There’s a feeling of unbounded youthful abandon balanced with technical precision on this recording, characteristics that were consistent parts of the fuse band and their live shows. Like atomic particles swirling, repelling, and attracting around a shared core and bound together in a tight form, the quartet’s energy was contained by Inoue’s modern compositions and leadership.

There are eight songs included on fuse, all original compositions by Inoue. The band is ablaze right out of the gate with the album opener “The last is the first”, with a group sound that recalls the loose tightness of some 1980s post bop jazz, like Wynton Marsalis’ Black Codes (From the Underground), with its forward-leaning sound. Track #2 “Breathe in-out” is a highlight of sustained moodiness, with a slow opening up during Inoue’s saxophone solo to a Kenny Kirkland-style bursting from Nobumasa Takana on piano.

Track #3 “Kuresaka” is a well-balanced construction in an odd-meter (partially in nine-beat time), where Inoue’s soprano sax shines in an exploratory mood rising from the wide foundation of a spiritual nature. #4 is “Nano Machine”, a very fast swinger over a modified minor blues pattern, where precisely meshed gears are driven towards their limits by the indefatigable propellants of Tsunoken’s drums and Sakai’s bass.

#5 “Apoptosis” is the album’s first of two shorter tunes (this and the last song are under four minutes long, while all other average seven to ten minutes apiece), and it is free jazz ambiance of a sparsely leapfrogging melody, tense folds of piano and bass, and roiling drums. Track #6 “I kin ye” is a jazz waltz played in as a straightforward jazz tune with a style somewhere between the neighborhoods of Bill Evans and Wayne Shorter.

Track #7, “Gratitude”, is one of Inoue’s most famous and adored compositions. The delicate beauty of the song’s melody captivated listeners and became a favorite at live shows. Played as a gentle ballad, Inoue’s tender sound foreshadows a “soft wind” tone that he developed more in later years, as on his solo sax album Vayu and with his Zephyr trio, a band that is itself named for a gentle breeze, poetically.

The last track is #8 “Flood”, another aggressively uptempo swinger like #4 “Nano Machine”. The intro and outro melody are spiral steps leading down to a subterranean maze of free chaos and hellfire where all four members of the quartet unleash their free jazz demons for one final rally before finding the way back out, unified on the melodic theme, and close the session.

Inoue and fuse followed up this album with their next album Grasshopper in 2002 and Live fuse in 2005. Besides fuse, Inoue explored other sides to his writing and playing styles with his other groups and collaborations, including with Clepsydra, Zephyr, a duo with the pianist Hitomi Nishiyama, and many others. He was a quiet but powerful giant in the Japanese jazz scene, and after Inoue’s passing in 2015, there are still “Toshihiko Inoue Songbook”-style tribute performances and occasional fuse live reunions with the remaining members.

Audio and Video

• Toshihiko Inoue Fuse playing “Breathe in-out” and “Zutto”:

• Toshihiko Inoue and Hitomi Nishiyama playing “Witchi-Tai-To”:

• Toshihiko Inoue playing “Giant Steps” at a 1984 jam session:

• Toshihiko Inoue plays ballads:

• Excerpt from track #1: “The last is the first”

Ito’s trio is a piano-bass-percussion combo, and their music is robust and detailed, soulfully rugged. The sounds from Gen Ogimi’s percussion kit are a change from the regular drum kit that is de rigueur for jazz piano trios, and the sounds of hand drums alongside the snare, toms, and cymbals add a lot of character and color to the music. Intuitively linked to the pulse and beat is bassist Benisuke Sakai, who enhances the rhythms through his firmly connected upright bass with both grounded and adventurous playing.

On top of everything is pianist Shikou Ito, whose unrestrained style reflects his professional technique and wide experience with many jazz, pop, and non-genre musicians, not to mention his captivating free solo improvisations on other albums and live performances. On Kakusareta Guwa, Ito’s nine original compositions are filled with atmosphere and mystery. He writes and plays as if he is pulling inspiration from ancient secrets and foreign cultures to fashion new sounds from ethnically rich legends.

