Sinsuke Fujieda, Spiritual / Modal
B-side
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Sinsuke Fujieda is a Tokyo-based saxophonist, flutist and composer whose work connects contemporary Japanese jazz with the spiritual and modal language of the 1970s. Rather than treating composition, improvisation, recording and production as separate activities, he approaches them as parts of the same process. His principal ensemble, SINSUKE FUJIEDA GROUP, is built around saxophone and flute, violin, piano, bass, drums and percussion, with enough space left for the music to change through collective improvisation.
What interests me is that the reference to older spiritual jazz never feels like simple revivalism. Violin, modal piano, percussion and Fujieda’s reeds introduce a distinctly contemporary and sometimes almost chamber-like quality, while the music moves naturally between stillness, groove and collective intensity.
MEMORY / FUKUSHIMA
The origins of Fukushima reach back to Fujieda’s experience of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. He founded his independent label SoFa Records the following year, and the idea of turning personal experience, memory and production into a single creative practice has remained central to his work. The compositions collected on Fukushima grew from that longer process rather than being conceived simply as a retrospective concept album.
That background gives the record a particular tension. Its spirituality comes less from dramatic gestures than from repetition, space and gradual accumulation: piano figures, violin lines, percussion and saxophone repeatedly move between contemplation and physical momentum.
SELECTED RECORDS
Fukushima — 2025
Fukushima is rooted in modal and spiritual jazz, but its sound is unusually open. Shinichi Tsukamoto’s piano often provides the harmonic frame, while Fumiko Takeshita’s violin introduces a more fragile, almost classical colour. Around them, bass, drums and percussion create a restrained groove that can gradually become much more physical.
For me, the title track captures the album best. It develops patiently from a flowing piano motif, allowing the ensemble to accumulate intensity without abandoning the sense of space that runs through the whole record. The result feels connected to the spiritual-jazz tradition without sounding trapped inside it.
LISTEN / FUKUSHIMA
Sinsuke Fujieda — tenor & soprano saxophone
Fumiko Takeshita — violin
Shinichi Tsukamoto — piano
Shigeru Kato — bass
Kensaku Ohsumi — drums
Daisuke Alkhaly — percussion
Produced by: Sinsuke Fujieda
Recorded: 16 May 2023
Location: Groove Studio Matsudo
Recording / Mixing: Keiichi Sato
Original LP issue: Superfly Records, 30 April 2025
Sinsuke Fujieda is a Tokyo-based saxophonist, flutist and composer whose work connects contemporary Japanese jazz with the spiritual and modal language of the 1970s. Rather than treating composition, improvisation, recording and production as separate activities, he approaches them as parts of the same process. His principal ensemble, SINSUKE FUJIEDA GROUP, is built around saxophone and flute, violin, piano, bass, drums and percussion, with enough space left for the music to change through collective improvisation.
What interests me is that the reference to older spiritual jazz never feels like simple revivalism. Violin, modal piano, percussion and Fujieda’s reeds introduce a distinctly contemporary and sometimes almost chamber-like quality, while the music moves naturally between stillness, groove and collective intensity.
MEMORY / FUKUSHIMA
The origins of Fukushima reach back to Fujieda’s experience of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. He founded his independent label SoFa Records the following year, and the idea of turning personal experience, memory and production into a single creative practice has remained central to his work. The compositions collected on Fukushima grew from that longer process rather than being conceived simply as a retrospective concept album.
That background gives the record a particular tension. Its spirituality comes less from dramatic gestures than from repetition, space and gradual accumulation: piano figures, violin lines, percussion and saxophone repeatedly move between contemplation and physical momentum.
SELECTED RECORDS
Fukushima — 2025
Fukushima is rooted in modal and spiritual jazz, but its sound is unusually open. Shinichi Tsukamoto’s piano often provides the harmonic frame, while Fumiko Takeshita’s violin introduces a more fragile, almost classical colour. Around them, bass, drums and percussion create a restrained groove that can gradually become much more physical.
For me, the title track captures the album best. It develops patiently from a flowing piano motif, allowing the ensemble to accumulate intensity without abandoning the sense of space that runs through the whole record. The result feels connected to the spiritual-jazz tradition without sounding trapped inside it.
LISTEN / FUKUSHIMA
Sinsuke Fujieda — tenor & soprano saxophone
Fumiko Takeshita — violin
Shinichi Tsukamoto — piano
Shigeru Kato — bass
Kensaku Ohsumi — drums
Daisuke Alkhaly — percussion
Produced by: Sinsuke Fujieda
Recorded: 16 May 2023
Location: Groove Studio Matsudo
Recording / Mixing: Keiichi Sato
Original LP issue: Superfly Records, 30 April 2025
