Gothenburg-based Japanese musician Naoko Sakata has arrived with the second single, “Improvisation 2”, from her approaching piano solo project, Dancing Spirits, following on from last month’s “Improvisation 3”.
Releasing via Anna von Hausswolff’s Pomperipossa Records, Sakata found the perfect match for her bold independent spirit within von Hausswolff. Nigh impossible to classify, the album is borne of inspired improvisation, spur of the moment, unknowable and deeply relatable, all at once. Recorded across two days in the Swedish church, Annedalskyrkan, the album proves to feel akin to the ghost of feelings yet unknown.
Delving into her approach to the deeply personal project of improvisations, Sakata explains, “When I sit in front of the piano, I, as a person, disappear. My body becomes a conduit for expressing the music that I can hear in my head. There are no obstacles to its realisation and I don’t follow rules on how to make it happen. It is at the same time something natural and highly spiritual, sacred and wild, something that lives in a moment in time and only in that, before disappearing forever.“
Check out the ethereal, eerie video for “Improvisation 2” below.
Naoko Sakata’s new album Dancing Spirits arrives on March 26 through Pomperipossa (pre-order). You can find Sakata on Instagram and Facebook.
