Satoko Fujii, Tatsuya Yoshida

Victo 40th Anniversary Super Sale. A ferociously precise live duo from the 2002 Victoriaville festival pairing pianist Satoko Fujii with Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, both adding voice to an exhilarating barrage of stop-time exchanges, pounding rhythms, abrupt jump cuts and comic theatricality, racing through free improvisation, metal, boogie-woogie, tango and other stylistic collisions with remarkable speed, control and gleeful unpredictability.

Compatriots Satoko Fujii and Tatsuya Yoshida thrillingly demonstrated the virtues of Speed Metal Improv. The piano/drums duo threw itself headlong into a wild and bogglingly precise exchange of hammering percussion and jabbering voices, part battle, part hyperactive dance. A flawless composite of jumpcuts, the set spanned the musical map from hardcore and Metal to boogie-woogie and tango, ending with a hilarious impromptu rendition of “The Girl From Ipanama”.

Christopher Cox, The Wire, July 2002

Fujii, a great big band composer and eclectic post-Taylor pianist, and Yoshida, drummer for the Ruins, might have seemed an odd match. But Fujii has great ears and knew just how to steer the powerful Yoshida. There were some incredible stop-time passages, some locked-hands playing from Fujii, strange vocalising, and even a zipper solo from Yoshida. Altogether, the two seemed to be having a great deal of fun!

Mike Chamberlain, Signal to Noise, Fall 2002