The CD version of this album includes ten tracks running at 54 minutes of mostly original music from Yoshimoto. The popular jazz standard “Body and Soul” is the sole cover tune, played as duo of piano and sax as a gentle closing.

The music on Blending Tone is contemporary jazz with a modern, open feeling build on the confidence and closeness that the members of the quartet exhibit with one another.

Throughout, this is a finely attuned album that rewards paying attention to the details. The musician’s individual solos seem to positively search for new expressions, pushing their improvisations for creativity as much to satisfy their own voices as well as to connect with the other players. As leader, Akihiro gets most of the time in the spotlight for his extended solos, and pianist Aaron Choulai gets an almost equal share and solos on nearly every track. The two partners even have an back-and-forth trading session in the greater part of #7 “Dark Matter” before drummer Ishiwaka and bassist Sakazaki take over the music.

Through the themes and adlibs, the locked-in band seems to naturally push one another to heights of greater ambition and near abandon. For balance, tracks #3 “Pale Green” and #10 “Body and Soul” are two ballads that alight to ground during their slower moments, essential for the coming down to calmer settings within the journey though the adventurous terrain.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Toshihiko Hoshino’s original Japanese liner notes.)

The first time I heard Akihiro Yoshimoto was in late November 2009, at the live jazz club Apple Jump which had just opened. The quartet was built from the Jun Furuya Trio, with Kunpei Nakabayashi on bass and Ryo Shibuya on drums, and I was really impressed by the performance. The tenor produced a rolling groove that had nicely thick tone stacked with short phrases. My ears were completely tuned into their fresh contemporary sound that was centered on their unique originals. Then, a giant foreigner who was sitting alone at a corner table joined the band, sitting in for one song. That was Aaron Choulai, the pianist who plays on this album. With just one song, I was knocked out by his brilliant playing and novel ideas that overturned the usual stereotypes. I can still vividly remember the excitement I felt that night, as I walked back to Ikebukuro station, like witnessing the prenatal stirrings of something new as I thought “What I just heard was unbelievable.”

I’ll briefly introduce Akihiro Yoshimoto. He was born in Kobe in 1980. In 2004, he entered Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After graduating from Berklee, he moved to Tokyo and started performing. In 2007, he was awarded the grand prize in the band category at the Yokohama Jazz Promenade Competition. In autumn 2009, he first played with Aaron as a member of the Australian-Japanese crossover band the Aaron Choulai Sextet at an event called Tokyo JAZZ 2009 - Australian Jazz Night. In spring 2010 he played with Italian trumpeter Max Ionata who came to Japan. In fall of that year, he played as a member of the Aaron Choulai Quintet on an Australian tour. In 2001 he performed as leader of a sextet at the third Summer Jazz Revolution event. In summer of that year, his other activities including touring with the band of mainstay bassist Isao Suzuki’s band OMA SOUND and earning the strong trust of players including those from his generation through to veteran players.

It’s undeniable that contemporary jazz has the image of being difficult to understand. The dark, edgy sound can sometimes give a cold impression. I also very much agree with the inclination to wanting to hear hot jazz that simply says “yeah!” The allure of Yoshimoto’s tenor sound is that he can play modern contemporary jazz to deep blues without any sense of conflict. He creates a natural resonance with listeners through his throaty tone and cutting-edge phrases. His tenor captivates everyone from staunch hard bop elders to discriminating contemporary jazz enthusiasts.

When it comes to expressing his personal sound, there is probably no one more inspiring to Akihiro Yoshimoto than Aaron Choulai. At the same time as he formed his quartet with Aaron, they also began performing together as a duo. He had become an indispensable musical partner. Aaron Choulai was born in Papua New Guinea in 1982. He won a number of awards in Australia and was regarded as one of the most promising young players. In New York, he performed with musicians including Clarence Penn and James Genus, and released the albums Place (2004) and RANU (2009) on the Sunnyside label. He actively performs in Japan, New York, Australia, and in places all over the world. With his excellent time sense, sensitive harmonies, beautiful tone, and comping that can sometimes even seem wicked, he’s a pianist worthy of being called a rare genius.

