Hohai-Bushi

Description

“Hohai-Bushi” is the meeting of Paal Nilssen-Love and his Large Unit ensemble, here in a 13 people strong line-up, and legendary Japanese musician Akira Sakata. Since the 1960s Sakata has been one of the leading saxophone players in the field of free jazz and improvisation, from his start in Yamashita Trio, on to his own ensembles, to a latter-day cross-over to younger musicians from different genres, including noise and experimental music. Akira Sakata is a living legend of the last 50 years of radical new music, and is still active and pushing the frontiers of the artform to this day. In 2013 he formed the trio Arashi with Paal and Johan Berthling, with extensive touring and five albums to show for, so this collaboration with Large Unit shouldn’t come as a great surprise. That said, the music will surprise – and delight – even the most experienced listeners. The CD release of “Hohai-Bushi” is presented as a single 55 minute recording, and is a musical journey that has to be heard from beginning to end.

Like many of his Large Unit pieces, “Hohai-Bushi” started with Paal’s interest in world music. Having been curious about the music of Tsugaru-Shamisen from Aomori in Japan, during the pandemic Paal started to study it more in depth during the pandemic, and he discovered a traditional song from Aomori, “Hohai-Bushi”, sung by Unchiku Narita. Before Large Unit’s ten-year anniversary festival in 2023, Paal transcribed the song together with Akira Sakata. This was then combined with a new composition for Large Unit, which was to feature Sakata. The performance was one of the (many) highlights of the festival, so two years later, in June 2025, Sakara was invited back to Norway in order to record the piece in the church of Tøyen in downtown Oslo. The natural reverb of the church gave the recording an extra dimension, making Sakata’s vocal and solo passages even more gripping and intense.

The record shows the whole spectrum of Large Unit. Sakata also performs the poem “What the Dead Man Left Behind” by Shuntaro Tanikawa. This poem was written during the Vietnam war and remains as relevant now as then. Sakata also ends the set with a solo, an “Atakombo” by Kosaku Yamada. 

Label: PNL Records

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