contact microphones, mixing board and loudspeakers) is as radical as the previous one by Kerbaj and Nakamaru, but also something entirely different. The five pieces here were recorded in November 2013 and while these pieces have nothing of the more extreme sonic richness, neither the bursting nor cracking of energy, the mood here is controlled and slow. Akiyama plucks his strings in a rather minimal way, While Granberg's clarinet sometimes sounds like sine waves; and probably feedback, so I was thinking. If Olsson plays contact microphones and loudspeakers I wouldn't be surprised to learn that as part of his work he picks up the sound by the other players and feeds recordings of these back in the overall playing. This leads to the somewhat feedback like sound that one sometimes hears here and that leads to a different kind of radicalism in sound. Of course I might be entirely wrong and it is all in my mind and Olsson plays a much different role, and yes, I do hear his percussion as well. The sound comes, perhaps strangely enough, across as something very acoustic, very direct and surely picked up with some great microphones, which leads occasionally to some surprise sounds up close to the listener. This was all rather excellent."-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly