Yuji Takahashi, Roger Turner / Live at Aoshima Hall
[IMA Shizuoka, ima-szok03] CD, US$24.00

1. Duo Improvisation 1
2. Duo Improvisation 2
3. Encore

Yuji Takahashi (piano), Roger Turner (drums, percussions)
Recorded Live on December 15, 2019

Harutaka Mochizuki, Makoto Kawashima / Free Wind Mood
[An'archives, AN14] 12inch anlog (LP), US$30.00

Harutaka Mochizuki (alto sax)
Makoto Kawashima (alto sax)

During the past decade, a number of free music players in Japan have fiercely, with no compromise, continued to grapple with the questions that lay at the heart of the solo saxophone recital: how to tease and tear new formations out of the interface between human breath, human flesh and skeleton, and the instrument itself, its keys, holes, pads, reed, and brass body.
With Free Wind Mood, An'archives splits one vinyl record down the middle, giving a side each to two of the most rigorous, exciting, and committed players from the scene: Harutaka Mochizuki and Makoto Kawashima.
While there are elements of their playing that places them in a history of Japanese free blowing, from Kaoru Abe through Masayoshi Urabe to now, they both have a singular voice: Harutaka more stringent and tart, Kawashima, perhaps, more melancholy. Tellingly, they've both intersected with rock music and free sound ensembles, with Kawashima working alongside Nishizawa Naoto of EXIAS-J (Experimental Improvisers' Association of Japan), while Harutaka has worked in a duo Tomoyuki Aoki of psych-rock group Up-Tight, and guitarist Kondo Hideaki (also of EXIAS-J).
But both of them have made their most massive strides forward with their own solo releases, Kawashima's potent Homo Sacer one of the final releases on PSF, and Harutaka's Pas LP and Through The Glass CD exploring new terrain for the nexus of breath and brass. Moving on from those releases, Free Wind Mood is a devastating listening experience, blood and guts on the floor as the players fully inhabit the architecture of the space, and of the self, and play like their lives depend on it.
Jon Dale

V.A. / Saxophone Anatomy
[Armageddon Nova, AN-R6] CD, US$18.00

1. Self-destruct machine / Lao Dan (alto saxophone)
2. River Remains River / Rick Countryman (alto saxophone)
3. Homerton / Colin Webster (baritone saxophone)

Three saxophone improvisation.
The performance by Lao Dan in a shelter was superb.

The Principles of Music (book, written in Japanese)
[ARTES publishing] book, US$120.00

witten by KONDO Hideaki

* purchase from this website, you'll get a special CD (solo guitar written & performed by the auther himself).

published in 2016.

MOCHIZUKI Harutaka / Through the glass
[Armageddon Nova, AN-R5] CD, US$23.00

MOCHIZUKI Harutaka (alto saxophone)

Recorded at Shizuoka Ezaki Hall, 03 June 2016.
Mochizuki's new album is solo saxophone performance. His playing style is peculiar and has a Japanese emotion. His performance makes a huge music drama over a long time.

YANAGAWA Yoshinori (Homei) / 2016
[Gokuonsha, GO-09] CD, US$23.00

YANAGAWA Homei (alto saxophone),
NIIDA Bungo (electric bass #1), FUJITA Ryo (drums #1), Meg (drums #2), YODA Takumi (percussion/electronics #3), SATO Shigeru (electric bass & bass-taishogoto #4), ISHII Masanori (drums #4), OOBA Akie (cover art)

1. Naked Soul (23:14)
2. Hyper Fuetaico (10:55)
3. Dual Expansion (20:05)
4. Break Open (22:41)

YANAGAWA is a very famous free-form saxophone player in japan. The freeform music scene of Nagoya (one of the cities in west Japan) is formed around him. This recorded a collaboration with him and a young musician. It is very energeticand chaotic. Recorded in 2016.

YANAGAWA Yoshinori & MoQ / Grind the air
[Gokuonsha, GO-07] CD, US$23.00

YANAGAWA Yoshinori (alto saxophone), MoQ (alto saxophone)

YANAGAWA is a very famous free-form saxophone player in japan. This is a free improvisionation by two saxophonists, and it is a very fast and strong performance. Recorded in 2004.

WADADA LEO SMITH and N'DA KULTURE / GOLDEN HEARTS REMEMBRANCE
[Chap-Chap Records, CPCD-002] CD, US$20.00

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Mbira, Nokhan, Flute, Voice, etc)
Glenn Horiuchi (Piano, Shamisen)
William Roper (Tuba)
David Philipson (Bansuri)
Sonship Theus (Dr)
Harumi Makino Smith (Poetry)

Recorded in 1997, Wadada Leo Smith's N'da Kulture has created a music that transcends all forms by integrating many of them into an amorphous yet deeply moving whole. This sextet, which uses Eastern and Western instruments, authors into being a kind of folk music for the emerging century, one that relies deeply on poetry, improvisation, subtleties in tone, timbre, and rhythm.

The six pieces here reflect Smith's ongoing concern with marrying the vanguard jazz tradition he comes from to the history of the ages in Eastern music, particularly the music of Asia. Glenn Horiuchi plays piano and shiamsen, Hakumi Makino Smith reads poetry, William Roper plays tuba, David Philipson plays bansuri and tambura, and Sonship Theus plays drums. All of the works here segue into others, shimmering along with spatial reflections and subtle tonal interaction that relies on the execution of sound as sound rather than as a series of notes to be correctly played in a composition. As a result, soundclashes become sonant washes of envelopment, traces of ghost musics playing in trance and tapestry. There is no one body to this music because it comes from an emptiness, an interconnectedness of approach, technique, conical shape and sound; they sing a resounding yes to the future.

KAWASHIMA Makoto / HOMO SACER
[P.S.F Records, PSFD-211] CD, US$15.00

KAWASHIMA Makoto (alto saxophone)

OHRAI TRIO / SAKURA -ohrai trio live-
[Sakura Records, SICH-3001] CD, US$25.00

HAYASHI Eiichi (alto sax, soprano sax),
SAITOH Tetsu (contrabass etc.),
KOYAMA Shota (drums)

Misha Mengelberg & Sabu Toyozumi / The Untrammeled Traveler
[Chap-Chap Records, CPCD-006] CD, US$20.00

Misha Mengelberg (pf)
Sabu Toyozumi (dr)

Aishi Oyauchi / Hikureteyomohakuraku
[Armageddon Nova, AN-R4] CD, US$23.00

Aishi Oyauchi (curved soprano saxophone)

Recorded at Performing art center, 4 October 2015.
Oyauchi is over 40 years of career saxophonist, and he recently began publishing recording works.

Aishi Oyauchi / wrong exit
[Armageddon Nova, AN-R2-3] 2CDs, US$30.00

Aishi Oyauchi (soprano sax, alto sax, piano)

Recorded at Performing art center, 15 June 2014.
Oyauchi is over 40 years of career saxophonist, and he recently began publishing recording works.