Expanding their instruments into sonic sculpture, this first meeting between acclaimed Japanese improvisers Satoko Fujii, performing inside and out of the piano, and electric guitarist Otomo Yoshihide, demonstrates their incredible compatibly as heard in these live recordings at Tokyo's Pit Inn, part of an annual festival organized by Fujii & trumpeter Natsuki Tamura.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2023 Country: France Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels Recorded at the Pit Inn, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, on January 10th, 2022, by Takanori Terabe.
"Perpetual Motion" is the perfectly chosen title for the music performed, 'cause the beginning doesn't seem as the start of the recording. It looks like the musicians were already been playing together for a while before the recording button was pressed. So is also the end! It has the same alienated and haunting atmosphere as the beginning and doesn't seem like an end. Has this music a beginning or an end anyway? In any case, a lot happens between those 2 'moments' that are about 47 minutes apart. To keep the system of the perpetual motion going, one cannot act independently from the other. When there is the slightest change in pace or intensity generated by one musician, the partner has no other choice than to follow/explore the chosen path. The partners have to be musically intertwined very closely."-John Sax, liner notes
"Though prolific musicians, each in their own right, this is their first work as a duo. They are noted as two of the most significant and commended artists in new, Japanese music: it is not surprising that they should decide to play together. Emerging in the 90s, their decades of practice have generated fully articulate styles and reveal confidence in their playing and their commanding musical personalities. Perpetual MotionÕs reach is extensive and the duoÕs approach ever obdurate. They and their music are brimming with surprises.
The title of the album suggests a theme for the duoÕs approach and itÕs true that this music doesnÕt stand still, nor in fact do the musicians. They listen, contemplate and respond to each other at warp speed and with the intensity one comes to expect of true improvisors, playing off each other with paralleled passion and profundity. Her piano and his guitar seem similarly attuned, as at times they sound as if they have swapped personalities, or that at least there really only has been one instrument present. Such a virtuoso parade of formidable authority and delicacy outlines the presence of both astonishing musical fecundity and technical aptitude.
The result is that the duo has demonstrated that the techniques often used in producing freely improvised music are not an end in their selves but are employed in the production of music which has a different well for its source, a different inclination and ultimately, a different kind of comprehension."-Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views