Vertical Language, by Keiko-Higuchi

Vertical Language

by Keiko-Higuchi

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Lars Gotrich Oceans turn stormy shades of black and blue in these transfixing piano improvisations and radical song interpretations. Vertical Language can be harrowing in its apparent glossolalia — she howls, moans and wails with austere grace — but also beautiful in its chosen moments to sit in the silence, waiting. www.vikingschoice.org/archive/ambient-pop-finnish-black-metal-brazilian-free/ Favorite track: the still 05 esashi oiwake/ 江差追分.

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Heavy tip-on jacket with film laminate gloss, matte pigment foil stamping and insert.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Tip-On Mini-Lp style jacket with printed inner sleeve

Includes unlimited streaming of Vertical Language via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

Purchasable with gift card

$14 USD or more

	1.	scenery one 11:38
	2.	scenery two 04:30
	3.	scenery three 03:23
	4.	the still 01 01:17
	5.	the still 02 okesa/ おけさ節 04:31
	6.	the still 03 motherless child/ 時には母のない子のように 03:42
	7.	the still 04 black orpheus/ 黒いオルフェ 04:46
	8.	the still 05 esashi oiwake/ 江差追分 05:47

about

Based in Tokyo, Keiko Higuchi is a vocalist and instrumentalist internationally renowned both for her solo performances and extensive collaborations in the world of underground improvisation, jazz and the avant garde. On Vertical Language, Higuchi has created an evocative and hauntingly beautiful album that unfurls in equal parts light and darkness, form and emptiness. On solo voice and piano as well as in duets with bassist Louis Inage, Higuchi performs a collection of songs and improvisations that take unexpected paths; her voice and piano starkly, soulfully emerge. They gradually take form as sparse notes resonate and build into intense layers of sound. The music is unvarnished and deeply personal- it embraces traditional Japanese and spiritual musics as well as even jazz and bossa nova but never completely turning itself over to their familiar forms.

More than simply an album title “Vertical Language” refers to the distinctive musical approach that Higuchi has developed over the past twenty years. Her music is centered on the breathe and pulse- rather than set ‘horizontal’ musical rhythms or structures. It illuminates the connection between the artist’s body and sound. In her music piano chords and voice sound out in an instant and expand, floating off in new directions. The music embraces silence and negative space or the Japanese concept of “Ma” as well as the small ‘imperfections’ that any moment or sound might contain. Each moment in her music is as much imbued with what came before as what will come next - each note expands in space and can never be seen from just one perspective. In her music, Higuchi is constantly taking us to a place that neither she or we can quite yet see.

credits

released February 28, 2022

Keiko Higuchi - voice, piano
Louis Inage - bass (b2-b5)

a1-a3, b3-b5 recorded at Knuttel House, March 2020
b1-b2 recorded at GOK SOUND, December 2018
Recorded by Takeshi Yoshida / LINES
and Yoshiake Kondo / GOK SOUND
Mixed and mastered by Takeshi Yoshida
Vinyl Mastering by Kevin Gray, Cohearent Audio
Photography by Vincent Guilbert (Cover), Kazuyuki Funaki (Insert)
Design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN

nothing is added upon mixing and all tracks are done one or two takes

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Keiko-Higuchi Tokyo, Japan

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