Tatsu Akiba in Swans Dance, Roses Bloom like Mad 2021, Limited Time Only! [Canterbury sound]

 

Information to be found here: 

"Japanese multi-instrumentalist, composer and progressive rock musician."

Definitely this is a case of understating the situation, it turns out it's brilliantly played, brilliantly composed classic prog of the kind we adore here, leaning towards the old Canterbury classics especially Hatfield. On this blog, the old Stubbs (Kojiro Yamashita) from more than a decade ago is very similar.

There are 3 albums in total so far from Akiba this being the first one from 2021.  I am not sure about the 'unreleased tracks' listed below on the discogs page.

A Host of Heroes etc. sounds very classic in the prog style, similar perhaps to Germans Epidermis, with the vocals sung on top of a dissonant and irregular-rhythm riff:

On the other hand a track called Brigid's Hut sounds like he listened very closely to beloved classic prog band Yezda Urfa of Boris fame, and learned how to play its own unique brand of insanity:

Pretty remarkable, right?

Note also the use of mellotron here and there.

Altogether, a very enjoyable album.

I'll be back with one more from him shortly.

Didier Malherbe in 1990's Fetish CD [plus 1979 Bloom, 1981 Melodic Destiny, 1986 Faton Bloom, 1989 Saxo Folies]

 

I thought for sure I posted him before, but only in connection with Faton Cahen, here, and Patrice Meyer. Of course he's most known for the work he did with Gong.

From the requested album Fetish, released 1990, the last 2 songs feature synth player Rykiel, discogged here.  These are really lovely, consider Hors D'oeuvres:

I'm assuming everyone is already familiar with the great Bloom album and Faton Bloom, which is a kind of follow up from 1986 with Cahen.  From that one, the lovely but oddly named Vulvox:

From the cassette only release with guitarist Yan Emeric, A Breughel really blew me away in its compositional glory, I am not sure which of his paintings the progressive complexity could be alluding to:

Otherwise this release is a bit of mixed bag.

Back to the Japanese stuff straightaway after.

KBB, Part 2: Four Corner's Sky (2003), Live 2004, Proof of Concept (2007), Live Bootleg 2008

 

Here are the other albums from this great prog-fusion band.  

Discography here.

Horobi no kawa from Live 2004 sounds very much like old, classic Kenso:

Lagoon Nebula, from Proof of Concept, 2007:

Intermezzo, from the 2008 Live Bootleg:

Setting aside the live albums, which perform tracks mostly from the albums, I do believe the first one was their best but that's open to disagreement.

KBB, Part 1: Lost and Found (2000), Age of Pain (2013)

 

KBB:

Japanese jazz rock fusion / progressive rock band led by violinist Akihisa Tsuboy since 1992.

So with the violin front and center, you can expect a kind of fusion similar to the TEE posted earlier here, not as much variety as the classic french ones (eg Didier Lockwood) unfortunately.  There's a lot of hammond and electric guitar, none of the more delicate chamber music type stuff, making it occasionally seem monochromatic.

Their first album is from 2000, more than 25 years ago now, and it's called Lost and Found.  A track called Divine Design reminds me a lot of classic Kenso, and that's a wonderful thing of course:

From the final one, coming out in 2013, called Age of Pain, the great emotional resonance of  Lythrum:

More from the Inoue Takayuki Band [1977 Bark at the Sun, 1979 Man who stole the Sun, 1980 Water Band Wagon

Inoue Takayuki made a lot of music, he was almost as prolific as our wonderful Yuji Ohno, the soundtrack master-- remember his James Dean, The First American Teenager?

Inoue's Sunrise from 1976 appeared back here, and probably is his best work for us (in the progressive fusion, or progressive OST vein).  Nonetheless I slogged through some other soundtracks that are available digitally, to see if there are any other gems.  So here are some or a few of them.

From The Man who Stole the Sun, which is databased on this page, a track called Tokyo Dept. Store Toilet:

And much else along the same lines.  Surprisingly the 1980 one is not as good as the 70s music.

I'm going to post some more interesting Japanese music in the next few weeks, there's a whole ton of stuff from back in the day and then more hailing from recent decades: some fusion, some prog-fusion, and some true-blue classic prog rock too. No basic jazz, no simple folk, no humdrum pop, no ordinary, trite, commonplace sounds at all for at least I think a 'fortnight' of albums, perhaps more...   

And all from Japan, source in recent years on here of so many rare gems.  Stay tuned.