Natsuki Tamura - Yama Kawa Umi (2025)

The Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and the Spanish drummer Ramón López released an album titled Confluence as a duo in 2019. A year later, the married couple Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura enlisted the drummer for a tour across Japan. Following these performances, they recorded the album Mantle as a trio.

Four years later, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Satoko Fujii, and drummer Ramón López reunite as a trio in the studio to dedicate themselves to their musical vision of Yama Kawa Umi (Mountain River Sea), the sea at the mountainside.

The extraordinary trio lets the music crash and roar like the wild sea against the cliffs, with water foaming and surging high. The melodies are as beautiful as the clear water.

All nine songs thrive on these compositional subtleties, which can explode in surprising ways at any moment. Ramón López seems to reflect walking, running, and wandering along the cliffs in his artistic expression, while Natsuki Tamura embodies the whispering, howling, and blowing wind, and Satoko Fujii, in her musical language, represents the flowing, rushing, and roaring sea.

Often, all three elements are heard simultaneously, but at times only the wind or only the water is present. Occasionally, the wind even mimics the sounds of the water. The beauty of nature is revealed in all three representations, with their collective portrayal serving as a magnificent culmination, making Yama Kawa Umi a true synchronized spectacle: Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, and Ramón López at the peak of their united creativity.(8.5 points)~review courtesy of Michael Haifl and saitenkult_de