With Blending Tone as the album title, it contains the meaning that each individual sound is blended into a single musical piece. The opening “di di” symbolizes this. As the theme is played by a trio [of sax, bass, drums], the moment Aaron’s piano enters, the sound’s landscape changes completely. Indeed, you can call it the moment that captures where the individual sounds mix together and change into a singular band sound. On the dreamy ballad “Pale Green”, the intertwining of the tenor’s melody and Aaron’s comping is breathtaking. “How About This Cat?” is outstanding, as Aaron’s piano and Ishiwaka’s aggressive drums back the strong and continuous blowing of the tenor as the theme completely changes from mysterious to thrilling. More highlights to listen for include Sakazaki’s foundation of solid bass lines that support the band, and 19-year-old drumming prodigy Shun Ishiwaka, whose playing is a combination of both aggression and finesse.

The prenatal stirrings that I felt in November 2009 developed over a period of two and a half years and was delivered to me in the form of this album. This recording retains that sense of impact I received at the time and captures an even deeper combination together with Aaron. This is an album that will become an important piece in the history of contemporary jazz in Japan.

Toshihiko Hoshino 星野利彦 / Music Writer

Obi Notes

Young, fierce tenor saxophonist Akihiro Yoshimoto with his quartet releases his long awaited debut album Blending Tone!

Audio and Video

• “How About This Cat?” (track #4) — live at Kamome quartet version (ts/p/b/d) #1:

• “How About This Cat?” (track #4) — live at Sometime quartet version (ts/p/b/d) #2:

• “di di” (track #1) — live duo version (ts/b):

• “Boston Subway” (track #2) — live solo version (ss):

• “Pale Green” (track #3) — live duo version (ts/ts):

• “Pale Green” (track #3) — live trio version (ts/b/d):

• “Enpitsu Hiko” (track #5) — live trio version (ss/ts/b):

• Streaming version of Blending Tone (Bandcamp digital album)

• Excerpt from track #1: “di di”

Through the album’s eleven tracks and thirty-six minutes, Yoshimoto and Sugawa play free jazz and experimental music that pushes beyond the boundaries of standard jazz. The pair avoids the more easily identifiable trademarks of conventional music and songwriting to chase the free-flowing exchange of spontaneous ideas and sounds with few limits imposed.

The ingredients are Yoshimoto on soprano sax and clarinet, Sugawa on cello and contrabass, and beautiful inspiration. The result is filled with eccentric and atonal aspects: wild flights of notes punctuated with wavering drones, careful twining of improvised melodies, and knife-edge slices of notes forming and dissipating in unsettling conditions.

That said, it’s not an album full of noise or ambient effects (though the Bandcamp page for the album does include the tags ambient and dark ambient, along with jazz, contemporary jazz, and freejazz). Horn notes fly around in unpredictable paths, pouring phrases into the air while low notes percolate, bass notes pop and ring, and bowed strings expose eerie terrains.

To some, free jazz may sound like turbulent chaos, dissonant and abstract. Adventurous listeners (especially those searching for new sounds or a break from the ordinary) may appreciate these trips through unexplored territory. On Oxymoron, it is as if two pioneers are making discoveries through risky experiments that cause tuneful chirps, singing tones, and the evocative plucking, strumming, and bowing of bass string notes.

The songs played on Oxymoron seem to be sketched out with anything from simple outlines and thematic concepts to written-out intros and endings. Listening closely and wondering how much is pre-composed and how much is pure ad-libbing can be part of the experience.

The duo’s risk-taking and randomness increase the thrill of the musical search and the potential for invention. (As an aside, this so-called or apparent randomness is something that must be some part of the challenge of playing free jazz that doesn’t just sound like randomness: the musicians must consciously hurdle over or push back against instincts honed by endless hours of accurate drilling and correct practice that have set certain rules and patterns in concrete, both in the mind and muscle memory… to constantly and attentively resist the pull of falling back to using common scale patterns and licks, home keys, chord progressions, and forms that become unconscious gravitational forces for the experienced jazz musicians who have played through and memorized hundreds of standard tunes.)

Many of the songs on Oxymoron are just a few minutes long in the two- to three-minute range. These are briefly visited ideas that the duo stops, examines, and moves on from like waypoints on the journey as they continue to move forward and explore new ideas.

For ideas that are explored a bit more, the longest tracks on the album include two four-minute songs and one ten-minute song.

