On his new album “microcosm”, LEO combines jazz, classical music and electronic music with Japanese koto.
If you like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cornelius, I’d like you to listen to this young koto player next. He plays new jazz? Beat music? Traditional Japanese music?
LEO has covered works by Debussy, Steve Reich, John Cage and even Ryuichi Sakamoto on his 4th album “In A Landscape”.
On his new effort called “microcosm”, he has combined not only jazz and classical music, but also electronic music with Japanese koto. He has even taken to using a laptop on live performance.
LEO sometimes performed without koto. He became more conscious of centring himself. He freed himself from unconscious biases. As a result, he gained greater freedom in expressing koto – as he said to the Japanese Rolling Stone magazine.
He’s got a number of collaborators on “microcosm”. For “Cotton Candy”, a session with Misaki Umei on piano. Mixing handled by Ohzora Kimishima. On “PotaPota”, U-zhaan plays on tabla.
“Oto no Koro” features vocals by LAUSBUB. “Vanishing Metro” was composed by Shohei Amimori, featuring a collaboration between drums and koto.
Beginning with koto as a traditional Japanese instrument, LEO expressed a microcosm reflecting his inner world through collaborations with various musicians.
Stream “microcosm” LP on Spotify.
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Photo: Kanta Matsubayashi
