A promise tendered is a debt owed. I hinted at more music from Music Interior and here’s my first share. Let’s begin our brief sojourn discovering the albums released by Music Interior with Yoshio Suzuki’s meditative Morning Picture. Who was Yoshio Suzuki? On this album he wasn’t quite the musician he was known to be. Three prior releases and a long list of session work pointed him out to be your standard issue, technically gifted, but straight-arrow Jazz bassist. This is all true. However, on this record you’d hear Yoshio manning all sorts of other instruments – mostly keyboards and Linn Drumm drum machine — to present his own take on peaceful quasi-improvised ambient ambiance music. The album itself sounded unlike anything he’d ever done before. What you should hear is a brilliant mix of ECM-style European Jazz, Eno-like electronics, and that unmistakable Japanese electro-acoustic minimalism. Simply something to drift away my friends. More of this, this week, of course…
Living in New York City, U.S.A.
Yoshi Suzuki, born in Nagano (Japan) is already a well known and respected studio musician. Originally a bass player, he has worked with such famous musicians a Stan Getz, Sadao Watanabe, Art Blakey and Sonny Rollins. On this – his 4. Solo LP – Suzuki plays keyboards with a masterly sense of feeling and control.
The music of this album conveys a quiet beauty of melody, harmony and feeling, reminiscent of some of the works by Pat Metheny, Andreas Vollenweider, George Winston and [Brian] Eno. But comparing styles won’t express the distinct individuality of this self-composed album. Yoshio Suzuki plays all instruments himself (synthesizer, keyboards, bass and Linn Drums) and he also wrote the arrangements.
Suzuki is under contract with the Japanese label…Music Interior (MIS/JVC) which picked as its motto Eric Satie’s ideas that music – just as a beautiful painting or piece of furniture – is expression and part of one’s individual and personal lifestyle.
When listening to this album, we feel sure that your musical interiors and rooms will be filled with life in a very pleasant way.
- Liner Notes from Yoshio Suzuki’s Morning Picture