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"Shiroku" is the first of two tracks from Piano Music by pianist/composer Satoko Fujii (September 17, 2021, Libra Records).

On this uncommon album, Fujii edits together short pre-recorded snippets of her prepared piano music to create a patchwork palette of utterly unique sonorities, emerging with two extended pieces of otherworldly piano sounds and melodies. The process involved recording short improvisations on single themes then transferring them into a music editing app in order to structure the larger works. "Putting together the small parts into a larger picture was just like improvising," says Fujii.

"Shiroku," which means "white" in Japanese, takes its time unfolding, with sustained drones connecting sequences of sounds and tones. Richly textured notes, soft waves of white noise, and rhythmic tinkling ebb and flow like a mysterious natural process.
 
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Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. “Across all of Fujii’s work, contradictions come into balance; though her music is abstract and sometimes wild, each element shimmers with clarity,” writes Giovanni Russonello in his New York Times feature article. “In situations large and small, her tender attention to detail is equaled by her ability to convey enormous breadth and textural range.”  In concert and nearly 100 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock, and folk musics into an innovative style instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific band leader and recording artist, she celebrated her 60th birthday in 2018 by releasing one album a month from bands old and new, from solo to large ensemble. Franz A. Matzner in All About Jazz likened the twelve albums to “an ecosystem of independently thriving organisms linked by the shared soil of Fujii's artistic heritage and shaped by the forces of her creativity.”
 
Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their eighth recording, Keshin, earlier this year. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz. As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, Fujii has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”

Piano Music

Shiroku - Satoko Fujii

"Habana's Dream" is the opening track from Mosaic by pianist and composer Satoko Fujii and her trio This Is It! featuring drummer Takashi Itani and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. (November 19, 2021, Libra Records).

Mosaic was made during the global Covid-19 pandemic, in real time with one band member in a remote location. With Itani 400 miles away in a Tokyo suburb and Fujii and Tamura at home together in Kobe, they overcame technical and artistic challenges to capture the buoyant, interactive spirit of their live performances. 

“This pandemic pushed me to find new ways to create that I have never tried before,” Fujii says. “Nothing can stop us from making music!” While the trio was not deterred from their creativity, they did face new challenges. “I had to consciously concentrate more on listening,” says Fujii. “If we play in the same room, listening is as natural as breathing, I’m almost unaware that I’m doing it. But on the internet, it was not like breathing. My ears worked like listening carefully to another language; it required a little extra effort.” The album bubbles over with the joy of music making and the sheer delight the musicians take in challenging and supporting one another.

The musicians play with fierce urgency on “Habana’s Dream,” feeding off each other in a multi-layered ensemble performance. It features Fujii at her most percussive and explosive, with Tamura and Itani alternating brilliant flashes of sound and color with darker, grittier passages.

Mosaic

Habana's Dream - Satoko Fujii

"Underground" is the title track from an album by the duo Futari featuring pianist and composer Satoko Fujii and mallet virtuoso Taiko Saito. (November 19, 2021, Libra Records).

Half a world away from each other, the two artists recaptured the delicate intensity of their duo. After the pandemic prevented an in-person reunion during a planned European tour, Fujii and Saito agreed to carry on by exchanging sound files over the Internet. Although the format is remote, the resulting music is as intimate and compelling as their debut album, Beyond, which was recorded live in the studio. 

“I know many musicians and fans may think that we cannot make true music this way,” Fujii says. “But I think this is just another way that we can make true music. We can fix all the notes before we play, we can improvise, and we can exchange music files online to make music. Actually, the reason I love music is because we can approach it in many ways. Music is 200-percent open to any approach you take to it. It is real, free art.”    

Together, Fujii and Saito create a sonic world unlike any other, a beautiful, enigmatic space where conventional distinctions between sound and musical note, between timbre and melody, between spontaneous and composed, blur and fuse into a single visionary statement. 

So close are their interactions that it’s often hard to tell what instrument—piano or vibraphone—is making the music. "Underground," the slowly pulsing, richly detailed title track has a massive sound presence, with textures and cryptic melodies playing across its surface.

Underground

Underground - Satoko Fujii

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composed by Dave Samuels + David Friedman 
arr. by Taiko Saito

Berlin Mallet Group
Julius Heise : Vibraphone
Hauke Renken : Marimba
Raphael Meinhart : Marimba
Taiko Saito : Marimba

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This track is from the album Treelines and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hobsonschoice

The Shape of the River

"Molecular" is the first track from Satoko Fujii's album "Beyond," out January 22, 2021 via Libra Records. 

"Beyond," the recorded debut of Futari, a duo of pianist-composer Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito, features lyrical intensity from two fearless explorers of new sounds. The combination of piano and vibes is an uncommon one, but Fujii and Saito navigate the new terrain of their collaboration with imagination and a spirit of adventure.

Futari (which means "two people" in Japanese) has been 15 years in the making. Fujii and Saito first met when Fujii was performing in Berlin and Saito was still a student at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

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Yoriemusic Marimba & Vibraphone

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