About

There are moments on this album when the engery is so furiously intense it feels like it‘s going to spin out of control and take someone’s eye out. Sakata delivers wry alto phrases, as though from the corner of his mouth, before disgressing into urgent flights of fancy, and finally launching into screaming, red-faced declamation – fuelled by Nilsen-Love’s boiling pulse-time drums and and the low bounce of Berthling‘s double bass. – The Wire

-

Akira Sakata: alto saxophone, clarinet, voice

Johan Berthling: double bass

Paal Nilssen-Love: drums & percussion

-

Semikujira is a major new addition to these musicians already vast discographies, and one of the most satisfying listens of the year so far – a powerful, thoughtfully constructed work that blends familiar but disparate musical dimensions into a convincing whole, while preserving the spontaneity of instant creation. – The Free Jazz Collective