Gato Libre.(Strange Village)(Sound recording review)

Gato Libre. Strange Village. Onoff/Muzak MZCO-1073, 2005.

Forget everything you thought you knew about trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, whose previous work has been a wild amalgam of spiky experimental jazz and equally forbidding jazz-rock fusion. His wife, pianist Satoko Fujii, has also created some fairly difficult (though always intelligent and usually very rewarding) music in the past. As Gato Libre, however, Tamura, Fujii, classical guitarist Kazuhiko Tsumura and bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu have made a record of surprisingly soft and lyrical beauty that at times borders on flat-out impressionism. For this recording, Fujii plays accordion instead of piano, and while the group's music does not generally lack a rhythmic pulse, the lack of a drummer leads the musicians to play with a feeling that suggests the progress of steadily ...