Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka - Magnificent Little Dudes vol. 1

From his first full-length album ‘Minima Moralia’ (“Excellent” 8.1 Pitchfork) in 2006, through the subsequent 70+ albums that followed, Chihei Hatakeyama has created a mighty canon of work.

Having collaborated with the likes of Ai Kuwabara, Hiroki Chiba, Kei Matsumaru, Gen Hoshino, Terumasa Hino, Tony Allen, and countless others, Shun Ishiwaka is one of Japan’s most prolific modern jazz drummers.

Between them they’ve played across ambient, experimental, electronic, pop, hip-hop, jazz, and metal projects, and that’s what this new release represents – a meeting of like-minded musicians with innumerable reference points coming together at an epoch-making juncture to produce an ambient work brimming with creativity and understanding.

They met while appearing live on radio. This extended to a series of gigs. The chemistry was instantaneous and recording sessions for this 2 volume epic followed, in March 2023.

Chihei’s specific references for guitar treatments on this album include My Bloody Valentine, Les Rallizes Dénudés and Keiji Haino.

Both musicians drew on their love of Free Jazz and Spiritual Jazz, and in particular the works of Alice Coltrane and later period Sun Ra

Psycho-acoustic considerations, chance, spontaneity and the cross-section at which musicians respond (or not) to each other, in the heat of the moment, were all inspirations for this remarkable project, which is being released in 2 separate volumes across 2024.