The album contains eight original songs and runs for a satisfying thirty-eight minutes. I’ll avoid over-describing the songs track-by-track here, and just say that this music is a lot like Duo, with Kurita keeping time while constructing melodies that are catchy and wonderous with a calming moderation. The entire album can be heard online through the playlist link below. In general, it’s beautiful solo piano music that is mellow and sleek. Some of it is powerfully escapist in creating scenes based on other worlds and ideas (in a receptive environment and like good music in general, surely). Highlights include the light rock of track #1 “Jun” (a version of this song is also on Duo), the haunting #2 “Pas de deux”, the adventurous #4 “Mr. M”, and the sweet and emotional #8 “Plie ‘A Sublingual Castle’”. While Duo also had three river-themed songs, Ko-tsu-ko-tsu contains three songs with titles related to ballet and dance (“Pas de deux”, “Tendu ‘10 + 10)’”, and “Plie ‘A Sublingual Castle’”. Like with rivers, writing for ballet seems to be another magnet for Kurita.

The album title also provides an interesting diversion for language-inclined listeners. The title ko-tsu-ko-tsu is printed on the cover, and the characters 忽骨 are also present, vertically drawn out and connected on the right side of the striking illustration. Ko-tsu-ko-tsu written in Japanese kanataka is コツコツ. This is a common Japanese onomatopoeia word meaning steadily progressing little by little towards a goal, and can also represent the sound of rhythmic tapping, knocking, and footsteps. As for the kanji, each of the characters 忽 and 骨 can be individually pronounced as ko-tsu, doubled up as 忽骨 to make the full album title and the katakana word ko-tsu-ko-tsu. This two-character, two-homophone compound made up of these two kanji characters isn’t a common word, but Kurita combines them in this wordplayish way like a pun or double-meaning to create a novel connotation. In this case, the two characters represent sudden and bone (or backbone/spirit/knack), an interesting visceral context to add to the title of her album and to set a distinctive mood, a mood reinforced by the fantastic cover art and the tap-tap rhythm and clicking friction of the sound of ko-tsu-ko-tsu itself.

Similarly fun and curious, there are slight differences between the Japanese and English song titles. While most of the song titles are translated literally, a few are distinct. #3 “Tendu ‘10 + 10’” is written on the back cover as 重ね重ね, meaning repeatedly, over and over. In wordplay mode, the ‘10 + 10’ of the English title is the combination (+) of the English 10 or ‘ten’ with the Japanese 10 or jyuu/du, for “ten + du” or “tendu”, the first part of the song title.

The song #4 “Mr. M” is 北に生まれ (born in the north). I’m not sure of the connection here, but these may be clues about a specific person that Kurita wrote this song for. #7 “Winter 36” is 冬の散録 (winter jottings, assorted notes), where, like with “Tendu”, a type of wordplay called goroawase is used. The number 3 is san in Japanese, and 6 is roku, combined as 36 to become the sanroku which is the unusual word 散録 in the song title.

Like the music in the last song on the album, #8 “Plie ‘A Sublingual Castle’” or 舌下城 (castle-under-tongue), both the Engish and Japanese titles are very evocative… While I haven’t been able to figure it out, it feels like there may be more to this title than just its creative image. Perhaps a secret stronghold kept guarded, unvoiced (a castle beneath the tongue?)… or an impenetrable fortress created by a slip of the tongue, as a careless remark, or 舌禍 (zekka) can have the same sound as 舌下 (zekka), possibly?

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Jun”, track #1 on this album:

• Audio for “Pas de deux”, track #2 on this album:

• Full album playlist

• Excerpt from track #4: “北に生まれ (Born In The North)”

Most of the song titles are in Japanese, and language-attuned readers may notice that several of the songs end in the character 川 (kawa), meaning river. Kurita has a habit of naming songs after rivers in Japan, and her recent album SOLO 5 (2023) even features a complete tracklist of ten songs named after rivers. Her profile explains, “I like crossing rivers. I like composing and I’m not good at coming up with song titles, so I often use the names of rivers as titles.” One of the songs from SOLO 5, “Karaborigawa”, is also included on this album. Like rivers, her music can flow and weave, smoothly drifting or rushing along depending on the environment. Here the environment is an unpredictable live setting with the banks, shapes, wind, and silt of Sotoyama’s rhythms.

On Duo, Kurita and Sotoyama perform together in a fun and flexible way. Here, the roles are generally such that the pianist sets up the musical and rhythmic framework using a foundation of bass lines, chords, and melodies tied to her original compositions. Activated by her lead, Sotoyama’s drums impishly strike and clatter, following or pushing the pulse elastically, stopping on a dime, and restarting on a whim. If this sounds like a familiar style, last week’s Melodies: Melodies also featured Sotoyama’s creative drumming style.

Now, on to the music itself. The album begins with track #1 “Hand of Time”, a fanciful rumbling experiment that quickly settles into melodic tumbles at a steady rhythm. Next, #2 “Heso” (navel) is a jovial winding and blur. #3 “Kumagawa” (the first river song on Duo) is splashing piano and risk-taking drums skirting the edges. #4 “Karaborigawa” (the second river song) is a delicate piano construction with spurring drum punctuations. #5 “Gyoraisen Game” (Torpedo Boat Game, a retro board game along the lines of Battleship and bowling) is mid-to-uptempo bouncing improvisation.

