Satoko Fujii - Yamiyo Ni Karasu (2015)

"A Crow in the Night is the English translation of the album's title - the name of a Japanese folktale and an apt mood for pianist Fujii's gothic melodramas. She's been playing in a trio with bassist Todd Nicholson and drummer Takashi Itani for several years, during which they've developed a flexible approach to bringing her compositions to life, mixing dramatic narratives with episodes of abstract free improvisation, the creak and whine of arco bass and scraped cymbal harmonics. During a recent tour, Fujii's New Trio were frequently joined by her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, prompting the formation of this new quartet, Tobira (a door, open to new possibilities, so the translation goes). Tamura provides pranksterish unpredictability, spitting out rude whinnies and raspberries before suddenly taking the breath away with a high, clear note. On the opener, "Hanabi", his strained, windy blowing is the midnight gale out of which Fujii's mysterious, tragic piano figure emerges"
- Daniel Spicer, from The Wire magazine.