Label: Relative Pitch Records, 2022
Personnel - Masayo Koketsu: alto saxophone.
The Japanese saxophonist Masayo Koketsu shows stimulating storytelling capabilities through a single 46-minute piece that signals her solo debut record. Steeped in the free jazz tradition of Japan, this effort summons her bravery, denoting remarkable levels of agility and a wide range palette of tonalities. Fukiya is the Japanese blowgun, which seems to have inspired Koketsu to throw sonic darts here with a focused precision.
Not having who pave her way gives her complete freedom, and this improvised journey begins with extended multiphonics delivered with occasional tremolo. They are regularly interrupted by silences that help set an atmosphere of unexpectedness, awe, and search at every turn. Bubbling here, and charging there, the lines are delivered with more or less friction, simmering without boiling. However, you should be prepared for abrupt piercing screeches interlaced with sweeter articulations, in a constant ebb and flow that, varying in intensity and emotion, feels like a tidal wave of thought and conversation with her psyche.
There are sections where the melody takes a more regular shape. Yet those passages are constantly stricken by throaty cries, controlled shrieks, and brisk contortions. Multi-directional flows convey anger and repose without damaging any narrative coherence, and halfway she becomes prayerful, later throwing in hiccuped popping sounds and one-stroke sketchy lines that, in my head, serve to paint an imaginary sky of red and blue. The final part brings a little bit of the Coltrane spiritual fervor mixed with some gut-wrenching pleas and circular patterns.
As with any solo effort, especially when harmony is not involved, you have to be open-minded and in the spirit to follow the recital. This is not for casual listening, and demands attention from the listener. Free jazz saxophone enthusiasts will be the targeted consumers of a recording where Koketsu’s burning fire claims for international recognition.
