Bungalow: Unseen Scenes

Jazz of Japan #149 • May 14, 2022 • Brian McCrory

Like explorers on a caravan, Bungalow produces imaginative music on their third album Unseen Scenes from 2015, carving their unique path through new jazz and rhythms.

Compulsively rhythmic and compelling, this album is another fantastical journey through the nooks and crannies of modern jazz with exotic fringes. With Bungalow, creativity is in focus, and on Unseen Scenes this creativity often incorporates repeating riffs and loops of fresh drum patterns and evocative moods. Strands of music weave together to provide the fabric over which saxophone melodies arc and swoop. A combination of dense flavors, spicy accents, and lush spaces with some straight-ahead modern jazz as well.

Notable tracks include the modern “Gauge”, the European fusion “Astir”, the grand “Dancing Elephant”, and “Bombay Duck” with pleasant sounds of the tabla drum. The final track “Respective Scene” also introduces a new side to Bungalow, where the sounds of electronic knocking, static, whirring, and beeps create a soundscape as the other instruments vamp slowly.

Unseen Scenes by Bungalow

• Mike Rivett - tenor sax, electronics
• Koichi Sato - piano
• Hiroshi Ikejiri - bass
• Ko Omura - drums, tabla

Released in 2015 on Studio Songs as YZSO-10057.

Japanese names: Koichi Sato 佐藤浩一 Hiroshi Ikejiri 池尻洋史 Ko Omura 大村亘

Audio and Video