CD
meenna-995
Limited edition of 500
Out on February 15, 2015
Purchase price in Japan: 1,500 yen (tax not included)
(For purchase outside of Japan, prices vary.)
Tetuzi Akiyama: guitar
Jason Kahn: drums
Toshimaru Nakamura: no-input mixing board
Recorded live by Jason Kahn at Ftarri, Tokyo, May 10 (1, 2) and 11 (3, 4), 2014
Mixed by Jason Kahn
Mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura
Design by tanabemse
Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) of Japan and Switzerland-based American drummer Jason Kahn are all leading musicians on the contemporary improvised music scene who perform internationally and have many album releases. The 4 pieces on this CD were performed live by Akiyama, Nakamura and Kahn at Ftarri in Suidobashi, Tokyo, during Kahn's stay in Japan in May 2014. Akiyama's softly resonating guitar makes subtle inroads into the pulsating electronic sounds created by Nakamura and the myriad percussive sounds sent out by Kahn. Permeated with stillness at times, raging stormily at others, their interweaving sounds turn into a living organism that becomes a steadily more detailed and kaleidoscopic as the performances progress.
I've been recording with Toshimaru and Akiyama since 1997 in various collaborations. "between two" is our second CD together as a trio, albeit in somewhat different form with myself on drum set and Akiyama playing acoustic guitar without any electronics. Which isn't to say this is some departure down the road of purism – rather, this was just what we felt like playing this time around. Maybe the next CD – if there is one – will be with completely different instrumentation. The point being, it comes down to the people and not the instruments they play. This constellation of personalities and their histories, running intertwined, parallel, meeting up and departing again. In a sense, much like the sounds we made, placing them in the room, letting them hang in the air for a while, watching them ricochet, collide and fall. Ftarri filled with these sounds and then nothing. A quiet room again. This CD documents two nights of these proceedings, each night two sets. Played before a small and extremely attentive audience, many of whom lingered on long after the last set was over. At which point someone made a run to the convenience store down the block and venerable Ftarri owner Suzuki cleared away some CDs from a table, soon bursting with many cans of beer and chuhai in various stages of degustation, packets of dried squid and fiery wasabi snacks. Always the perfect end to these nights of great music.
Jason Kahn
