After 13 years together, international co-operative quartet Kaze make their first completely improvised album.

Featuring Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Christian Pruvost, and Peter Orins, Unwritten releases February 9th, 2024 via Circum/Libra.

Kaze, the co-operative quartet featuring Japanese composer-pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura along with French trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, have released their first completely improvised album in their 13-year history.

For them it was not such a big stretch though. In fact, our compositions for Kaze have always been pretexts for improvisation, says Orins. Having played a mix of written music and free improvisation for so many years, leaves us a strong consciousness of structure, and in the end I think it’s hard to tell that what we play on Unwritten is only improvised.

1. Thirteen Years (36:50)
2. We Waited (17:25)
3. Evolving (8:30)

From a stylistic point of view and embedded throughout with some quite stunning, and for the most part, spontaneous improvisations, the album opens on the sonicly empowered, and equally balanced musical shapes that come to the fore on the 36 minute long opus Thirteen Years, and then we get brought forth the capriciously moody, 17 minute We Waited (where her somber, wistful piano provides a definitive arc throughout), the closing track being the undeviatingly, at first, but soon elevating, rising whirling compilations within the 8 minute Evolving.

www.satokofujii.com

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