For example, through his written melodies, Ito deftly plays twists, ornaments, and scales that, in certain places, seem to have characteristics of Middle Eastern melodies and Latin traditions. Uncommon time signatures with odd meters, extra measures, and interludes are written into his music as well, enhancing the storytelling effect and increasing the musical and rhythmic interest. Ito’s use of prepared piano and damping the piano strings using one hand while playing with the other, adds an extra timbre of metallic shimmering from the altered tones. All together, Trio Syncretia’s playing is rooted in jazz with a vibrant personality aligned towards the image of secret, hidden fables described by the title.

True to the ideal of artistic independence, Ito is uncompromising with his music. Although all his song titles here are in Japanese, just as with the album title, the song titles are also written with English translations on the back cover:

1. echoed under the hazy moon - 朧月に谺す (Oborozuki ni kodama su)
2. star reading dreamscape - 星読みの夢 (Hoshiyomi no yume)
3. the judge and the empress - 審判と女帝 (Shinpan to nyotei)
4. undine’s nocturnes - ウンディーネのノクターン (Undīne no nokutān)
5. sylphes’ rhapsody - シルフォのラプソディー (Shirufo no rapusodī)
6. alchemy fire place - アヌノル（錬金戸）(Anunoru (renkin to))
7. gnome’s elegy - グノームのエレジー (Gunōmu no erejī)
8. salamander’s dance - サラマンドルダンス (Saramandorudansu)
9. searching for tweeting birds - 鳴鳥を探して (Meichō o sagashite)

Themes from these titles include nature, fantasy, and musical ideas, but taken as a whole, the tales told through allegorical stories-shaded are evocative and, just like Trio Syncretia’s music, absorbing and thrilling.

Audio and Video

• Studio recording from Shikou Ito Trio Syncretia’s 2017 album 毒ある寓話 (Doku aru guwa) from 2018:

• A dance set to music by Trio Syncretia:

• “Take the A Train” (Shikou Ito solo piano):

• “Everything Happens to Me” (Shikou Ito solo piano):

• Excerpt from track #1: “朧月に谺す (Look at the Moon)”

This two-disc album was recorded live in 2005 and captures provocative dynamic changes and soul-touching music swinging from tender pianissimo to fortissimo over vigorous drum beats and rhythm section riffs.

The ornamental twists and organic jams aim to thrill the audience and avoid falling into ruts. While Inoue provides all the compositions, the members reinterpret and occupy the music live, mixing together and shaping the music in performance in a fusion of influence, a tightrope walk of unpredictability.

As the ‘Fuse’ from fusion may imply, jazz and rock energy permeates this fiery music, yet is well-balanced with serene moments of graceful and meditative themes, as well with some unconstrained portions of free jazz.

Each disc contains four tracks with lengthy running times, a true live performance with musicians seizing and extending moments to stretch out creatively. The first set opens with a strong hook and dramatic burners on high with a multi-part suite ”Birth of Life/I Kin Ye”, followed by the refined, introspective ”Watasuge”, groove-riffs and churning bass on ”North Rider”, and the unifying rallying cry of “Witchi-Tai-To”, a tribute to one of Inoue’s influences, the great soprano saxophonist Jan Garbarek.

Disc two features four more extended tracks: the straight-forward and playfully multi-faceted “Grasshopper”, the evocative poem-like scenery of “Yoshi-Ga-Daira”, the funky exuberance of “Fireworks”, and the minimal framework of “Flood” sustaining the onrush of free group expression.

This album is the third and final Fuse release with the original members. Sadly, Toshihiko Inoue passed away in 2015, yet the remaining members continue to perform live reunions and tributes to the great saxophonist.

Audio and Video

• Video of Toshihiko Inoue performing with Fumio Karashima’s group:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Grasshopper”

Links

• Fuse jazz