You would think that the ever-restless, searching pianist and composer Satoko Fujii would have performed and collaborated in every possible setting by now, but at least once a year there is a new Fujii release that finds her in a construct she hadn’t previously attempted before. Beyond (Libra Records) is Fujii’s first ever one-on-one with a vibraphone.
That vibraphonist is fellow Japanese native Taiko Saito, a young, up-and-comer who’s spent virtually her entire adult life in Germany. This record will likely be a lot of people’s introduction to Saito and they should be prepared to listen without any preconceptions because she doesn’t kowtow to set rules about how a vibraphone should be played. Like Fujii, she is capable of wringing all kinds of interesting sonorities from her instrument, a lot of which are completely foreign to it but are creatively done for the sake of art.
From the very first moment, it’s clear that Saito isn’t your typical vibes player, “Molecular” opens with a comforting, drone-like sound resembling those Tibetan meditation bowls. Fujii very gently eases herself in with a prepared piano that offers up the perfect counterpoint. Saito uses her vibraphone as a percussive instrument “Proliferation” as Fujii rummages around on the lower end of her piano’s range. Saito finally wrings notes from her vibes but even then she hits the bars in ways to get uncommon timbres from them.
Even more alien noises are created during “Todokanai Tegami,” a creaking sound as Fujii strums the strings of her piano and later, notes ring without the sound of mallet strikes as Fujii carries out a pretty melody. Those creaking sounds continue on “Beyond” while Fujii plays a series of chords widely spaced apart, as if to give Taiko the room to breathe.
“On The Road” is the first track where Saito reminds me of another vibes player at all, where there are echoes of Gary Burton. But Burton & Corea never sounded as free as these two do even on this song, and the chemistry between this pair getting together to record in the middle of their first-ever tour together is already comparable to that of the older masters.
“Ame No Ato” is a song of varying intensity and every little modulation in that intensity is done with tight cohesion, evidence that the two are listening very closely to each other. The same is true for “Mobius Loop,” even when it enters a massive, free-form vortex.
The piano/vibraphones duo isn’t exactly a new concept, but Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito take that concept to places it’s never been before. The exotic places they visit make Beyond a trip well worth taking.
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