Keiko Higuchi - Vertical Language LP

Heavy tip-on jacket with matte pigment stamping and insert. Based in Tokyo, Keiko Higuchi is a vocalist and instrumentalist internationally renowned both for her solo performances and extensive collaborations in the world of underground improvisation, jazz, and the avant-garde. On Vertical Language, Higuchi has created an evocative and hauntingly beautiful album that unfurls in equal parts light and darkness, form, and emptiness. On solo voice and piano as well as in duets with bassist Louis Inage, Higuchi performs a collection of songs and improvisations that take unexpected paths; her voice and piano starkly, soulfully emerge. They gradually take form as sparse notes resonate and build into intense layers of sound. The music is unvarnished and deeply personal -- it embraces traditional Japanese and spiritual music as well as even jazz and bossa nova, but never completely turns itself over to their familiar forms. More than simply an album title, Vertical Language refers to the distin