Satsuki Odamura

On her first solo disc she set the instrument beside violin, shakuhachi and percussion, moving from Tadao Sawai’s airborne lyricism through stark koto and bass-koto duets to jagged, hypnotic bass-koto writing and trio improvisations where strings are bowed as well as plucked. Silences matter as much as attack. In jazz ensembles the same touch becomes central rather than decorative: a bass-koto line can open like a period film theme, then lock into African grooves, bop changes and electronics without losing its grain. Reviewers hear classic Japanese virtuosity bent to the music at hand. Duets with Sandy Evans place koto against saxophone in sparse landscape pieces, every tone considered; elsewhere she colours screen scores with koto and shamisen, and leads ensemble programmes of new Australian writing for the instrument. The result is recognisably Japanese and fully at home in contemporary rooms.