Album of the Day: Alister Spence and Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe – “Imagine Meeting You Here”

 

Artist:  Alister Spence & Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe

Album:  Imagine Meeting You Here

Label:  Self-Produced

Style:  Avant-garde big band

Favorite track:  “Imagine Meeting You Here 3 (You)”

Music from:  Newtown, Australia & Kobe, Japan

What I like about it:  I like how this album radiates the energy of an exploding sun and how that display of power still provides the environment for a simple melodic thread to thrive.  I like the modulations in the rise and fall of intensity, and that even during those transitions that are almost jarring, there’s a fluidity to them not unlike slipping into a pool of water and slowly floating away.  I like how this album’s 50 minutes of playing time easily flies on by, a quality that seems counterintuitive to the music’s immense presence… a quality that, under certain conditions, has the potential to be emotionally draining.  There’s an extended bass solo dead center of this recording, and I swear even with all of the craziness on this performance, it snaps right into place… a fascinating moment, but also representative of how the flowing undercurrent of the music is as much a guiding hand as its more volatile characteristics.

Your album personnel:  Alister Spence (conductor), Satoko Fujii (piano), Ko Iwata, Yasuhisa Mizutani (alto saxophones), Eiichiro Arasaki (tenor sax, shakuhachi), Tsutomu Takei (tenor sax), Keizo Nobori (baritone sax), James Barrett, Shojiro Yokoo, Natsuki Tamura, Rabito Arimoto (trumpets), Yusuko Kaneko, Yusuke Imanishi (trombones), Takumi Seino (guitar), Hiroshi Funato (bass) and Yoshikazu Isaki (drums).

Available at:  Amazon

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.