For those not in the know, in an always courageous three-decade career, pianist Satoko Fujii’s recorded output has never wavered. She excels at solo piano, duo outings — mostly with her life partner, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura — quartets, quintets, and lastly, big band/orchestral recordings.

The one exception to the unwavering description is her big-band output. Entity (Libra Records) came out in 2019. Then a seven-year orchestral dry spell ensued. Blame this, in part, on the COVID-19 epidemic. But Fujii intends to make up for that lull in 2026, beginning with the archival release of Satoko Fujii’s Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra. Four more orchestral albums are in the works for the year.

Bunker Umwall, a converted WW2 air raid shelter in Bielefeld, Germany, was turned into a concert venue by Wolfgang Gross. It was here that Fujii and Gross brought together a large ensemble comprised of professionals and students for a concert. This double CD offering — Satoko Fujii’s Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra, recorded in 2014 — is the result.

CD 1:
1. “Shiki”

CD 2:
2. “Yamantake”
3. “Jasper”
4. “Antischwarm”
5. “Gen Himmel”

The 16-piece ensemble open this simply magnificent recording on the one track from the first disc, entitled Shiki. This is Fujii’s epic composition that embodies many of life’s moments of transformation and is a opus of the highest order. A true work of musical art, it soars, dips, becomes pensive, yet playful, and at all times is emotive and endearing within its formidable structure.

The second disc is a collection of four titles each led at the podium by four different ensemble members, inclusive of Fujii herself. Thus this is not yet another glorious showcase of just how great Fujii is but moreover strives to spread the wealth and allow a most magnificent orchestra to shine under a different leader at the helm.

Andreas Kaling’s “Yamantaka” is a brass section heavy, yet most gloriously bass saxophone-hued piece, whereas trumpeter Natsuki Tamura’s “Jasper” is more of an electronic swirling machine of gloriously accentuated trumpets notes. Then we get Luise Volkmann’s “Antischwarm” which begins with a rockier accent than the others ever showed, but soon levels melodiously out, and then Fujii herself closes the concert with the veritably ethereal, at times containing pockets of astute silence, other bird-like squawks “Gen Himmel” (“Heavenwards”).

Satoko Fujii’s Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra [Official Pitch Video]

Official Website