The duo’s music is harmoniously beautiful with an understated personality projecting a calm confidence, one that supports a balance of bold strokes and playful trepidation delivered by patient hands. The duo takes its time with gentle moments as well as the elevated dramatic energy of dots and lines swirling together on a canvas to create colorful stories. When not flowing free in rubato intros and sections, the duo locks into implied deep grooves and looped time-based phrases that repeat over one another, sometimes in offsets that create a crisscross of overlapping motifs combining simplicity and complexity all at once. It’s more soothing waves than sharp corners, still the playing is expert and precise.

Ten to Sen includes ten songs, nine by Aikawa and one by Hayashi.

1. “Marigold” - an opening story where interlacing dots and lines dance in ray-filled grids
2. “Ambiguous” - naturally vague in dreamy wide-open spaces
3. “Empty Cages” - funky percussive mystery unveils an exciting plot
4. “Pulsating” - stimulation of bouncy upbeats and offbeats with a bright funky asymmetry
5. “Translucent” - quiet vibrant deep with cajón drum soul and creative flow
6. “Ten To Sen” (dots and lines) - up-and-down riffs as impressionistic connect-the-dots, a meditation of abstract flying and bouncing
7. “Benimidori” (紅碧, pale azure) - ambient colors floating with Debussy time and grace
8. “At the Boundary Between Green and Blue” - moving and invigorating storytelling and depth
9. “Ecosistema Representado por Cuentos Infatiles” (童話で書かれた生態系, ecosystem depicted in children’s fairy tales) - fun, folky, funky uplift with wild interplay
10. “Nichi-Nichi-Kore-Kou-Jitsu” (日日是好日, every day is a good day) - peaceful sincerity and a gentle exit

The album title Ten To Sen is written on the cover using the English alphabet, so interpreting the title without Japanese kanji characters can be ambiguous. (One creative translation could be 10 for ten in English, to in English, and 1000 for sen in Japanese, resulting in the title of “From 10 to 1000”). However, the most likely interpretation of the title is Dots and Lines. There is a 2019 video (included below) of Aikawa playing an early solo version of the title track where she calls it “TENTOSEN” (てんとせん, ten to sen, dots and lines). In a brief note for that video, she explains that she wrote this music for a special exhibit workshop titled “Dots and lines, colors, shapes” (てんとせん、いろ、かたち) at Iwami Art Museum in Shimane Prefecture in 2019.

Since the words in the title Ten To Sen are written in English letters rather than Japanese kanji, their meaning is interestingly ambiguous as each word could be interpreted in a few ways:

• ten - point (点), rotation (転), sky/heaven (天)…
• to - and, with, if/when (と)…
• sen - line (線), thousand (千), immortal/celestial being (仙)…

The album liner notes by Yoshihide Omoto also play on this flexibility of interpretation.

Considering the art museum workshop, a likely first translation of Ten To Sen would be Dots and Lines. Especially with the spirited soft wood sounds of marimba running through the music, it’s easy to imagine myriad dots bouncing and tracing long lines through space, interlaced and increased by the fullness and attack of the piano. The cover art, with its spatter of dots and curved lines, also adds to this visual imagery of dots and lines, an interpretation that becomes more obvious when taking the album images into account.

Liner Notes

点と点に転と天
線と線に千の仙
色彩の快楽と響き合うことの偕楽

わたしが愛する最高の音楽家二人による最高に幸せな47分間
– 音楽家 大友良英

The first two lines from the poetic liner notes play on the main words from the title, ten and sen, by repeating the rhyming sounds using differently words:

• ten to ten ni ten to ten (点と点に転と天)
  
• sen to sen ni sen no sen (線と線に千の仙)

Translated, the complete liner notes read:

From point to point, rotation and heaven
Between the lines, thousands of immortalities
The sublimity of color, the shared reverberations of pleasure
An incredibly pleasing 47 minutes from two brilliant musicians that I love
– Yoshihide Otomo, musician

Obi Notes

The obi notes for Ten to Sen are the same as the last two lines of the liner notes:

The sublimity of color, the shared reverberations of pleasure
An incredibly pleasing 47 minutes from two brilliant musicians that I love
– Yoshihide Otomo, musician

Audio and Video

• “Ten to Sen” (track #6) - Hitomi Aikawa solo marimba version from 2019:

• “Pulsating” (track #4):

• “日日是好日” (track #10):

• “Onomatopoeia” by Hitomi Aikawa ＆ Masaki Hayashi (live):

• “Cleanse” by Hitomi Aikawa ＆ Masaki Hayashi (live):

• Excerpt from track #1: “Marigold”

As for the instruments Hitomi Aikawa is using on each track, the details are not listed on the CD or in the liner notes. However, clues can be found on her website, where a list of her percussion collection is displayed, and it can be fun to use your ear to try and figure out which instruments are producing the sounds you hear as you listen to Sweet. Her large percussion collection numbers in the dozens and ranges from mallet instruments (vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel), hand drums (djembe, cajón, congas, bongos, timbales), tambourines, castanets, triangle, cymbals, chimes, blocks, Afro-Latin instruments, and many others.

The track listing lays the songs out in an interesting sequence. There are a number of tracks were Aikawa plays alone, using different drum and percussion instruments for brief interstitial-style episodes lasting anywhere from seventeen seconds to just over a minute. In this way, tracks #1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 act as brief intermissions, like scenes changes between her longer songs. In these brief sketches, Aikawa creates rhythmic ambiance in an effective and transitionally interesting way.

Most of the album consists of her other, longer composed songs, averaging about four to five minutes each. It is on these songs where Aikawa has her special guests join her to make up a different format from song to song — not only do the guests change, but she herself switches between different instruments, like Afro-Peruvian cajón, hand drums, cymbals, chimes and bells, and marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone. Aikawa and her guests combine duo and trio forms such as Aikawa plus piano (Masaki Hayashi and Eri Uenoyama), Aikawa plus alto sax/soprano sax/clarinet (Hiroshi Suzuki), and Aikawa plus vibraphone (Megumi Hattori). Some of these group-based highlights are found on track #2 “Silver Children” with its ancient folk style melody with subtle jazz elements, the exciting 11-beat meter #4 “Basilisk” with its tricky shapes and lines, the refreshing early morning sound of #6 “Earth-colored Gem” (where Aikawa plays mallets, piano, and all other instruments alone), the dramatic and adventurous #8 “elk”, and the entrancing #9 “I’m good more.”

The final four short songs make up a suite starting with track #11. Here, the wordplay hidden in the album title finally clicks: suite/sweet. In addition, the title of each short song in the suite (“Choice” [チョイス], “Alfort” [アルフォート], “Marie” [マリー], and “Galbo” [ガルボ]) is also cleverly chosen, as each song names a famous Japanese sweet, a brand of chocolate or butter cookies and biscuits commonly seen in supermarkets and Japanese convenience stores. Inspired by the sweets, Aikawa uses them as appetizing musical ingredients for creating musical visions out of them. #11 “Choice” is straight-laced with bubbling heat, #12 “Alfort” is a folky up-and-down march, #13 “Marie” is dreamy and melancholy, and #14 “Galbo” is a swift jazz-classical quickstep to the exit.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Hitomi Aikawa’s original Japanese liner notes.)

01. Sand (砂, suna)

A gray town.
Children are running around in a cloud of dust.

02. Silver Children (銀色の子供たち, gin’iro no kodomotachi)

Ever since the day I saw a certain image, there are some “eyes” that I can’t forget. Iron can be used in many ways, right? It can be made into musical instruments, or weapons.

03. Moon (月, tsuki)

Whether we are looking up at the moon, or when it’s hidden behind clouds, the moon keeps glowing. It’s amazing that it keeps shining even when no one’s looking.

04. Basilisk

It’s not that I wanted to write a song with an 11-beat meter. It was that, when I was writing, one eighth-note was missing.
Come to think of it, it seems that the world is filled with things that we must pretend not to see, or that we mustn’t look at.

05. Play (遊, asobu)

I’ve recently come to think that when adults use the word “play”, it may actually mean taking a break.

06. Earth-colored Gem (地球色の宝石, chikyū-iro no hōseki)

I’ve been alive in this world for 34 years.
The earth is 4.6 billion years old.
It’s such a small and insignificant thing, the self.

07. Ice (氷, kōri)

I really want to try to see an actual aurora.

08. elk

The story of the elk, the king of the forest.

09. I’m good more

It’s often said that as long as you’re living, things are good.
In the past, I didn’t really believe that, but now I truly do.

10. Dance (舞, mai)

I’ve been told that in a past life, I was a gypsy with a tambourine.

Sweet Suite

11. Choice (チョイス)

Life is always a game of options, like a ladder lottery where you can choose where to draw your own lines. In my case, many others have taught me the method of how to draw the lines.

12. Alfort (アルフォート)

Tranquil scenes of a pastoral song, sheep, mountains, blue skies, delicious air, and meadows.

13. Marie (マリー)

The profile of a woman.

14. Galbo (ガルボ)

No matter how much I chase, I just can’t reach it.

It’s only because of the people who support me that I can spend my life in music.

Being able to meet wonderful people, and to converse with them

is the same as encountering wonderful sounds and playing music.

