Ochikochi, the Japanese word used as the band name and album title (オチコチ, oh-chee-koh-chee, 遠近), is an uncommon Japanese word that sounds like the more common, everyday word achikochi (あちこち) and shares a similar meaning. Ochikochi is apparently an old literary term with a mimetic repeated rhyming sound that means far and near, here and there, or even past and present. Written in Japanese kanji, the two characters 遠 and 近 literally represent the two distance words “far” and “near”, and together as 遠近 or ochikochi can also contain the nuance of perspective.

At 1:14 runtime, the album Ochikochi includes eight tracks lasting anywhere from six to twelve minutes apiece, long enough for the three musicians to settle into a mood and explore unhurried free improvisation. The songs were recorded by the trio at three different live concerts in 2011, two at Shinjuku Pit Inn (February 16 and August 29, 2011) and one at Yokohama Airegin (August 31, 2011).

With only three musicians, the sturdiness of the three-legged stool rests on the equal measure and coordination of the trio. With Kamimura on tenor and soprano saxophones as the main player up front, he is the de facto leader who captures attention visibly and audibly as the forefront melody and adlib player. Still, the songs (all composed by Kamimura) stand up firmly through the imaginatively constructed moods and the smart balance of free and locked-in patterns that the members generate. While there are some wild sections in the music (as in, some free jazz and wide-open improvisations), they rise from the groundwork of composed ideas, themes, harmonic structures, and frameworks that the trio uses to journey together. And through it all, there’s plenty of space for the three musicians to stretch out for extended improvisation, either out in front of the other two musicians, or in simultaneous soloing modes.

There is never the feeling that the musicians are lost or simply wandering without a map. These compositions are such that that the resulting music is fascinating but also dangerous and risky, as this kind of music can sometimes take a careful ear and deliberate attention to uncover the plan in the seeming chaos. Alternatively, just unplugging and letting the trip carry you along and wash through you is a completely enjoyable experience, too… maybe even the best way.

Track #1 “Action & Talk” seems complicated at first with a seemingly unsteady beat (or, one that is initially hiding) but the melody played by synchronized sax and bass is one that guides listeners through the opening chapter of a complex, interesting, but potentially confusing story. This dual- or triple-barreled sharing of the melody is something that the sax, bass, and drums enjoy throughout the album.

#2 “Autumn Song” (秋の歌, Aki no Uta) continues the adventure and pushes boundaries with freeish swing and vamp-like movements, that is, swing with its own thing that takes form out of a cauldron of potent musical chemicals and skill.

#3 “My Home” (マイ・ホーム) is an offbeat tune with a steady beat that seems to be easier listening but with unexpected angles, and some 4 over 3 polymeter moments to keep the edges sharp.

Track #4 “Dr & Bass & Sax” pulls a melody with staggered fenceposts of gaps and wires, one that is doubled, linked, and responded to Hashimoto’s drums. Forward motion and creative spontaneity move according to an unpredictable plan, as irregular patterns bubble up in the turbulent flow. It’s a entrancing conversation between the three players.

Track #5 “Meyu Meyu” (メユメユ) is another highlight with a variety of action based on loops of melody, rooted tones based on vamps and breaks, and a series of open sections. The musical complexity can be seen through a close counting reveals a 13-beat meter (3/4, 3/4, 3/4, 2/4/, 2/4?) that is surprisingly easy to follow based on the clear melody and harmony, and the tightness of the rhythm section.

Track #6 is titled “Waltz (Peace & Love)” and is a medium-paced 9-minute ballad that leans mostly towards a quiet jazz waltz that encourages good feelings and ease, doubtlessly. It’s an extended moment of repose and contentment.

Track #7 is “2009, Trio Song” (2009年トリオの歌, 2009 Nen Trio no Uta) is also calm and pretty played with a straight beat that walks through unfamiliar but comfortable changes.

Finally, the last song is track #8, “Igusanian Blue”, a meditative song that develops slowly and deeply. This song’s shifting tonal centers and straightly fashioned melody seems to share some ancient DNA with Herbie Hancock’s composition “Maiden Voyage” (could the mysterious title “Igusanian Blue” somehow be an undecipherable reference to Herbie’s prior album Empyrean Isles?) Be that as it may, this final statement on the album wraps up the lengthy and atmospheric journey into the distance, near and far, of Ochikochi’s layered concepts of near and far, here and there, simple and complex.

Obi Notes

Sound - Space - Resonance - Jazz

Three distant gazes intersect and unfold. Looking upwards, downwards, and far away - warmth emanates and dissipates.

A recording of the distance, far and near (ochikochi), that is the musical performance of Kamimura, Koreyasu, and Hashimoto. At Shinjuku Pit Inn and Yokohama Airegin. First album.

Audio and Video

• “Aki-no-uta (song of autumn)” (track #2) - 2009 live performance:

• Ochikochi 2012 live performance, another take on “Aki-no-uta (song of autumn)” (track #2):

• Excerpt from track #5: “メユメユ Meyu-meyu”

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”

Ichino’s guitar is in the spotlight, naturally, as this is a guitarist’s album featuring his original compositions. As a guitar trio with acoustic bass and drums, Ichino takes up most of the melodic and harmonic duties as he spins the chord structures, theme statements, and most of the solo improvisation over the precise drum and bass structures.

Ichino’s jazz guitar tone is another big part of the sound of this album. His softly electric sound is treated with subdued effects to surround the tones with comfortable waves of warble and warp and ever so slight overdrive grit. It balances his fluid playing well as he rings out plush chords and improvises, painting notes like light suspended in the vaults of churches, tinted and echoey.

Together, the trio creates music that is on different tracks patiently gentle, relentlessly driving, hypnotically oscillating, wandering and dreamy, and joyfully syncopated. With creative time signatures like three, four, five, and seven, and pulses of straight-eights, soft brushed jazz, and light rock, a great time feel continues throughout the album with ample variety.

Among the ten trio tracks are three songs and one short jam where saxophonist Taiichi Kamimura joins the trio with a bright and edgy horn sound that, like Jan Garbarek’s, balances so well with the richly resonant trio for some of the album’s most stimulating highlights.

Obi Notes

Memories of scenes from the mind’s eye. Ten sketches of sound.

Motohiko Ichino was born in Kobe. He studied at Berklee College of Music under Mick Goodrick (guitar) and others. He is a winner of the Gibson Jazz Guitar Contest in 2003. He currently plays in trios, quartets, solo improvisation, ELECTRON-4 project, and others at shows with a base at Shinjuku Pit Inn. He is also a member of groups including the Ryosuke Hashizume (tenor sax) Group and the Taiichi Kamimura (tenor sax) Quartet.

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Tony”, track #2 on this album:

• Audio for “Sketch”, track #10 on this album:

• A live version of “Childhood”, track #5 on this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Wrapped Up”