Michiyo Yagi, Joe McPhee, Lasse Marhaug, Paal Nilssen-Love

A master of reeds and horns, Joe McPhee is a bonafide free jazz icon who refuses to play the elder statesman in spite of his half-century-plus career. McPhee continues to hone his improvisatory skills by venturing far from his upstate New York home to perform with cutting-edge instrumentalists the world over. The phenomenal Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love is one of McPhee's most frequent and sympathetic collaborators. The duo's timely convergence in Tokyo with Lasse Marhaug, another Norwegian who is easily one of the most important electronics/noise musicians of the last two decades, and local resident Michiyo Yagi resulted in this extraordinary recording. Probably the most advanced and technically accomplished performer of the ancient Japanese instrument known as the koto, Yagi is known for her extreme eclecticism that incorporates free jazz, progressive rock, contemporary classical and traditional Japanese musics. An intense free-jazz blowout was expected when these unique personalities assembled at Tokyo's GOK Sound, but what transpired was totally unexpected: This is spiritual, mystical, soulful music unlike anything you've ever heard.