This Franco-Japanese quartet has been together for quite a while and its members have also worked together in various off-shoots but this is the first recording they have made which is totally freely improvised – hence the album title.
The 36-minute Thirteen Years is an epic sonic journey that passes through tranquil glades, wild maelstroms and many stations in between, exploring various unconventional instrumental techniques along the way. The piece resolves via a beautiful and reassuring passage by Fujii that is eventually subsumed into an agitated rolling coda, with the trumpets again rebounding off each other.
We Waited opens with gentle pastoral piano, commented on by vocalised sounds from the brass that grow in intensity and draw in busy percussion, with Fujii discreetly holding everything together with serene aplomb.
Evolving is essentially a percussion solo, gradually underpinned by piano and finally joined by the brass for a chirpy conclusion.
Discography
Thirteen Years; We Waited; Evolving (62.49)
Christian Pruvost (t, flh); Natsuki Tamura (t, v); Satoko Fujii (p); Peter Orins (d). Lille, 14 May 2023.
(Circum Libra 207)
