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Satoko Fujii: Piano Music
by Karl Ackermann
The solo piano works of Satoko Fujii often summon an ethereal ensemble of sounds. Prepared, or in its natural state, her piano speaks as a proxy for the always searching composer/improviser. Fujii's recordings are an ongoing stream of themes based on the here and now for an artist who does not fit neatly into any category. The loss of close band members, her kanreki (sixtieth birthday celebration), the pandemic, and her personal emergence, are all refrains that inform her creative ...
read moreSakoto Fujii: Moon on the Lake
by Mike Jurkovic
Vanguard pianist/thinker Sakoto Fujii must work long hours to create so much music with so much attention to detail. The minutiae can be heroic swaths of vivid color or rumbling infidelities. Stumbling blocks or apex. You just never know. You can start right here at Moon On the Lake and get the whole thrilling story. Created live at Tokyo's famous Pit Inn and working with her first trio since 2013's Spring Storm (Libra), the music heard on Moon ...
read moreSatoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace
by Karl Ackermann
The profusion of settings in which multi-instrumentalist/composer Satoko Fujii works is something of a phenomenon. The extent to which she brings something unique to each of those situations is even more astounding. In her husband Natsuki Tamura's Gato Libre quartet, Fujii typically plays the accordion to interpret the trumpeter's more lyrical and folkloric compositions. The pair has also recorded frequently as a piano/trumpet duo, often pushing the boundaries of modern improvisation. But it is in Fujii's orchestras--New York, Berlin and, ...
read moreSatoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace
by Budd Kopman
If pianist Satoko Fujii is known for anything, it is for the enormous amount of energy that she brings to her work, plus the pace she maintains with groups scattered all over the world. Her latest offering, Peace, with her Tokyo Orchestra was recorded in 2014, as was Ichigo Ichie (her Berlin Orchestra), Uminari (the Kaze quartet) and Yamiyo Ni Karasu (the Tobira quartet), making for quite a year. Peace is a tribute to guitarist Kelly ...
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