Kazumi Ikenaga: Niwatazumi

Nov 17, 2023

Niwatazumi is a wonderful modern jazz record from drummer Kazumi Ikenaga and Pauseland, a Danish group described as ambient jazz with Scandinavian folk influences. Spacey original compositions and mature musicianship flow in a breathy, open style resembling a modern ECM recording. Relaxing and anthemic, the music on Niwatazumi (translated as a large puddle remaining after heavy rainfall) is at times mesmerizing and at other times gently rocking and grooving. It’s a captivating journey from a drummer’s quintet, focused on ethereal ambiance in a way that constructs scenes and visions drawn out of nature, memories, and the texture of life.

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liners notes written by Kazumi Ikenaga.)

Unspoken Language / Jakob Buchanan

This song was actually performed and recorded at the end of our session, but when I listened back to the take, the idea came to me that it should be the album opener. This was my first time playing this piece, but my body reacted so naturally to it that I didn’t even look at the score. We were all just having a conversation through the music at the time.

Twosome / Christian Vuust

This song was written by Christian Vuust for his longtime friend and collaborator Jakob Buchanan. It’s a relaxing and melodious piece in which the scenery of Scandinavia emerges and disappears. While recording, I forgot that we were in a studio, and fell into the illusion of the scenery of the sky being changed by the wind.

JSB / Christian Vuust

This is named after the initials of Johann Sebastian Bach, of of Christian Vuust’s greatest musical inspirations. It’s a three-part construction of the theme in rubato, a tenor solo in straight eighths, and a mallet solo, with the final theme in rubato played again as an ending. It makes me imagine the magnificent nature of Scandinavia, the people who enjoy life there, and the history that is made as time passes.

Niwatazumi / Kazumi Ikenaga

The word niwatazumi (潦) is not very common in modern times but used to appear in haiku and ancient language forms. This is a waltz that was inspired by watching young children play in puddles of water left behind by the summer rain. It was a great take of the members’ performances.

Plastic Moon / Kazumi Ikenaga

Whether with my own group or elsewhere, I still often play the title song from Magnus Hjorth Trio’s 2010 CD Jogen—Plastic Moon. Since then, the song has gone through revisions, and as the instrument arrangement changes, and as the world changes, this song brings new discoveries each time.

Nanna / Jakob Buchanan

Nanna is the name of this song’s composer Jakob Buchanan’s beloved wife. It’s a song with a steady groove, rare in this album full of many rubato songs. As the rhythm section is enjoying the groove, the horns’ melody is full of humor and wit, yet the landscape of sound changes even to the extent of feeling melancholy and grief.

Returning / Kazumi Ikenaga

When I was eleven years old, due to family circumstances, I moved to a town where I spent seven impressionable years. It was there that I met important friends and started to study music on my own. Decades later, when I returned from studying abroad and visited the town after a long time, everything seemed to have gotten smaller. The air and the water were delicious in that town, the nature is abundant, and the changing of the seasons can really be felt. I felt that my sensibilities were cultivated there.

Høj Himmel / Christian Vuust

In English, it means “High Sky”. In Denmark, it’s said to represent the appearance of a vast sky on the flat land. Christian, who has loved ornithology since childhood, wrote this song one day while birdwatching cranes, hawks, and egrets on a lake in his home country.

By The Blue Bridge To Morgan Country / Jakob Buchanan

This is composed of a simple melodic refrain that evokes a philosophical feeling almost as if listening to a Zen dialogue. This song felt appropriate for an ending, where time passes gently as waves ebb and flow on the coastline. The whole song is played with mallets.