January 29, 2025
What Happened There? - Keiji Haino & Natsuki Tamura
Label: Libra Records
Catalog #: 102-078
Location: Japan
Release Date: January 24, 2025
Media: cd
discogs.com: entry
At age 72, Keiji Haino has an extensive discography of officially released records. Many of these albums focus on solo recordings and certain ensembles, such as Fushitsusha. At the same time, for many decades Haino has maintained a very active slate of live shows, a habit that continues today. These live performances feature Haino in collaboration with numerous musicians who are not represented in his official discography. It is always a pleasure to see a new collaboration that thrived as a live date find an official release, so that the music is able to reach a broader audience than the fortunate few who were able to attend the local event. Such is the case with What Happened There?. This collaboration with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is the first to be documented between the pair of musicians. In fact, the content on the album is taken from a live performance from January, 2024, which took place in Tokyo.
It has been reported that Haino plays more than eighty instruments. However, the trumpet is not among them. He has had a few passing encounters where he has been invited as a guest to participate with a larger ensemble, which included a trumpet player. Examples include electronics with zeitkratzer (with Franz Hautzinger on trumpet) and Crumbling Brain with Full Blast (with Peter Evans on trumpet). In neither of these does Haino really interact individually with the trumpet. However, What Happened There? is the first release in which Haino is part of an intimate duet with a trumpeter. The results are spectacular!
The music takes form with Haino on electric guitar and Tamura on trumpet using sparse statements from their instruments to explore the acoustics of the space. When they have established their footing, Haino inserts fragments of lyrics, to which the trumpet responds. The sounds that Tamura coaxes from his instrument span the gamut from demonstrative bleats to clear commanding calls. Tamura also takes the opportunity to provide vocals of his own. They allow their improvisation to evolve into a full performance.
As we repeatedly say in these reviews, one of the pleasures of following prolific improvising artists like Keiji Haino is that he serves as an introduction to other like-minded musicians. What Happened There? served as our introduction to the music of Natsuki Tamura. Like Haino, Tamura has a massive discography reaching back into the 1970's. However, the world is a big place and it just so happens that our ears had not yet found his trumpet playing. We are very happy to have this omission corrected.
For those who live outside Tokyo but harbor a desire to hear the music of the instant that unfolds in that local scene, What Happened There? provides exactly the opportunity to catch up on what was missed. The music of this duo manifested on that night in January was too precious to allow to dissipate without record. This album shares precisely what happened there.
As an unnecessary addendum to the review, we note that each listener comes to an album along their own individual path. Experiences, recent or otherwise, may color how they react to an album. In our case, a little more than a month ago we completed our Top Ten List for 2024. What Happened There? shares something in common with the two albums at the top of the list. First, it is a guitar/trumpet duet as was Syyspimee by Guillaume Gargaud & Eero Savela. Second, on What Happened There?, a musician whom we have followed for a long time introduced us to another well-established musician, whose music had eluded us, as was also the case on Patina, where Kazuhisa Uchihashi introduced us to the saxophone of Akira Sakata. As a result, we cannot help but interpret What Happened There? as an auspicious ambassador for another year of great music in 2025.
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