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Keiji Haino / Natsuki Tamura — What Happened There?
(Libra 102-078, 2025, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-08-23

What Happened There? Cover art

What Happened There? is certainly an appropriate title for this release. No one knew quite what would happen at the Aremo Koremo festival in January 2024. Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura had never played together before, and hadn’t discussed what they might do before they walked onto the stage of the Shinjuku Pit Inn that day. Both are well-known improvisers who have operated in many widely divergent spheres over the course of decades, Haino with his guitar often producing walls of wailing feedback and noise, Tamura with his trumpet, percussion, and voice producing a bewildering variety of unexpected acoustic noises. For the four parts of this album, the result is probably more sparse and fun-filled than one might expect. Haino in some ways seems to be channeling Fred Frith, with spiky stutters of atonal notes not overwhelmed by distortion. “Part One” begins with Tamura on percussion, punctuating Haino’s erratic lines with cymbals and other metallic sounds before picking up his horn for some woozy notes and short phrases utilizing a plunger for wah-wah tones. At times, both of them also use their voices, speaking and shouting words and phrases that may be Japanese or nonsense syllables or a mixture of the two. Tamura also has an array of toy noisemakers to provide squeaks and scrapes. On the whole, the pair seem to be in a relaxed and humorous mood, and no doubt the audience had a very enjoyable time watching it all unfold. As a recording, it’s an unpredictable joyride that’s a lot more fun than most free improvs.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Natsuki Tamura, Keiji Haino

More info
http://natsukitamura.bandcamp.com/album/what-happened-there

 

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