As the title reveals, the songs on this album are duets played by Sekiya with one other musician. That is, each song is performed by a duo of piano and bass, or piano and drums, or piano and sax, and so on. Sekiya plays two songs a piece with each of her eight guests, another link to the overall duality theme that references the number two. Her guests include three bassists (Michihiro Morisada, Megumi Otsuka, and Masaki Kai), two saxophonists (Taiichi Kamimura and Tsutomu Takei), a guitarist (Suomi Morishita), a vocalist (Yuzumi Tanimukai), and a drummer (Jin Mitsuda).

Along with the dual perspectives, a similar division can be found in Sekiya’s music itself. As pianist Akira Ishii’s introduction on the obi sleeve describes, Sekiya’s playing comfortably swings between composed themes and free jazz playing. The composed versus free division is not aligned by disc, but programmed into the track listing in different places. This porous boundary is arranged within certain songs on Duets as well.

Most of Sekiya’s compositions are just that: composed scores that the pianist and her guest read from and play to. As with jazz music, the players are not strictly bound to the written notes and chords and can ornament and transform the music, or play extended solos created through their musical skill, experience, and spontaneous feeling, all while coordinating in time with their musical partners. And, as with free jazz, the players are able to jump off of the score even more. It’s like floating in space with no tether save their individual self-controlled guidance and confidence in navigating an unknown territory together.

For instance, there are a few mostly freely played tracks. The first track “Nobody Is There” is a great patient introduction from piano and drums, a pre-workout stretch with specific harmonic statements embedded in the free-form movements. Similarly, #4 “Forest Valley” features a bass and piano dialogue that pings back and forth briefly before building to an intertwined sculpture of abstract sounds, a raw and improvised self-portrait of the duo’s musical personality. Sax player Sam Newsome’s recent article Embracing the Unscripted describes this type of improvised music from a first person point of view very well.

Other songs have free sections between arranged intro and outro themes, such as on disc one’s #5 “Happa” and disc two’s #2 “In Touch” and #7 “Octopus Blues”. These sections are wild and fun, as the musicians completely adlib and veer off the written score with unconstrained musical creation that is neither noise nor chaos.

Free playing aside, Sekiya leans strongly into her composer role for the most part. Much of the music is penned with detailed chords, melodies, and assigned sections that the pianist and her duet partners follow carefully. These songs run the gamut from suspenseful to peaceful, with doses of jaunty jazz, quirky oddness, and somber developments that extend the tonal variety in always interesting ways.

Liner Notes

As a duo, we can closely feel each other’s inner voice

Important sounds that I’ve cherished “till now”

Sounds that I want to deepen “from here”

A colorful time with eight musicians

Yukari Sekiya | pianist/composer

Born in Osaka. She is a musician with a unique performance style that utilizes swells and pauses, who creates vivid, original songs that practically sing themselves. She works nationwide focusing on collaborations across genres with performers and artists from both Japan and overseas, her solo project “Out of the Window” which includes improvisation and landscape, seamlessly connecting and deepening improvisation and composition — the abstract and the concrete. Her music is adored, not only by music fans, but also in various fields as “music that shakes your emotions”.

Obi Notes

There are no “thorns” in the piano she plays. That is not something with a hidden meaning. With accompanied tension, it is a pleasurable world that also contains a sense of “poison”. Through this album I want to keep an eye on the past and the future of this pianist who moves at will across the borders of free improvisation and coordinated, composed music.

— Jazz pianist Akira Ishii

Audio and Video

• Promotional video #1 (Disc 1 excerpts):

• Promotional video #2 (Disc 2 excerpts):

• Promotional video #3 (brief introduction):

• “Making Of” video, behind the scenes of the recording of this album:

• Live performance of “Room 401” (track #8):

• This album on streaming platforms

• Excerpt from track #107: “Canja”