Track #3 “Password” slowly raises the temperature with sugary bursts of carbonation like curved melodic strands whipping with barbed ends. Sugawa sits out for a minute before rumbling in with fast nonstop bass lines underneath.

The three-part “Mokume” series (tracks #4, #8, and #10) has a particular impact. Clarinet and bowed cello notes play an almost modern classical piece before intermittently droning against one another. Consonance and dissonance slide around like oil and water shifting in a laboratory dish, flowing and touching but unmerging. Musical tones shift, intersect, tangle, and separate like frictional sounds of gossamer silk, like cricket legs or cobweb threads rubbing together, like bubbles of Brownian motion rising from a cauldron’s brew.

The final ten-minute track #11 “Enpitsu Hiko” finds the duo expanding to a trio as the sax and bass are joined by piccolo trumpet (played by Niran Dasika). Playful mayhem is entertained as the trio balances on a tightrope of unity and disarray. Roaming improvisation leads to unintelligible scrambles of speech and juggling of squeaks, pitches, and volume before ending with a satisfyingly clear, slightly bluesy conclusion.

Audio and Video

• Excerpts from a live performance of Oxymoron Duo in 2021 at Velvet Sun in Tokyo, Japan:

• Album audio on Bandcamp

• Excerpt from track #4: “Mokume #1”

No doubt Nakamura’s vision extends through the material, from the steampunk-ish cover to the song titles that describe a fantastical, searching aesthetic. And, of course, this influence carries through to the music, artfully composed with originality and serving as a beautiful post-bop platform for each musician’s improvisation.

Although this is a trumpet leader’s album, Nakamura has always been generous, and each musician gets plenty of space to shine. There are plenty of blistering sax solos, aggressively gripping piano, and nimble and heavy bass and drum rhythms (plus, both bassist Kanamori and drummer Takemura not only lock in the solid foundation but also take solos as well.)

The songwriting does have a Humadope flavor throughout. On modern jazz frames that would fit a Jazz Messengers model, there are twin harmony lines played out by trumpet and sax in daredevil curves and with just dissonance for a spicy edge. Time signatures and rhythmic hooks are catchy, with a cleverly unpredictable quality to throw off the stability of typical musical patterns. Bass hooks and staggered melodies launch and segment in creative places. Another Humadope trademark is the occasional short musical machine-gun style break riff used to ramp up excitement and grab attention through repeated short phrases or a series of single notes between sections of a song.

The whole album is filled with great moments, and picking favorites depends on the day. Current highlights include:

• “Space Boy”, hinting at the innovative combos of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Wynton Marsalis.
• The unignorable funky swing on “So Nice!!”, with its rhythmic space and gaps that imbue a catchy groove with playful surprise.
• “North Kingdom” and its interfacing stairstep structures and magical qualities masquerading as a ballad.
• “Genseirin”, the tumbling syncopated masterpiece with a free jazz section and coordinated outro section. This track in particular song contains the most creatively arranged music on the album, a magnificent compositional form and sound reminiscent of the great Wayne Shorter’s ideas.
• “Sense of Mission”, with its tense speed and rhythm hooks, staccato chops, and searing solos.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video of “So Nice!”, track #3 on this album:

• Live versions of “Space Boy”, “Sense of Mission”, and “So Nice!” from 2019:

• Excerpt from track #7: “Sense Of Mission”

As foreshadowed by the album’s opening with a stage-setting deep bass solo, this album is quietly tenacious, and the music initially settles in subtly but quickly sinks its hooks in. The compositional variation, the exciting instrumental solos and tradeoffs, and some brief moments of dual improvisation and free chaos, all contribute to the high repeatability of this package, tempting you back to play it again.

Through fifty minutes and seven tracks on II, the modern swing rhythms, melodic lines, and structural elements briefly give hints of 1950s and 60s Blue Note sounds, with its dynamically-charged drum palettes and bass grounding, cutting-edge piano framing, and captivating horn lines, recalling the hard bop albums from Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, and other jazz messengers.

As a trombone leader’s debut album, it’s probably no surprise that the influence of the great jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson is also evident, particularly on Johnson’s beautiful tune “Lament”, a pensive ballad played with genuine feeling by Haruta and the quintet. This ballad, along with Strayhorn’s “Day Dream”, provides lovely slower moments that are set against the other higher-energy tracks. These five tracks are invigorating and memorable, with a hard bop swinger, a cheerfully funky groover, a mysteriously see-sawing tune, a punchy uptempo ride, and a wild boiler. Through it all, each musician gets ample space to improvise and show their stuff.