I cherish the sounds that were delivered to me by Masaki Hayashi, Hiroshi Suzuki, Eri Uenoyama, and Megumi Hattori.

And I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone who got this CD.

Thank you very much.

Hitomi Aikawa

Audio and Video

• Hitomi Aikawa playing “Basilisk” (track #4) on piano, marimba, and percussion:

• Hitomi Aikawa playing “Elk” (track #8) on marimba, piano, and percussion:

• Excerpt from Hitomi Aikawa on djembe and cajón (solo performance):

• Excerpt from track #1: “砂 (Sand)”

The compositions start from a base of jazz and improvisation but are filled with many other various elements. There is a sense of a deep connection to ethnic rhythms and sounds, such as some Spanish elements as with the titles of the first track and the album itself. Some of the writing and the piano parts recall Chick Corea’s “Spanish heart” as a component, and there could be some Return to Forever-type jazz/rock/Latin fusion characteristics that subtly power the music as well.

Not to say that this is Latin music or Latin jazz, but that anything could be an influence. This includes Japanese musical training, American jazz education (both Yamamoto and Yanagihara studied at Berklee College of Music), and classical and jazz study, with Japanese soul also brought in via the backgrounds of the three musicians.

Similarly, there are rhythms and music that are not only based on jazz, pop, or Latin fusion, but seem to be infused with some cultural and historical influences. For example, medieval, roots, or tribal sounds that conjure up visions of early Celtic or even Viking music. The fascinating compositions deliver a full sound from the three players, a large part due to their great arrangements and detailed touches that are irresistibly moving and likable, and pull you in like gravity. The players’ technical skills are flawless, of course, and bring the musical structures, themes, improvisations, and interplay right into focus.

The sounds of the piano and vibraphone work so well together in playing the radiant and emotional lines that Magnolia delivers. As Yamamoto and Yanagihara develop their evocative melodies over shimmering harmonic structures, percussionist Aikawa forms the frames of the music through a myriad of patterns and textures through her wide-ranging percussion.

Technically (pedantically), the piano and vibraphone are also considered to be percussion instruments, and this may be another reason why the three musicians are perfectly aligned with a cohesive single-mindedness. This shared ability reinforces the exciting rhythm, meter, and tempo changes sprinkled throughout their songs.

There are plenty of fresh approaches written into the music scores themselves that are interesting and fun, and the percussion beats delivered through Aikawa’s cajón, cymbals, shakers, bells, drums, sticks, shells, and other instruments, make it all the more stimulating as the rhythm sounds alternate and transform.

This spirit of freshness is clearly linked to their choice of band name. The refined and graceful magnolia flower is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring and has a fleeting blossoming period. The symbol of these strikingly beautiful flowers can be compared to sakura, or cherry blossoms, as both can symbolize Japanese mono no aware: the awareness and appreciation of impermanence, and that bittersweet transience that evokes beauty and sadness.

A quick tour through the album tracks starts with an instantly engaging track #1 “La vos del viento”, colorfully Spanish and exciting. #2 “Haru, Aozora” is a cheery and bright piece with breathtaking views. #3 “Short Stories No. 6” is a distinctive march-like story with ancient medieval folk aspects (as with Yamamoto’s other compositions, Reiko’s love of role-playing video games greatly influences how she tells stories through her music, and this is one chapter from her “Short Stories” series of songs).

Track #4 “Foggy Forest” is atmospherically prismatic and filled with curiosity. #5 “Fune” is another catchily ancient-sounding piece that paints a pre-modern tableau. #6 “Blue Mallet” is rousing and groovy, drenched with cinematic drama. #7 “Pause is peaceful and slightly blue, similarly powerful as soundtrack material. #8 “Hanakage” is another otherworldly, absorbing journey with a deep aura, undefinably Old English or Gaelic, perhaps. #9 “Furosato” is an affecting ballad, carrying the same heartwarming, nostalgic power as songs like “Danny Boy”. Finally, #10 “Swaying Willows” with its soft pop shuffle is all farewell hugs, fresh and positive with the promise of a warm welcome in the future.

Audio and Video

• Live version of track #1 “La vos del viento” from Magnolia’s 2022 album release tour:

• Live version of #6 “Blue Mallet”:

• Live version of #8 “Hanakage”:

• Live version of #2 “Haru, Aozora”:

• Live version of #7 “Pause”:

• Magnolia chatting about their 2023 tour (Japanese):

• Short compilation of excerpts from a 2022 live performance in Kyoto:

• Excerpt from track #3: “Short Stories No.6”

Links

• JazzTokyo review, interview, and photos (Japanese)