Melodies: Melodies
Melodies: Melodies
Jazz of Japan #315 • Jun 22, 2025 • Brian McCrory
The band Melodies released their self-titled debut album in January 2025, under the leadership of guitarist and composer Motohiko Ichino. Ichino’s music is rooted in his otherworldly compositions and full-bodied guitar tone, a structure that Melodies expands upon with two entwining saxophones and adventurously roaming drums.
This four-member group consists of Ichino on guitar and baritone guitar, Kenta Tsugami on alto saxophone, Minyen Hsieh on tenor saxophone, and Akira Sotoyama on drums. As this quartet has no bass player, they form a subtly floating, bass-less group sound. Yet Ichino’s guitar work fills up the space nicely, especially when he subs in baritone guitar. All of the songs on Melodies were written by Ichino, and the album was recorded at a live performance at Velvet Sun in Tokyo on June 24, 2024.
The eight songs on Melodies share a front-to-back sonorous quality built on Ichino’s signature electric guitar sound. It’s warm, mellow, and suffused with undistracting effects with a warble that is more felt than heard. It’s a very effective tone that, combined with Ichino’s melodious presence, works so well with the type of songwriting he produces.
With guitar and drums proving the framework for the music, out front, the two saxes split and coil, fork and unite, like tendrils rising from harmonies and rhythms. Much of the time, Ichino’s chordal movements and arpeggiated riffs set the scene, and his rhythm section partner Akira Sotoyama provides an incredibly interesting mix of solid rhythmic reinforcement and off-the-grid ornamentation on drums. Sotoyama leaves the strongest time pulses and placement to the guitarist, knowing when to reinforce Ichino’s pulse by joining in with accents, and when to let go and contrast with the guitar framework with a bass drum thud, a splash of cymbal, or a stagger on a tom drum and anything else within striking distance. The calm seas of guitar and frisson of drums combine, swelling and swaying like waves in a meditative rhythmic dance. Then, the two saxes dip and jump in acrobatic orientation, one moment together and another apart, twining and alive on the written melodies and individual improvisations.
A brief overview of the album flow: Opening track #1 “Conversation and Confession” is dreamy, ambient and catchy. #2 “First Dance” is a solid pretty waltz. #3 “Peace” is rumbling free group improv with rising tension leading to a great Ornette-style group statement at the end. #4 “Elephant Ride” is serious, exploratory and moody, an album highlight.
Track #5 “Spring” has the muted hopefulness of a timid flower blossoming slowly, wide-open and bright. #6 “Solid/Liquid” is another highlight with repeated chordal statements and cycles that transform into reversed echoes, sci-fi signals, and an ascending melodic liftoff. #7 “Tiny Little Waltz” is all flexible, hummable, dreamlike blurs and innocent smiles. Finally, the cute melodies repeated in #8 “Nice People” are a cheerful farewell, moderated, patient, and kind.
Melodies by Melodies
- Motohiko Ichino - guitar, baritone guitar
- Kenta Tsugami - alto saxophone
- Minyen Hsieh - tenor saxophone (#1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8)
- Akira Sotoyama - drums
Released in 2025 on Ammonite Musique as AM-006.
Names in Japanese: 市野元彦 Ichino Motohiko 津上研太 Tsugami Kenta 謝明諺 Hsieh Minyen 外山明 Sotoyama Akira
Related Albums
- Koichi Sato: Embryo (2021)
- Motohiko Ichino: Sketches (2007)
- Rabbitoo: The Torch (2016)
- Ryosuke Hashizume Group: Incomplete Voices (2017)
- Takumi Seino & Motohiko Ichino: Frozen Dust (2011)
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