Of course, as the group leader, Haruta is featured, as is her solid composition “1965” which opens the album (saxophonist Akihiro Yoshimoto also contributes three excellent originals). But Haruta’s spotlight is not at the expense of sidelining the other amazing players in the quintet. Mayuko Kamakura on piano, Yoshimoto on sax, Takumi Awaya on bass, and Shun Ishikawa on drums are given plenty of time to shine as well. This all pays off with a front-to-back jazz album that fits together wonderfully with satisfying dynamics.

As for the potentially confusing title of II, this may be a bit of a head-scratcher for a debut album. If this stands for “2” in Roman numerals, it would be an unexpected title for a first release. Or, is this a reference to the second-decade milestone mentioned in the liner notes? Could II signify something else, maybe not a numeral meaning at all? An uppercased romaji translation of the Japanese word ii (いい) meaning good, all right, and such? Or, internet slang for “I’m Impressed”? Or maybe, when represented as extended index and middle fingers counting “two”, indicating the peace sign often seen in selfies and group photos? Or maybe it’s an inside joke, or someone’s favorite number. Maybe we’re not meant to know, and that’s all right. Either way, I’m definitely impressed.

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes written by Kouichi Nishimatsu, executive producer.)

Thoughts on II by Nanami Haruta.

I first met Nanami Haruta on November 20, 2020, at Shinjuku Pit Inn when she was a guest member in the horn section for Yoshiaki Masuo (増尾好秋) MAGATAMA “Cheer for Art! Stage Setup” photography shoot.

My first impression was of someone cute who didn’t look like a real trombone player. But when I heard her playing, it was truly powerful, a delicate and wonderful performance. Because I was busy with work on that day, I wasn’t able to speak to her for very long, but ended up going to her concerts several times after that.

Around that time, Yoshiaki Masuo’s individual project “ONE WORD” was selected for the same “Cheer for Art!”, and we spent days at my studio recording and mixing. Originally, the company’s studio was used exclusively for English healing teaching materials, radio commercial narration, and the like. However, this project led me to start recording music as well.

Which led me to ask Nanami, “Why don’t you make an album?” At first, she didn’t seem interested, but at some later performance Nanami said to me “Well, I think I’d like to make an album!” Nanami was only nineteen years old at the time, and I had always wanted to try producing an album from start to finish. So when she asked me “Can I leave everything up to you?”, I said “Yes”, and that was how the project started.

And, Yoshiaki Masuo. It goes without saying that Masuo is a world-class jazz guitarist. He even owns a studio in New York and has been involved in producing jazz music for twenty years. Having listened to Masuo’s guitar countless times and assisting him with performance activities in Japan, I thought I would love to play a part in his music production as well. I asked him to help, but Masuo’s stay in Japan was short and he was busy with live events at the time, so he had to firmly decline…at first. But after repeated requests, he agreed to help. And this was the moment that this project took on even more depth and substance.

First of all, the album concept. It was to be “The milestone of 20 years of age, with gratitude to the mentors who supported me in my hometown of Sapporo.” We started out focusing on slow ballad standards. After several meetings, we decided to focus on original songs. [For her ballad-centered album, see For My Lady from 2023.] Nanami Haruta’s “1965” became the first song on the album, and Akihiro Yoshimoto (tenor sax) graciously supplied three songs.

Next, the members. Nanami assembled some of the best young players in the world of young jazz today: Akihiro Yoshimoto (tenor sax), Mayuko Katakura (piano), Takumi Awaya (bass), and Shun Ishiwaka (drums). And in search of the best sound quality, we visited several Tokyo recording studios equipped with pianos. In the end, through introductions from Masami (Sam) Toyoshima (豊島政美), who designed the Beatles’ famous Abbey Road Studios and Victor Studios, we ended up recording at Victor’s Aoyama Studio.

On the day of the recording, November 29, 2021, we completed seven songs in a single day under the supervision of New York-trained Yoshiaki Masuo. Mixing at the company studio would start the following week. We spent many full days carefully mixing each song over three months. Mastering was completed using an analog open tape recorder.

