落穂の雨 OchiboNoAme (literally: the rain of fallen ears (of grain)) is the Japanese free-improvising trio of iconoclastic alto sax player Makoto Kawashima, who is often described as continuing the legacy of groundbreaking Japanese saxophonists like Kaoru Abe, Tamio Shiraishi, and Masayoshi Urabe. He describes himself as a musician who does not play melodies, but presences, fractures, and silence itself, and one who is uncontained by genre or form. His performances feel less like «music» and more like the raw presence of a living being.
Kawashima’s partners in the OchiboNoAme trio are bassist Louis Inage, who has played in local underground rock bands, and drummer-percussionist Naoto Yamagishi, known for his interdisciplinary collaborations with dancers, poets, photographers, painters, calligraphers, an Ikebana (the Japanese flower arrangement) artist, and media artists.
OchiboNoAme released two live albums on Kawashima’s label, Homosacer Records, in 2021. Studio Recording was at the legendary Tokyo’s Gok Sound, directly to reel tape, in April 2025. This Kawashoma’s second album, that is released by the Relative Pitch label, following his solo album, arteria, from 2025. The cover artwork was done by fellow underground musician Yonju Miyaoka.
The album features a 38-minute free improvised piece that captures the trio’s raw, uncompromising, and searching approach, but in a surprisingly quiet and introspective mode. Kawashima leads the music, but he, Inage, and Yamagishi have enough space to explore timbral possibilities. Image and Yamagishi ornament Kawashima’s succinct, eruptive sax blows and cries with unconventional, subtle resonant colors. The music develops patiently through an intuitive dialogue, navigating instantly between almost-silent, vulnerable, and emotional conversations and deeply visceral, abrasive sonic collisions, but refuses to reach explosive, cathartic climaxes.
Eyal Hareuveni
川島誠 Makoto Kawashima (alto saxophone), ルイス稲毛 Louis Inage (bass), 山㟁直人 Naoto Yamagishi (drums, percussion)
