Kazuo Imai, Roger Turner

Limited edition of 400. This masterful performance was born of the meeting of two master improvisers, Kazuo Imai from Japan and Roger Turner from the UK. Imai, who studied with Masayuki Takayanagi and Takehisa Kosugi, is one of Japan's leading improvisers and guitarists. Turner is a drummer and percussionist who has been actively performing throughout the world since the beginning of the 1970s. His Japan tour in October 2017 included concerts with Japanese musicians in various locations, including his performance with Kazuo Imai at Bar Isshee in Tokyo on October 11. In this duo concert, Imai played one nylon string guitar, while Turner used only snare drum, tom tom, cymbals, metal and wood instead of setting up a complete drum set; and the sound was acoustic, without electric amplification. The overall sound is somewhat controlled, in keeping with the nylon string guitar volume; and within that context the musicians' interacting sounds are remarkably diverse, dynamic, and beautiful. The concert's first set (Disc 1, 32 minutes) and second set (Disc 2, 36 minutes) are documented in their entirety on this album.