Track #6 “Mukashibanashi” (old folk tale) is a swinging clave-like piano groove with drums playing all around it. #7 “Tenryuugawa” (the third river song) is movement all over, wild striking and settling into a blissful groove. #8 “Jun” assembles from wavering rumbles into one of the catchiest songs on the album (there is also a great solo piano version of this song on Kurita’s Ko-tsu-ko-tsu from 2012). #9 “Changement F” is a bouncy march where the up-and-down piano notes are offset by Sotoyama’s particularly playful drum splatters, coloring outside of the lines with wide dynamics and time. Lastly, #10 “Kyou no Sabi, Ashita no Tabi” (Today’s Solitude/Loneliness, Tomorrow’s Journey) is hummably lighthearted, slightly bluesy with a simple beauty.

Audio and Video

• Live video for “Gyoraisen Game”, track #5 on this album (live in 2021 at Sweet Rain):

• Live excerpts from #8 “Jun” and other songs from a live streaming concert at Velvet Sun in 2020:

• Live video from a 2016 performance at Jazz Cafe Chigusa:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Hand Of Time”

Ghost Peak’s The Goat on a Peak contains five of Miyazaki’s original compositions and was released on the heels of their first release Ghost Peak 1. The audio for these two albums was recorded at a live concert in Kobe in 2023. While the first release was an online-only streaming/digital download, this second album was released as a compact disc with a different set of songs.

“Ghost Peak” is not only the band name but also the name of a terrific composition of Miyazaki’s that he plays on solo guitar on his 2022 vinyl/digital release Light Colored. In addition, “Ghost Peak” is also the name of a four-part suite split between their first album Ghost Peak 1, and this album The Goat on a Peak. Adding to the ghost/goat/peak intrigue, and separate from the four-part suite, Ghost Peak 1 features a song titled “Ghost Views a Peak”, and this second album features a song titled “A Goat Climbs a Peak”. That’s plenty of ghosts, goats, and peaks, but it all works well to ground their style of free jazz and experimental music with a thematic throughline.

Tangentially, the phrase ghost peak refers to those peaks found in graphs in scientific analysis that aren’t related to actual measured substances but are mysterious measurements caused by contamination, faulty instruments, or other errors. A goat on a peak may refer to the striking scene of a goat standing on the summit of a mountain (or, possibly a “G.O.A.T.” champion ascending to a pinnacle), looking over the land and taking it all in with a somewhat triumphant stature. This image also evokes an exciting combination of danger, risk, and adventure that could also symbolize the task undertaken by musicians playing jazz and experimental music.

The five free-jazz or experimental tracks on /Goat on a Peak /are composed by Miyazaki, and a lot of the free feel comes from both the surprising notes the quartet plays (as they strive to avoid conventional licks, scales, and song patterns) but also from the absence of drums and rhythmic cadences. At times, there is no fixed meter or repeated beat, creating a feeling of flexibility. While some parts of each song seem completely open for each player’s spontaneous impulses, it is not “anything goes” to the extent that only discordant noise results (some listeners will feel that they are headed towards that direction, though).

Yet, there are musical ideas or basic structures to each track that are usually most clearly heard in the written-out musical themes and statements played together at the opening and/or ending of certain songs. There are general pre-planned frameworks that direct how the scales, chords, or roots (for example) will assemble and collaborate to a finish. It’s harder to describe than it is to hear, and as experimental music goes, some of the enjoyment is in the hearing, decoding, and understanding of this music, all of which play a part in the multi-layered musical appreciation.

Here are some too-brief glances at the overall album flow: The thirty-seven minutes travel through the gentle prettiness and swelling up of #1 “Summer Days”, the step-stair theme and intensity of #2 “A Goat Climbs a Peak”, the zany madness and flights of fancy on #3 “Unwritten Law”, the beautiful mess of soundscapes of #4 “Gone”, and the quiet serenity of #5 “The Nebulous Crowd (Ghost Peak Suite Part 4)”.

Audio and Video

• Shinji Miyazaki playing “Ghost Peak” in 2022:

• Excerpts from a Ghost Peak live performance in 2022:

• Ghost Peak live performance in 2025:

• Ghost Peak 1 (Ghost Peak’s first album

• Excerpt from track #2: “A Goat Climbs A Peak”

Links

• Album info

In addition to her compelling horn playing, Miyawaki’s contributions also include original songs and arrangements, all showing a creative style with modern themes calmly developing over sharp grooves with fascinating frameworks. The selected cover songs include a great modern jazz version of the Japanese folk song “Sakura”, the atmospheric latin tune “El Choclo”, “Summer Night” in uptempo swing, and a tender duo with guest pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi (joining on five songs) on the heartful ballad “I’m Glad There Is You”.

Audio and Video

• Yuko Miyawaki performing “Sakura” live in 2011:

• Excerpt from track #1: “SAKURA”