A while ago I read an article writen by Andreas Fredrik Larsen call "Strategies of authentication in Japanese experimental music". In that article he describe two kind of artist: the first one is the kind of artist that elebarote his music trying to authenticate it from its roots; his music is the result of a tree with a really strong root and the music created from it is a branch in that big tree. Any folk music can be seen with that point of view, but jazz is a really good example.
But something awesome happended with japanese experimental music: when they opened their frontiers during the Meiji era, they start absorbing all the cultures brought by the europeans. All that music was for them just information: no emotional, traditional or any kind of root could be traced, but they started using it for their own creations. And not only music, also a lot of instruments came from europe. The result is the second tipe of artist described in the article: a musician that can make collide atoms-sounds in a way that the first kind of artist can't, creating surprising stuffs: the roots force the first kind of artist to give the atoms-sounds particle a progesion well defined by the tradition. This kind of creation could be call vertical creation: since the roots are there the growing will start in the direction of the light. The second type of artist dont have a vertical direction. They have created in the oposite way: they never had roots to start creating and the direction of the atom-sounds particles are unpredicble. its not vertical... it does not even have a direction.
With this toughts i will put the album An Anxious Objetc created by Mouse on the Keys. its a japanese jazz album and a good example about what i have been saying: its black music played by japanese people but it does not sound like black jazz at all. you can hear the influence of the oriental tones in their music.
They are three and the three of them are great, but drummers always caught my attention and the one of this band is awesome. He gives intensities and create really good atmospheres for the pianos but he can also hit the drums really hard. The keyboardist are also really good and they create really nice tunes with good melodies. From time to time a sax player and a trumpeter appear in the songs, also great musicians.
and now the fucking album
Mouse on the Keys - An Anxious Object
