Keiji Haino/Natsuki Tamara

Often overshadowed by the sheer volume of projects which his wife, keyboardist Satoko Fujii organizes, Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamara’s constant participation in most of them unfortunately makes it seem as if he can’t escape sideman status. However other earlier discs, and this no-holds-barred duo with fellow Nippon guitarist Keiji Haino, nullify the thought. Equipped with only his trumpet, voice and reverberating toys Tamara goes head-to-head with the guitarist whose mixture of Metal, improv and Punk has illuminated his collaborations with everyone from John Butcher to John Zorn.

Early on Tamura’s brassy blats and note-bending shakes establish he can give as good as he gets when challenged by the guitarist’s bellicose strokes, jagged flanges and hardened frails. Even as his slurring vibrations gash out a space in the ongoing noise fest, Haino’s unleashes horse recitations in a voice that moves from doomy murmurs to angry howls. Facing the guitarist’s ghostly undertones as well as barbed string slashes, the trumpeter uses his own Dadaesque chanting as well as ratcheting echoes, cheeping squeezes and percussive cymbal rasps to amplify his persona.

Tamara projects his own instrumental identity as well, by not only excavating choked scoops and half-valve scrapes from inside his horn, but also pivots to moderated plunger growls and portamento narrative advancement during this brief set. By the climax any turns to anthemic sweeps and spiky chording from Haino is thinned to the extent that motifs like speedy string flanges and inner horn puffs extend into a concluding variant of linear story-telling.

The perception of Tamura being Paul Desmond to Fujii’s Dave Brubeck is only true in that he helps amplify the shape of her multiple  programs. What Happened There proves that like Desmond, on his own he has no problem projecting his own advanced musical identity.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. What Happened There?

Personnel: Natsuki Tamura (trumpet, voice and toys) and Keiji Haino (guitar and voice)