Ryoko Akama: Songs for a Shed

With Songs for a Shed being the seventh Another Timbre album that Ryoko Akama has appeared on—either as player, composer or both, dating back to 2014's Next to Nothing alongside Bruno Duplant and Dominic Lash—she is certainly an established member of the label's "family." That is borne out by the fact that this album's compositions were commissioned by the label and Apartment House pianist Philip Thomas in autumn 2019, the second commission from the label for the ensemble, following in the wake of the one which resulted in 2019's Dial 45-21-95 performed by Apartment House.

As Another Timbre's Simon Reynell wanted all of the works to be pitch-based, and Akama did not understand enough to write or communicate with traditional notation, it was planned that she and Thomas—who live close to each other—would work together, as a learning zone for her. However, before that could happen, Thomas became ill and so Siwan Rhys, who took over on piano in Apartment House, took over the role of mentoring Akama. For that reason, Songs for a Shed bears the legend "This CD is for Philip Thomas." Because of Covid, when Akama started to work with Rhys, it was only on Zoom, not in person, and not for long enough. Nonetheless, once Akama showed her scores to the pianist, apart from some small corrections Rhys was positive and supportive.

With the exception of the album's opening track, "ichi go ichi e" (a Japanese phrase meaning "when it happens, it happens, and when it goes, it goes") all of the pieces have pitch-based scores. The tracks range from two solo piano pieces, through a piano and vibes duo up to a quintet and two sextets, with Rhys featuring on every track. Listening to the nine minutes of that opening track, which is the duo, it is not at all obvious that it does not have a pitch-based score; it is undoubtedly down to the experience and skill of Rhys and Simon Limbrick on vibes that their two instruments fit together perfectly and intertwine in the best traditions of such duos.

Just as beguiling is the ten-and-a-half minute "Melody," the first of the sextets; here, credit is due to Akama for allowing enough space and time for each instrument to be clearly heard without overcrowding or clutter. Next up, the first of Rhys' solo piano pieces, "10 days' etude," was written across ten days, described as follows by Akama, "The first day, this section's created. The next day, I created another one. There wasn't much continuity; it was like, okay, I did that yesterday, I need to follow it up..." As before, credit is due to Rhys for making such a haphazardly created piece sound coherent and integrated.

To summarize, Songs from a Shed is a varied and highly listenable seventy minutes for which credit is equally due to Akama and Apartment House. Roll on Another Timbre's third commission for Akama to write for the ensemble.