This album was brought about through Nanami Haruta’s gathering of the best musicians, the best music, and the best creators, resulting in an amazing product. It’s not just for listening in one place, and whether on mobile devices, audio systems, or in different environments, you are sure to discover something new each time you listen. She is now twenty-one years old, as it took over a year of careful work to complete this album. Please, thoroughly enjoy Nanami Haruta’s first album II.

Koiuichi Nishimatsu (Music Stylist) September 23, 2022

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• Live trio version of “Lament”, track #5 on this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “1965”

On 64 Charlesgate, there are elements of free Ornette Coleman-style jazz, moments of simultaneous improvisation, and melodic cycles and horn loops similar to Dave Holland’s Quintet or even approaching John Zorn territory. Yet the music is not chaotically explosive, but more like playful abandon in the structured framework that Yoshimoto lays out for each track.

Kicking off the album, Yoshimoto’s “Funny Book” gets to the heart of the matter with quirky riffs parading vibrantly before introducing open sections for free improvisation. This song is played twice, included as both the album opener and closer in an alternate version. The choice to repeat this particular composition was perhaps made to emphasize the balance of cooperative unity and the individual passions of improvisation, combined also with a sense of humor and fun.

Picking album highlights is difficult as the whole album hangs well together with special characteristic moments in each song. As far as first impressions, fresh ears may perk up on track #2 “Trash Box”, the origami-like multifold form and rock groove, the slow buildup of #6 “Mud Drawing” and its well-developed outro section, and the exciting chase-scene energy and dramatic time shifts on #7 “Silly Rabbit” and #9 “Mr. R”.

The album also includes two shorter songs inserted like brief asides: Tracks #3 “Interlude” and #8 “Ocean add a suite or concept feeling to the entire album and calm the ears in less than two minutes each, like muted buffer zones of repose and curiosity.

Audio and Video

• The Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet playing live in 2020 in support of his album “Moving Color”:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Funny Book”

Kanamori, a steady and constant sideman for jazz musicians both inside and outside Japan, built his skill and connections by playing nightly at local clubs around Tokyo in a wide variety of situations. Besides being a first-call bassist for local musicians, he also joins international tours with artists such as Eric Alexander, Vincent Herring, and others. With everlasting good humor and grinning stories, his positivity infuses his expert playing, propelling groups solidly with his deep and melodic bass notes.

The well-arranged album flows with vim and vigor, music devoted to satisfying listener as well as performer with a fine balance of five originals and three covers: Rogers & Hart’s “Little Girl Blue”, Tizol & Ellington’s “Caravan”, and Jobim’s “Luiza”. Kanamori’s originals also swing and surge on numbers like the opener “No Fool No Fun”, the thrillingly dramatic “幕開け (Open Curtains!)” and the manic “Metro Maniac”, which features a quintet with the addition of an alto sax and tenor sax front line. Wrapping things up softly with the album closer “Luiza”, Kanamori takes the spotlight in piano-bass duo format, where he adorns the melody with bowed strings in a liltingly romantic performance.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• Excerpt from track #7: “Metro Maniac”

The tracks are solidly modern jazz tunes, with sizzling improvisation from Yoshimoto and pianist Choulai melodically laying out fiery, stimulating lines. There are a few moments of avant-garde exploration, where Sugawa’s bowed bass is used extremely effectively.

A brooding atmosphere arises on #4 “Nostalgic Farm” and especially #7 “Ice Castle”, where a museum-like calm settles, foreboding and somewhat Nordic with its dark, chilling sound. There’s even a bit of goofy humor on two songs (#2 “The Mystery of Onion Rings” and #6 “Reminiscing About Banana Beer”), where Monkish exuberance and swing add a loose, jolly balance to the album.

The two longest tracks, #5 “Sabaku No Akari” and #8 “Water Drops”, build patiently. These two compositions portray Yoshimoto’s thoughtful and edgy songwriting strength, masterfully refined in balancing honed compositions with space for group dynamics and spontaneity.

These tracks and #3 “Possom” also summon a sense of Wayne Shorter’s modern quartet. This is exciting jazz with unextinguishable energy powered locomotively by drummer Ishiwaka and bassist Sugawa. All throughout, Yoshimoto’s liquid tenor swings over the chords like a daredevil trapeze artist, flowing and moving colorfully in impressive patterns.

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes written by Toshihiko Hoshino, music writer.)

Often, when seeing the children of family members after a long time, you can be surprised at how much they’ve grown. I was struck by a similar sensation when I heard this album. This was in spite of the fact that I went to almost all of this group’s live shows in Tokyo and should have recognized their growth firsthand.

The debut release Blending Tone from the Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet pairs the ideal combination of allies Akihiro Yoshimoto and Aaron Choulai with the addition of the youthful rhythm section of Takashi Sugawa and Shun Ishiwaka. This was an epoch-making album from 2012.

A band grows by keeping its members fixed and regularly performing together. When I listened to Blending Tone and Moving Color in succession, a clear evolution in the band’s sound became apparent.

There are two dimensions to this evolution: maturity and transformation. Maturity refers firstly to the greatness of the Yoshimoto and Choulai combination. This is exactly what the phrase “Aun breathing” (two people performing together in sync and in harmony) is all about. In particular, hats off to Choulai, who perfectly understands Yoshimoto’s musicality and adds his own unique musical personality to it. There are probably not many pianists with such chord stacking, striking, timing, and pace that can be heard just from their backing accompaniment.

The beautiful interaction between tenor sax and piano on the ballad “Nostalgic Farm” is breathtaking. On “The Mystery of Onion Rings”, while the style is contemporary, traditional jazz roots are also filled with humorous playing through their personally-stamped homage to good old-fashioned jazz. For encores, this band often plays standards like ballads and bebop tunes, and being able to mix cutting-edge originals with traditional standards without any sense of unease is an example of the depth of their understanding.

While the previous release Blending Tone was aiming towards a band sound, it’s undeniable that Yoshimoto’s and Choulai’s collaboration played a large role at that time. Yet with each live performance by the band, the rhythm section’s involvement grew larger and the band’s individuality became established. This transformation is one of the key successes of this album.

It would not be improper to say that Shun Ishiwaka has become the number one young player today. Not only in this quartet, but Ishikawa and Choulai have also involved each other in their own groups, maintaining an unshakably trusting relationship. Highlights of their live performances include the moments when Ishiwaka and Choulai react through eye contact and engage aggressively with Yoshimoto’s tenor.

Check out Ishiwaka’s drumming in “Sabaku No Akari” behind Choulai’s piano solo, when a switch is suddenly flipped and the drums start pounding away. Just at the point behind the piano solo where Ishikawa may have gone too far to the edge of collapse, Choulai responds and starts to play furiously. Their momentum continues as the two fiercely and mercilessly challenge Yoshimoto’s tenor, a highlight of the middle portion of the album.

In December 2012, bassist Takuya Sakazaki left the group and Takashi Sugawa joined as a new member. Sugawa has been a long-standing member of the Terumasa Hino group and can be called the number one young bassist. He’s also an old friend of Yoshimoto and Choulai. While Sakazaki’s bass was of the unsung hero type, Sugawa’s bass is a type that aggressively connects with the front. The addition of Sugawa also resulted in a clear transformation of the band’s sound, such as the bowed melody on “Ice Castle” and the avant-garde solo on “Reminiscing About Banana Beer”.

The culmination of this evolution surely must be the last number, “Water Drops”. The mysterious melody is covered in darkness, led by a striking bass phrase. Yoshimoto’s tenor starts quietly, uses bold low-note phrases effectively, and ascends towards the climax. Perfectly closing in on this tenor, Choulai’s piano comping shape-shifts like a kaleidoscope, adding an amazing sense of color. Ishiwaka’s drums respond to the soloist’s phrases instantly and inject explosive energy.

Yoshimoto’s excellent music and leadership together with the strong individuality of the members has resulted in a band sound that has come to fruition. At over eight minutes, and the longest performance on the album, this dense world of sound doesn’t reveal any flaws and shines brightly on this album.

The shape of Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet, which has achieved remarkable growth, was recorded in February 2014. As they continue to evolve day by day, we look forward to the sounds they express when they next appear before us.

Toshihiko Hoshino 星野利彦 / Music Writer

Audio and Video

• The Akihiro Quartet playing live in 2012:

• Excerpt from track #5: “Sabaku No Akari”