There has not been, since the dawn of this century, an artist able to revolutionise Jazz and transporting it to other levels, album after album, quite like the Japanese Piano and Keyboard giant and composer Hiromi has done so far.
Since 2003, when Another Mind, Hiromi’s debut album was released, the Japanese artist had quickly conquered the whole Jazz world, through Hiromi’s highly flamboyant, explosive and mesmerising approach to the genre, merging Acoustic and Contemporary Jazz together with Funk, Fusion, classical Japanese layers of sound and often even Ambient.
Throughout her career to date, Hiromi has gone through different projects, either as a solo artist and with other very affirmed fellow artists, changing also different supporting bands in the interim. But since 2023, through the release of the album Sonicwonderland, the Japanese artist's musical vision seems to have assumed a new and even more exciting dimension, by including into her supporting band, in studio as when live performing, a new highly skilled quartet aptly called Sonicwonder, featuring Hadrien Feraud on bass, Gene Coye on drums, and Adam O’Farrill on trumpet.
In the last two years, while touring Sonicwonderland, Hiromi has watched closely her supporting band growing artistically, getting to know them better as human beings and as musicians on each passing performance and appreciating enormously the phenomenal interplay that kept on perfecting among Hiromi and the band, as the time went by.
When Hiromi started to work on her new album, which will be released in a few days time and called Out There, the Japanese Piano Maestro wanted to create a record that would allow not only herself, but also her trusted Sonicwonder to expand and celebrate the exceptional musical bridge sealed between Hiromi and Sonicwonder since they started working together.
And what an authentic sonic feast Out There, Hiromi’s new album proved to be! The nine pieces included into Out There exude every possible aspect that any reapectable music lover would hope to get out of a record. Every piece constitutes a different journey per se, where the listener joins Hiromi in her wonderful artistic world, a world displaying enormous musicianship, melody and creativity every step of the way.
There is a feeling of pure joy and fun, throughout the whole of Out There, which opens up with a nod to Hiromi’s 2003 debut album, revisiting that album’s opening piece called XYZ in a newer version. The piece is a true hymn to free-form Jazz, with a glorious series of improvisations of the highest quality, where Hiromi, as always, exudes passion, creativity and fast-forming changes of musical scales with effortless ability, with the Sonicwonder Band following her many sonic excursions impeccably, showing once again a superb musicianship altogether.
Every composition part of Out There is incredibly exciting and Hiromi seems to know very well how to squeeze every ounce of artistry off her band. From the irresistible Yes! Ramen!!, a celebration of Hiromi and Sonicwonder most favourite food translated into a celebration of music at 360 degrees, where Funk, Desert Music, Patchanka, Electro-Jazz, Ska, Fusion, Classical Piano and Classical Japanese Music meet together in the best imaginable free-form sonic melting pot imaginable, to Pendulum, a piece here recorded into two separate versions, one with singer Michelle Willis on vocals and the other solely instrumental, where Hiromi excels for the stunning amount of class, talent and soulful depth expressed in her piano playing, Out There is a continuous triumph of musical Avant-garde and stunning interplay between Hiromi and Sonicwonder, resulting in a record of outstanding musical quality.
The album's core is, undoubtedly, the Out There suite divided into four separate pieces, where it's even more palpable the musical complicity and the level of perfect understanding reached between Hiromi and her band, with Sonicwonder being able to accompany Hiromi to the skies of music and back or in any other direction Hiromi would take her band to in the most exquisitely organic way.
Whilst our website may have run out of adjectives to better describe the enormous talent of an artist like the Japanese composer, it is important to say that, whether one may love Contemporary Free-form Jazz or not, Hiromi’s music in general and her new album in particular, is a torchbearer of joy and feel-good vibes. Most importantly, Out There is a total celebration of music at the highest level of musical skills. Something that is well worth to invest your money on and buy this album.
Out There is due to be released on 4th April 2025 and it can be purchased via Hiromi's Bandcamp Official Page
