On 'Dancing Spirits', Naoko Sakata makes a ritual of fearlessness

For Get In Her Ears, I reviewed the new album from improvisational pianist Naoko Sakata.

Recorded in a Gothenburg church over two evenings in August 2020, these seven highly expressive improvisations are the sound of an artist pulling threads of composition not out of thin air – there is no such thing in a church – but from some other unknowable source of energy and emotions. Sometimes those threads unravel wildly, yanking something portentous into focus before resolving into musical dust motes that settle on the floor. At other times, the drama is more gently prescribed and the directionless journeying feels in thrall to something distant and tidal. Read more.