Set for release through Anna von Hausswolff's Pomperipossa label later this month, Naoko Sakata's debut album 'Dancing Spirits' is an entrancing and beautiful piece of work. Sakata is clearly a musician with an intimate knowledge of the rules of playing the piano, while also having no inclination to follow them.
Across seven improvised pieces recorded over two days in a Gothenburg church, Sakata's playing veers between gentle breeze and all out hurricane. However, even in the most chaotic moments, there is a feeling that Sakata is still in control, albeit perhaps not consciously.
"When peace and chaos exist together, I feel like myself", she says. "I felt a strong connection with the music flowing in me".
"When I sit in front of the piano, I, as a person, disappear", she goes on. "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".
'Dancing Spirits' is out on 26 Mar. Listen to 'Improvisation 3' here: