Upcoming releases
Scenery
On Scenery, Ryo Fukui turns a late‑start passion into a quietly astonishing debut: airy, confident trio swing and luminous ballads that distil a distinctly Hokkaido sense of space, light and seasonal melancholy into six perfectly breathing performanc…
Mellow Dream
On Mellow Dream, Ryo Fukui deepens the lyrical sparkle of Scenery into something more sculpted and powerful: bittersweet themes, surging originals and a clearer, three‑dimensional swing that many hear as the true apex of his studio work.
Ryo Fukui Trio at the Slowboat 2004
On Ryo Fukui Trio At The Slowboat 2004, Ryo Fukui turns the ninth anniversary of his Sapporo club into a late‑career summit: Phineas‑ and Flanagan‑inspired fire, Shorter‑charged intensity and Slowboat’s living‑room warmth fused into powerful, precise…
Live At Vidro '77
On Live At Vidro ’77, Ryo Fukui Trio explode the cool perfection of Scenery and Mellow Dream into raw stage heat: a newly unearthed club tape where “Mellow Dream” stretches past 16 minutes and standards ignite into hard‑swinging, edge‑of‑the‑seat cat…
A Letter From Slowboat
On A Letter From Slowboat, Ryo Fukui makes a late‑career return to the studio that feels like a love note to his Sapporo club: standards and originals rendered with stronger touch, deeper emotion and an almost glowing lyricism shaped by a lifetime at…
My Favorite Tune
On My Favorite Tune, Ryo Fukui steps out alone at the piano for the only time on record, revisiting “Scenery” and “Mellow Dream” while unveiling northern‑lit originals that fuse bebop depth with a distinctly Hokkaido sense of stillness and space.
In New York
On In New York, Ryo Fukui steps into a Manhattan studio with Barry Harris’s rhythm team and delivers a straight‑ahead bebop session: standards and a newly ignited “Mellow Dream” played with weighty touch, elastic swing and an unmistakable sense of in…
Spacing Out
On Spacing Out, Shigeharu Mukai fuses spiritual jazz drive with vivid 70s fusion colours: bossa sway, tropical grooves, rock backbeats and fat funk lines orbiting his trombone in a confident, wide‑angle crossover set.
Moon Stone
On Moon Stone, Mikio Masuda channels the plush 70s crossover of Bob James and Ramsey Lewis into a distinctly Japanese fusion: electric keys, supple grooves and subtly psychedelic guitars gliding between jazz, rock and mellow funk.
Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk
On Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk (1960), Masao Yagi leads a sharp Tokyo quintet through an all‑Monk program, translating Thelonious’s craggy angles into a supple, swinging Japanese modern‑jazz dialect without smoothing away the music’s built‑in mi…
Music To Watch Seeds Grow By 008: Salamanda (Basil)
On Music To Watch Seeds Grow By 008: Salamanda (Basil), Salamanda miniaturise their left‑field ambient world into a single pot on a windowsill: a slow, luminous day‑in‑the‑life of a basil plant where light, water and time turn into gentle pulses, dri…
Bill Plummer And The Cosmic Brotherhood
"Welcome to the mind-expanding 1968 jazz recording of Bill Plummer and The Cosmic Brotherhood -- where Eastern and psychedelic influences meld together to produce one of the trippiest jazz albums on Impulse Records. This LP is a much-sought-after son…
Silmät sulaa
On Silmät sulaa, Pietu Arvola sets out to make a “summer album” and instead lands on a heat‑sick mirage: strings, tape‑scarred electronics and unstable textures steeped in memories of sunburn, burning houses and hospital fevers, where warmth tips con…
Anthem for Peace
On Anthem for Peace, Alan Braufman leads a razor‑sharp quartet through compact, hook‑rich tunes that braid spiritual jazz, buoyant post‑bop and modal, Eastern‑tinged themes into a forward‑moving set that feels both steeped in history and fully presen…
A Frauta De Pã
Big tip! Fifty years on, and it still sounds like a secret. Carlos Walker's A Frauta de Pã remains one of those rare Brazilian albums that collectors circle obsessively, its original RCA Victor pressings commanding reverence - and prices - entirely d…
Cool Jojo
Cool Jojo was recorded from 3 to 5 December 1979 at Epicurus Studio in Tokyo under the direction of guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi. The album features the band ‘Second Concept,’ combining electric guitar, saxophone, keyboards, bass, and drums. The pro…
Go On
Go On with the George Otsuka 5 was recorded in 1972 in Japan for the Three Blind Mice label. The album features a quintet led by drummer George Otsuka, a major figure in Japanese jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. The repertoire includes original compositi…
Moon Ray
Moon Ray was recorded on 21 and 22 April 1977 in Japan for the Three Blind Mice label. The album features the quartet led by alto saxophonist Yoshio Otomo, accompanied by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto (piano), Tamiko Kawabata (double bass) and Arihide Kurata (dr…
Midnight Sun
Recorded in Tokyo in June 1978 after his stay in the United States, Midnight Sun captures the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio in a format typical of the Three Blind Mice aesthetic: full, dynamic sound and natural breathing of the playing. Between standards (‘…
Dream Temperature
Saxophonist, producer and composer Brian Allen Simon explores darker hues, transposing waking and altered states under his studio veil Anenon. On the deeply evocative new album ‘Dream Temperature’, to be released April 24th on Tonal Union, he shifts …