FNK is a group featuring pianist Fumie Chiba, guitarist Nao Teraya, and drummer Kaoru Suzuki, who released their first album Canvas in 2022. A jazz trio made up of piano, guitar, and drums is somewhat unconventional, without a standalone bass instrument playing a steady undercurrent of tonal and rhythmic grounding. But prolific modern composer Fumie Chiba supplied this trio with new songs and arrangements written specifically for this format, emphasizing their expansive sound and balanced dynamics.
Canvas features ten songs with a running length of 53 minutes, all original compositions from pianist Chiba. The music is modern and brilliant and seeks to avoid common structures and patterns. With a breathy lightness and touching nostalgia, the trio fills out the space with convergent and intersecting layers.
The first three tracks lead off by displaying curiosity and fun, rich, mellow music composed with maturity. “Prologue” contains various turns as an enticing invitation, leading to the mysterious thrill of “Breathless” and the exciting footrace of “Run, Run Melos”. From there, the struttingly catchy anthem of “Pechika Pachika” establishes one of the strongest lingering melodies on the album, and leads to more original music full of mystery and evolving structures.
Liner Notes
(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes written by Fumie Chiba.)
Introduction
In a world full of so many CDs, thank you for picking up this album.
This unusual trio of guitar, drums, and piano started with the aural image of three people on the same circumference and has been performing live for about three and a half years now.
As the number of songs written for this band kept increasing, I kept thinking that I wanted to record someday.
It would be our greatest pleasure if you could enjoy a journey of free imagination with us and the sonic world of FNK. (Fumie Chiba)
1. Prologue
I wanted to write a song to serve to introduce the band. When I came up with the motif for this song, putting aside whether or not this could serve as a band introduction, I felt as if this song with its fluid time and tonality could go anywhere. The actual recording started from this song, and we decided that the first take recorded at the original soundcheck was a good one. However, after recording all the songs, it was decided to take one song for promotional video use, and we performed this song again, recording this take. Since this was both the first and last song of our recording, there was a sense of it being both a prologue and an epilogue.
2. Breathless
This song is often played at the opening of FNK's live performances. Recalling the Japanese form for “breathless”, the three of us are forming synchronization within one of this band's themes, the sense of three people circling in the same orbit. Quietly, warmly, a scene of penetrating light arises.
3. Run, Run Melos
The frustration of never arriving at your destination no matter how much you run and run, but you keep taking another step. The guitar riff with an extended delay gives this impression. When I wrote this song, I adopted the title from a book I remember reading in elementary school. I get a feeling like I’m running with Melos every time we play this song.
4. Pechika Pachika
When this melody came to me, I didn't know the time signature or chord progression, but for some reason, the title “Pechika Pachika” came to mind. There's a floating kind of feeling every time we play the simple melody, a strange song that brings fresh surprises.
5. Way Back Home
The guitar's gentle bottleneck tone creates a nostalgic feeling of being enveloped in the orange light of the evening. We try to play it with the feeling of moving slowly, slowly, at the end of the day.
6. Green Field
This song depicts a scene where a person stands alone atop a hill, surrounded by 360-degree wind. One of the characteristics of this band is songs that are not bound by usual jazz formats. For this take only, the drums were recorded a second time, overdubbing a new drum track over the original drums, creating a panoramic feeling of scattered notes being carried along by the wind.
7. Kansokyoku (Interlude)
This is a song written for this recording. It's a short song that seems to add several layers, with the melody theme moving from piano to guitar, swaying and slightly changing little by little.
8. Aqua
The piano starts without a count-off, the drums come in, and then the guitar takes over the melody statement. Flowing notes gradually increase in energy with a guitar solo, then a piano solo, and ending in a dramatic drum finale.
9. Canvas
I was moved by the story of how John Lennon and Yoko Ono met. I wrote this song because I also wanted to become a canvas for the two musicians and listeners to draw on using notes from their imagination.
The first three minutes begin with piano improvisation followed by the main theme. Then guitar and drums sketch an improvised painting on the canvas of this melody.
10. Reminiscence
The reminiscence of a short and simple motif appears several times. From the album's opening “Prologue” and the general tonal center of Am, and after visiting various other keys, “Reminiscence” finally ends this journey in C, the relative key of Am.
Canvas by FNK
Fumie Chiba - piano
Nao Teraya - guitar
Kaoru Suzuki - drums
Released in 2022 on Fumie Chiba as UR-003.
Japanese names: Fumie Chiba 千葉史絵 Nao Teraya 寺屋ナオ Kaoru Suzuki 鈴木郁
Related Albums
Fumie Chiba Trio: Tip of Dream (2009)
Fumie Chiba: Beautiful Days (2017)
Audio and Video
Live excerpts from “Breathless”, “Mi Fa Sol”, “Someday My Prince Will Come”, and “Restart” from 2020
Excerpt from “Run, Run Melos”, track #3 on this album: