New music for violin and piano blurring the boundaries between composition and improvisation.

4 MP3 Songs
AVANT GARDE: Free Improvisation, AVANT GARDE: Classical Avant-Garde

Show all album songs: Minamo Songs


Details:
Carla Kihlstedt and Satoko Fujii are brilliant musicians. This CD was recorded during two Festivals. The first in San Francisco in 2002 and the second was at the âMusic Unlimited Meetingâ in Wels, Austria in 2005. The latter was where I heard them and was dazzled; I am not easily dazzled.

As Larry Ochs (ROVA Sax Qt.) says in the liner notes: â. . . They show us exactly how improvisation can become the strongest tool in a composerâs toolbox . . .â Both Carla and Satoko tour with other bands. Carla is part of Tin Hat Trio, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Charming Hostess. Satoko performs extensively in Japan and worldwide with Mark Dresser, Jim Black, and Natsuki Tamura among others. Satoko says, Playing with Carla is such a special experience for her as it gets to a place where she never could imagine or hear beforehand. Carla expounds saying: âPlaying with Satoko is like nothing else Iâve ever experienced. The very first time we played together (which is documented on this CD) we found an inexplicably mutual language that has, since then, been an amazingly fertile playground for us. We always seem to arrive together at places that neither of us could possibly find on our own. Itâs one of those rare and exciting moments in which I donât feel like weâre improvising so much as weâre uncovering whole fields of lost artifacts.â

Henceforthâs quest is to bring to the attention of a contemporary listening audience the work of some of today's most vital artists whose vision crosses the boundaries and expands definitions of contemporary classical, improvised, electronic, and experimental music. Furthering Henceforthâs mission, Kihlstedt and Fujiiâs Minamo is an example of powerful genre-bending music.

Brief Biographies

Carla Kihlstedt
Carla has played the violin for most of her years on this planet. It has been the vehicle that has brought her through many approaches to music-making, from her beginnings in the classical world to her present many-headed musical life. Kihlstedt has studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
She is a composer, an improviser, a vocalist, and a member of several long-term projects, including 2 Foot Yard, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Tin Hat. Aside from her various identities within these bands, Carla has had the opportunity to work with many wonderful musicians including Fred Frith, Lisa Bielawa, Ben Goldberg, Carla Bozulich, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and Tom Waits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Kihlstedt

Satoko Fujii
Many say that Satoko Fujii is one of the most original voices in jazz today. Sheâs âa virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on nearly 40 albums as a leader or co-leader, the Tokyo resident synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. Since she earned her graduate diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music. Her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black has released five CDs, all of which earned places in criticsâ year-end Top 10 lists. In 2001, she debuted an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring Takeharu Hayakawa, Tatsuya Yoshida, and Natsuki Tamura, and their high-energy CDs were hailed by listeners worldwide. Fujii has also established herself as one of the worldâs leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Since 1997, she has released a steady stream of acclaimed releases for large ensemble, culminating in 2006 when she simultaneously released four big band albums: one from her New York ensemble, and one each by three different Japanese bands. In addition to playing accordion in her husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamuraâs Gato Libre quartet, she also performs in a duo with Tamura, as an unaccompanied soloist, and in ad hoc groupings with musicians working in different genres. She tours regularly appearing at festivals and clubs in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe.
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/Libra/