Satoko Fujii's "Torrent"

I love solo piano records. Lately I've been immersing myself in all of the solo Cecil Taylor records in my collection (Indent to For Olim; on deck: The Willisau Concert) and got to thinking how the greatest statements of my favorite ivory-ticklers have been made in that format. While collaboration is an important dimension of spontaneous composition, solo recital is often the best way to hear a composing improviser's method, vision, and voice. 

While the prolific pianist-composer Satoko Fujii has recorded solo relatively infrequently (nine out of 100 albums), her comfort with solo performance grew during the pandemic isolation, when she released a number of solo recordings digitally via Bandcamp. The music on Torrent (out June 2 on Libra Records), recorded at a concert for the same promoter who booked the show that produced 2018's Solo, was created extemporaneously on the spot -- a testament to to Fujii's creative fecundity.

Fujii's tonal palette and dynamic range are wide and varied. She moves seamlessly between keyboard calisthenics and extended techniques, shifting from delicate flurries of notes to thunderous rumbling crescendos. The mood of the music shifts from gentle rumination to dark foreboding. Her composer's mind is engaged at all times, and her solo excursions possess the same expressive power for which her large ensemble music is justifiably well known.