Akira Saito

Interview: Koichi Matsukaze

Multi-instrumentalist Koichi Matsukaze was born in 1948 in the Shizuoka Prefecture. A musician with a busy schedule, he is still active these days, leading his own quartet, and other past or present activities include participations in the Shibuya Takeshi Orchestra, Essential Ellington, the Sax Workshop, and the Yuji Imamura group, among other projects. Recently, his

Interview: Alfred 23 Harth

Alfred 23 Harth, also known as A23H, German multimedia artist, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer, recently released a duo album 55 Quintets with Korean trumpeter Choi Sun Bae (originally included in Ballet Music, but very few persons have this CDr).   Soon after extending his work radius from Germany to South Korea, A23H made collage

Interview: Mark Lewandowski

Bassist Mark Lewandowski originally hails from Nottingham, England, but moved to New York City in August of 2017. In 2021, he released his second album as a leader Under One Sky with Addison Frei (piano) and Kush Abadey (drums). Writer Akira Saito had the opportunity to interview Mr. Lewandowski about his work and perspectives on

Review: DUO by Otomo Yoshihide and Kawashima Makoto

Otomo Yoshihide has been well-known as an avant-garde turntablist, and often compared with Christian Marclay, pioneer of disruptive turntablism in the New York downtown scene of the 1980s. However, Otomo’s expressive focus was much different from Marclay’s, and he has already changed his main instrument from turntable to guitar. Often aggressive, Otomo’s guitar possesses a