Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura - Ki (Libra, 2025)

By Stef Gijssels

This year we are blessed with several trumpet-piano albums. There is the excellent duet between Sylvie Courvoisier and Wadada Leo Smith on "Angel Falls", and the excellent duets between Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura. 

I guess that "Ki" is their tenth duo album, out of the few dozen on which they perform in other ensembles. Over the years, their art has become more precise, more symbiotic, as if playing as one. "Ki" in Japanese means 'energy' or 'life force', but it can also mean 'wood'. All the title tracks on this album refer to trees, so we could assume that the two meanings of the word are possible, and they are penned by Tamura, except for the last track - "Dan's Ocean Side Listening Post" - which obviously does not refer to a tree and which is composed by Fujii. 

The music on this album is quiet, meditative, intimate. And in contrast to "Aloft", reviewed below, Tamura does not use extended techniques on his trumpet, staying well within the clarity of tone you expect from the instrument. Tamura explains: “This time, I wanted to play the entire album with the same atmosphere. The image of that atmosphere was of standing dignified in clear air. I wrote my seven songs in two days, so I was able to maintain that image. I just thought about the world I wanted to create.”

The atmosphere is further created by Fujii's sparse piano playing. It is less dense, with less dramatic energy as on her other albums. Like Japanese drawings, the sparsity of the sounds and the silences in between are an integral part of the whole. Fujii comments: “It was not easy for me to play it because the music forces me to play less than I usually do. At first, I wasn’t comfortable playing that way because it was so new to me!” There are even long moments when the trumpet is the only instrument to be heard. 

The album's strength is the wonderful coherence of all compositions, their lyrical and poetic quality and of course the excellent playing and interaction of both artists. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Natsuki Tamura & Satoko Fuji - Aloft (Libra, 2024)

"Aloft" is a different album from "Ki", and could almost be its mirror image. Even if all tracks are improvised, it is often Fujii's piano that sets the tone, builds the structure and brings the pieces to their closing. Her skills at composing on the spot are exceptional, and for some tracks it truly is hard to believe that they are improvised. While Fujii's compositional freedom gives the foundational structure, Tamura's trumpet playing acts as like a bird being kept aloft in the wind. His trumpet soars, yet he also resorts to many extended techniques, muffled sounds, squeezed sounds, stuttering sounds, oppressed and whispering sounds, as well as shouting and singing through his brass. 

All tracks have received titles referring to bird flight, and it's an apt imagery for the music, even if the titles were not used for inspiration but were added to the music many months later, once a selection of their improvisation session had been made. Fujii once told me that her music was not inspired by visual imagery, after I said to her that this was my impression, as you can easily picture natural sceneries when listening to her music, and this album is not different, but who is right: the artist or the art lover? 

“We just decided to play something,” says Fujii. “Natsuki listens to me very carefully and respects my playing so much but he has a very different sensibility and means of expression.” Tamura adds, “We listen carefully to each other, but at the same time we both understand that contrast and surprise are also important.” The liner notes add: "After being married for 36 years and sharing countless projects, they didn't even need to plan for it or bring any written material. They just let inspiration guide them through various improvisations."

The music was recorded on December 13, 2023 at Samurai Hotel, New York City, which is actually a recording studio and not a hotel.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura - Kazahana (Libra, 2025)

"Kazahana" - their eleventh duo album - brings us two fully improvised lengthy pieces, the first clocking at 18 minutes, the second at 33 minutes. Maybe because of their length, or maybe because they're fully improvised in a live environment, the sound is much rawer than on the two other records in this review. The music expands, there's tension, contradictions in style and mood, and the length of the pieces allows for developments, for unfolding narratives that need not be contained to a structure or a pattern. There are long moments of solo time for each of them, not in the sense to show off their skills, but rather as natural evolutions of the music itself. 

Both artists are deeply attuned to each other's styles, preferences, and responses, resulting in an interaction that is not only remarkably coherent but also a joy to witness in its spontaneous co-creation. Interestingly, near the end of the second piece, it is Tamura who introduces a repetitive phrase, offering a steady framework over which Fujii improvises with a distinctly modern classical sensibility.

The music was recorded during a live performance on December 25, 2024 at Koendori Classics, Shibuya, Tokyo. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.