URABE/TOSHIAKI ISHIZUKA, MASAYOSHI - Natsu No Sebone

"Alto saxophone, bells - Masayoshi Urabe; percussion - Toshiaki Ishizuka. Thrilling, blood-shaking, soul-scraping and defiantly non-sexless improv set from two Japanese titans. Recorded live at the Apia club in Tokyo in December last year, this set showcases Urabes uniquely physical approach to improvisation -- ferociously concentrated, contorted, sweating and eruptive with physical power. His lines seem to boil up from his flesh, with gurgles, gasps and rasping breath defining sparse, sonic regions in which silence itself seems to breath. Ishizuka is the perfect foil, providing subtle shade and balance around Urabes transformative sculpting of space. One track, 58 minutes. Comes with a booklet of evocative black and white photographs of the event by Tatsuo Suzuki. The title translates as The Backbone of Summer." - FE.