Across the Desert

Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ-514
Released in December 2003
Purchase price in Japan: 2,000 yen (tax not included)
(For purchase outside of Japan, prices vary.)

• Recorded by Naoaki Kose at Earth Studio, Tokyo, on May 27, 2002
• Mixed by Naoaki Kose at Earth Studio on August 15 and September 17, 2003
• Mastered by Shuichi Chino at Chino Chika on October 4, 2003
• Produced by Kazuo Imai
• Packaged in a cardboard jacket
• Design by Kazuo Imai

1. Attention (8:40)
2. Eyes Right (9:06)
3. Left Turn (5:30)
4. Go Upwind (6:16)
5. My Eyes Wouldn't Focus (6:29)
6. Across the Desert (2:30)
7. Imagination Is Obscene (6:54)
8. What? Where? (5:11)
9. In Fifty Years I May Be Gone (2:02)
   
   mp3 excerpt: track 1
   mp3 excerpt: track 2

All music by Han Bennink and Kazuo Imai

Han Bennink: drums
Kazuo Imai: acoustic guitar, electric guitar

European free jazz/free improvisation pioneer Han Bennink (drums) made this studio recording with Kazuo Imai (guitar) in Tokyo in May of 2002. Imai, who in the '70s studied with Masayuki Takayanagi and Takehisa Kosugi, currently performs both on his own and with the annual five-member collective improvisation project Marginal Consort. Across the Desert contains nine duo pieces. Imai plays both acoustic and electric guitar while Bennink delivers strong, constantly changing rhythms. Here are two musicians who know their instruments inside out. Their unique affinity is powerfully conveyed in these dynamic exchanges.

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