Taku Sugimoto - Italia (A Bruit Secret)

Italia, aside from standing on its own as the definitive solo statement from Japanese improv guitarist Taku Sugimoto, is the first bullet in the catalog of A Bruit Secret, the young French label. Sugimoto has been a primary force on Japan's Onkyo scene for now over a decade, and these three pieces from two performances in late 2000 provide a telling capture of his abilities and, more importantly, a snapshot of traditional guitar playing discolored by contemporary trends in experimental music. The music here is incredibly quiet albiet thriving with energy and, strangely, wants to tell its own quirky cryptic story. Gone for the most part are Sugimoto's brief chord washes; instead the disc pedals along -- sans a few non-critical spokes -- in untempered flurries of single note steps, most of them exercises in timbre and attack, but often a look at the circumstantial relationships of tones. "Bologna" is a progression that I just can't get out of my head. I love this disc.