Aki Takase and Nobuyoshi Ino

"TeniMuho"

(Mobys, Chitei Records 2007)     

Aki Takase  piano, china koto, gong, glockenspiel, voice

Nobuyoshi Ino  bass, chanchiki, kokyu, bell, voice

This interactive duo is a fascinating, quirky, unconventional outing. Recorded some time ago but just newly remastered from live tapes, the excellent sound quality is a necessity to catch the light notes, thumbed bass, vocalese and odd, unidentifiable noises. Moving from an almost stately classical to wide-open free jazz to driving energy, the duo takes on mainly originals by Takase, along with a traditional song or two, one offering from Ino and a Charlie Haden number.

In terms of sheer invention, the CD is wonderful. Few conventional voicings, interactions or directions are followed, and even when they are, they feel ironically, yet cogently, delivered. The freer flowing parts are played with great sincerity, however, and an idiosyncratic sense of energy and connection. The apt title translates into English something like "naturally and unaffectedly accomplished." The duo's simpatico instincts and individual technique fit that boldly chosen title perfectly.

The two musicians know each other well, though Takase has spent as much time in Germany as Japan, with Ino working mainly in Tokyo. They have not only intuition about where the other is going, but a sense of pushing the other there, always reaching for a musical space not yet covered and certainly not expected. The opening up of unplayed worlds makes the recording seem to be a huge exploration of vast space. There is no sense of closing down, but of continually opening to more and more, well, whatever, sounds, feelings, spatial choices and the occasional rhythmic urge.

Each tune moves through almost symphonic shifts of tone and approach. Section by section, the two build tension, and while the parts are not disconnected, coherence is not the issue. Instead, an effortless flow of ideas leads from one moment to the next, with what feels like a stream of unconscious musicality. The challenge is to follow the duo through all this textures, directions and impulses. That challenge, though, with each listen to the CD, makes each time, each moment of confusion and each sheer surprise, all that much more rewarding.