Taku Sugimoto: h

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Taku Sugimoto (g)
Cristián Alvear (g)

Label:

Another Timbre

July/2018

Catalogue Number:

AT122

RecordDate:

November 2017

In a blindfold test, you might assume h to be a carefully organised piece by a composer immersed in Morton Feldman or Alvin Lucier. The stark intervals of the opening moments might also invoke another classical reference – the last movement of Mahler's ‘Ninth Symphony’ – but this music, though you'd never guess it, has its roots in a song. Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto's 2017 album Songs, made with the vocalist Minami Saeki, won him many plaudits and h takes the structure of one song and sends it scattering over a 42-minute stretch. Recorded live in Tokyo, Sugimoto pairs his guitar with Cristián Alvear's and, matching the extraordinary unity of their tone and purpose, the music also feels meshed into the surrounding acoustic. The sounds evolve very gradually, both guitarists playing Sugimoto's melodic material in their own time, which throws up beautiful non-intentioned overlaps of harmony, and an overlay of intricately threaded lines.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more