Kind of Black
Dror Burstein | 05/02/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Two notes for a start: it's "Melancholy Gil", not "Girl". Gil is Gil Evans, and this track dedicated to his spirit, so there is a difference. Second thing, anyone interested in Kikuchi's music should consider purchasing it from http://www.amazon.co.jp, for much lesser prices. You will have to download Japanese fonts first, and to ask for the English guide by e-mail, but it's no big deal.As for the music itself: anyone who admired Kikuchi after hearing his palying in "Ththered Moon" won't be surprised entirely by this album, but still it's different. It's much darker and desperate. The spiritual tone of track such as Ththered Moon is replaced here by much sadder, anguished, rhetoric. The sense of melancholy here can be heard not only in themes, but mainly in the repetitious structures (esp. in a beautiful piece by Carla Bley). This gives the music a non-directional quality, of a speech that cannot tell much out of its melancholy, but the little it does tell (the "minimalism" of the music) is loaded with emotion, conducting a kind of dialogue with silence, as if every touch of the keyboard is almost avoided (this is not true to the entire album). Listen to what may be described as redemption in the closing title, after Pablo Casals "Song of the Birds". This piece lifts you up a little, stops the sinking.It's interesting to compare this heart-touching album to Kikuchi's projects with other musicians in Japan (such as the fantastic trio on "On the Move"). The melancholic energies seem to turn there into something angry, wild, aggressive. But it is obvious, I think, that the source of both modes is one, and it is black."
