PRESENTATION ⎪ CONCERTS ⎪ DISCOGRAPHY ⎪ PRESS ⎪ AUDIO/VIDEO
KAZE & IKUE MORI
Live :
“Those who have ever tried to light a fire in a breezy chimney may have a little idea of what’s blowing in the Kaze project. The quartet, fissued rom the adventurous ranks of the Muzzix collective, made the wind its patronymic. Kaze is the wind in Japanese. Kaze knows his winds with the two brass instruments blown by Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost. 2 trumpets facing two hammerers: Peter Orins behind his drums and Satoko Fujii facing the keyboard of an extended piano. There’s music in the air. This quartet is definitely there. Breath of all types. The rough, the harsh and the severe, the light, the very playful and the lyrical oblique. Very large amplitude of the musical material played in a new repertoire. Nothing but hot air, yes. But very very consistent. Ideas are free, the interplay is terribly free, too. What is played here has the thickness of tales whose origins have been lost and which are reinvented in the moment, with a mischievous vivacity. And Kaze’s invitation to Ikue Mori doesn’t help this jubilant abstraction. A fraction of the DNA of DNA (this group of New York’s silly-sonics whose antics must still be shaking up contemporary concepts), Ikue Mori also knows how to play pedal to the metal. Illustrating here, disfiguring there. Far from decorating, far from nicely contraposing, his electronics pushes Kaze’s winds into even more floating limits. And the breath, for example, taken up by Pruvost, on the occasion of a solo manipulated like Bubka did with a pole (/w flexibility and power), to find a suspended moment. Voluble and ready to throw his four compatriots into contradictory debates, redirected by Peter Orins’ irrevocable typing or Satoko Fujii’s barely well tempered keyboard. “He who makes winds will live long. “My grandmother used to say. No better.” (About Kaze & Ikue Mori at Sons d’Hiver – January 2020) Guillaume Malvoisin | Pointbreak
About Sand Storm (2020) :
” (…) On pourrait penser qu’un japonais de plus ferait rompre l’équilibre précaire. Cela le galvanise. “Kappa” en est l’exemple parfait, où une certaine langueur domine l’urgence, et où la batterie d’Orins trouve en Mori un nouveau partenaire de jeu. Le sable de Mori est de ceux dont on fait le mortier. C’est un stabilisateur qui offre de la liberté et surtout du renouveau au quartet.
C’est surtout qu’avec Mori, on ne perd rien du luxe de détail qu’offrait Kaze. Au contraire, on les multiplie en de nombreux cristaux aux formes uniques et diablement sophistiqué, comme de la neige, ou du sable, dans sa version plus minérale.
Une réussite.” Franpi Barriaux | Sun Ship
“(…) With its well-judged amalgam of adventurous and empathetic ensemble playing, and striking individual flights, Sandstorm constitutes yet another fine entry into the band’s discography.” John Sharpe | All About Jazz
“(…) Cet album fourmille, en effet, de pépites sonores, de cristaux poétiques, d’échos d’ailleurs, de résonances affectives, de trouvailles surprenantes. Les quatre de Kaze ont su mettre au point un son qui leur est propre, une musique qui se réinvente d’album en album, piquante, l’humour en coin. Elle largue les amarres mélodiques ou rythmiques, ceci sans nous perdre en route : les amants de toujours du jazz ne seront pas jetés aux orties. Et Ikue Mori a su s’y fondre, naturellement, sans esbroufe ni effacement.” Guy Sitruk | Citizen Jazz
“Kaze, c’est un univers. Un univers de bruissements, de sons satellitaires, d’urgences générées. De notes, aussi, qui connectent le post-mélodico-harmonique à la mélodie accompagnée. Le charme y côtoie l’irascible. Groupe à la musique fine et à l’exubérance tempérée, le choix d’inviter Ikue Mori, l’égérie électronique de John Zorn, paraît, à rebours, somme toute logique. La maîtresse des sons injectés se fonde si bien dans l’esprit du quartette que cela touche à l’évidence. Prolongeant les sons striés de Christian Pruvost, les percussions au souffle large de Peter Orins, complétant les données harmoniques de Satoko Fujii ou les zébrures de Natsuki Tamura, Ikue Mori nourrit non seulement le monde de Kaze mais lui donne une amplitude nouvelle. (…) Avec ce cinquième album en une décennie d’existence, les familiers de Kaze plongeront en eaux connues mais avec cette drôle de sensation qu’un courant sous-marin méconnu jusqu’alors modifie leurs sensations habituelles. Les autres découvriront – nous les y incitons fortement – l’un des groupes aimantins du premier XXIe siècle nimbé d’une aura électronique afin de se délecter de leurs expressions contrastées et intentes.” Ludovic Florin | Improjazz
“(…) From the background, Mori and Orins smack against the horns’ melody like waves against a sea wall. Each lengthy composition contains moments you can hum and passages of roiling chaos. The free pieces are shoerter and stick within a chosen energy level, ranging from hushed, twitchy atmosphere to banging free jazz blowout. Each is worth hearing, but the vastness of these compositions yields rewards that compound with each new listen.” Bill Meyer | The Wire
” (…) Once again (this time with a guest) Kaze released a set of amazing musical stories. With all the abstract sophistication of their music, I invariably have the impression that it also has a real fairy-tale atmosphere, a fantastic aura from a completely different dimension.” Rafał Zbrzeski | dzikienuty2.com
” (…) Mori’s instrument, specifically, a laptop, brings an instantaneous distinctiveness to the record, though to be fair, Kaze’s dual valve scenario is already unique. Both Pruvost and Tamura can breathe fire, though they also deliver some recognizably jazzy melodic passages. Extended techniques? Oh yes, but without turning this into one of those “I’ll show you what I can do” situations. Those collectively composed tracks, “Poco a Poco,” “Under the Feet,” and “Suna Arashi,” are unsurprisingly a little more closely linked to the spontaneity of improvisation, but they still cohere seamlessly into a CD that’s magnificence is firmly established even before Tamura’s wonderful vocal solo in the middle of closing track Noir Soir.” Joseph Neff | The Vinyl District
” (…) The Sandstorm begins adequately to its name – a sharp, collective, free jazz blow of the power of four live instruments and a synthetic background that builds tension but is not meant to come out ahead. Energy and emotion worthy of the Brotzmann force of destruction several decades ago! Prepared sounds on high dynamics, pulsating electronics, crossing trumpets – the story seems to be still growing despite its initial intensity. In the collective melting pot of free narration, Orins shows the most sense, who with his precise drumming arranges this very beautiful situational chaos. An event chases an event here, another sound foreshadows the previous one. In the middle of the song, the narration is automatically suppressed, and psychedelia – delicate, although dense, like a spicy tomato sauce – starts to sink under the musicians’ fingers. (…)” Andrzej Nowak | Spontaneous Music Tribune
“Sand Storm is avant-garde jazz by the grace of God, the result of a desired encounter between the Japanese / French avant-garde jazz quartet, Kaze, and the Japanese-born US-based drummer and electronic musician Ikue Mori. Kaze – led by the ubiquitous, innovative force, pianist Satoko Fuji – has existed for half a dozen years and is a well-knit and expressive orchestra, but with the guest, Mori, it is still as if the dynamics of the otherwise very profiled orchestra get one tooth more in energy level. The expression becomes more extroverted, insistent and violent. Still, it is complex soundscapes, avant-garde and free jazz that are practiced – with a remarkable openness, sensation and technical virtuosity. But with Mori on board, it is still as if the willingness to take risks increases. At the same time as the instrumentalists are openly listened to, reverently, focused. And self-printed in several solos, which at no time, however, stretch the legs of the orchestra’s course, which on the contrary appears solidly laid out.” Ivan Rod | ivanrod.dk
” (…) Sand Storm never resolves, mostly because it is never dissonant. Sounds exist as they are and provide life and breath to a world its own. Contrasts and complements create the same harmony as the ebb and flow through time, free from what we often think of as traditional structures. Strained sounds shift from uncomfortable events to beautifully vibrant sonorities, while the most basic building blocks in Western harmony and melodic contour may feel invasive. The definition of experimental, Kaze Quartet and Ikue Mori’s Sand Storm exists as an apex in a musical world few dare to brave.” Kevin Baldwin | I Care If You Listen
” (…) What’s the real reason for listening to Kaze and Ikue Mori and their strange catalog of sounds? You might ask, “Is this real music?” That, of course, is the genius you’ll find in Sand Storm–it is music, clearly so, and it reveals the true spirit of jazz in the way the ideas and themes slowly emerge from that odd sonic landscape. I’ve listened to many of these recordings over the years, and sometimes they’re cool just for the exotic sounds, but often these compositions devolve into novelty. Sand Storm, however, is so intriguing that you’ll listen to it as music, not noise, and you’ll start to think about the relationship between music and sound and then your mind will wander and make new synaptic connections and the next thing you know you’ll be hooked–just as I am.” Marc Philips | Part Time Audiophile
” (…) Trust Fujii’s instincts. Mori is a perfect match to any fearless, forward-thinking ensemble.” Eyal Hareuveni | Salt Peanuts
” (…) I have to admit that the recording was a big surprise. I was actually prepared for a “regular” record with Fujii and some of her friends. But then there is a fresh, free, creative and delicious recording, which will be played a lot throughout the autumn at home, so the neighbors will like it or not. For this I thought was interesting and tough!” Jan Gralie | Salt Peanuts
” (…) Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura make many records every year; Fujii alone released twelve in 2018. But they always have something new to say in each release in part because they are so open to allowing new musical personalities to disrupt an existing chemistry in order to forge a fresh one. Peter Orins and Christian Pruvost are like that, too, and that’s why Sand Storm isn’t a repeat of old ideas. Each Kaze album is a reinvention of Kaze.” S. Victor Aaron | Something Else Reviews
