MAGAZINE
Improvisational ambient jazz that lets you feel the “wabi-sabi” of the four seasons. What was the influence of Japanese on the American band Fuubutsushi?
2024.10.15
There is an improvisational ambient jazz band called "Fuubutsushi". Formed by four people living in the United States in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
They have released four albums with Japanese titles with the theme of "Four Seasons." So, i can't help but feel the space and atmosphere of Japanese wabi-sabi.
I conducted an email interview with members Chris Jusell, Chaz Prymek, Matthew Sage, and Patrick Shiroishi about their background in using Japanese.
a kind of perpetual longing for Fall that I constantly feel
—What kind of music did you originally want to make when you got together?
Sage: We originally formed with the intention of making a very soft jazz album that felt like autumn. We used the ideas of ECM and cool jazz as the basis for what we wanted to accomplish and went from there.
Shiroishi: I don’t even remember talking about what we wanted the music to be, that happened?? hahaha
—Please tell us about the origin of the band name, Fuubutsushi.
Sage: I was exploring a list of non-English words that don’t really have direct translations online and came across “Fuubutsushi” and was instantly connected with it as an idea and a feeling I often experience. It felt right to name the first album Fuubutsushi because it was born from a kind of perpetual longing for Fall that I constantly feel. Even in Fall I long for the Fall. It felt like the purpose of the music in a lot of ways. Fuubutsushi ended up becoming the name of the group after people expressed mild annoyance at how long it took to say “Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi” haha!
—I read in an article that you are creating songs for remote improvisation. How do you coordinate the completed image and worldview of each song with the members during production?
Sage: I think our process is unique in that either Chaz or I start a song and then sort of let it go in a lot of ways and hand it over to the group to add their worldview. There is an immense amount of trust in our process and we tell each other very little about goals or aims for songs and instead let each other interpret the work. Often song titles come last…
Prymek: It really has a lot to do with trust and admiration. Matt and I typically come up with the idea of a piece, record a lot of our parts and send it to Chris and Patrick. Everything is on the table though, sometimes we cut each other parts up or double them if we especially loved a movement and want it to happen twice. I feel so fortunate to get to play with such incredible listeners and such thoughtful players with such unique takes on music. Somehow it all works incredibly well. I think we have only ever trashed one song, and even that song was pretty good, just too out of tune to keep working on it (which was my fault haha)
—Has the coronavirus pandemic affected your musicality?
Jusell: I think I spent the years leading up to 2020 questioning whether playing the violin was really what I wanted to be doing, and the onset of the pandemic was a shock in terms of the threat of collaborative music being taken away, which of course proved to me that it IS what I want to and should be doing. And then Matt had the idea to bring the four of us together to record music from our separate locations, which was and is such an incredible gift.
Prymek: It really emphasized how special it was to be making art with people and how incredible it actually is to share it, be witness to it, get to see the people making all this art. I think we got used to it, or took a lot of it for granted, and now I cherish every time I see someone really pouring their heart into their craft. It really opened me up to how fragile this all is, how in an instant everything can change or be taken away from us. It really changed how I approached not only my music and art, but how I viewed other’s works as well. It is an incredibly special thing that we get to be together, that we get to have concerts and art openings and poetry readings, or eat good food cooked for us by someone who cares. The feeling is so much more intense for me. I cry a lot these days about all of this. It made me want to take a lot more care of the music I was making. Everything became more fragile and special and beautiful. Like opening my eyes anew.
I found “Yamawarau,” which delighted me
—Please tell us how you came up with the concept of creating four albums for the four seasons.
Sage: I will leave this for Chris apart from saying we were after Vivaldi’s place at the table.
Jusell: We made the first album without a concrete plan to make more, and it ended up having a sort of autumnal feel, but even more than that a nostalgic one, which is what led to the name “Fuubutsushi,” which was (I think) Matt’s idea. And we loved the process and result so much that we got excited to make more, and at some point, since time was passing in the pandemic and seasons were changing, and there are four of us in the band and we were living in four different places but in constant contact and experiencing the bizarre passage of that time, the idea of seasonal music felt kind of inevitable.
—Please tell us the thoughts behind each album name.
Jusell: Once we decided to keep making the albums, and were sticking with the idea of seasonality, we got excited about finding interesting Japanese words that were specific to each season. I know I found “Yamawarau,” which delighted me because of its image of all the tree and flower buds opening at the same time, creating a “laughing mountain.”
Prymek: We wanted titles that encapsulated the vibe or energy of each season, or at least how we all seemed to romanticize each one. Rather than naming the albums “ Spring” or “Summer” we wanted to capture it’s essence.
—Hayao Miyazaki’s voice appears in the song “Hayao’s Garden.” What is the intention behind this?
Shiroishi: We started writing the first record during the pandemic, a strange period we, for better or worse, were gifted with a lot of free time since we couldn’t go to shows or make music in the more traditional way we all were familiar with. Amber, my now wife, hadn’t seen any of the Ghibli movies & so we started watching them together (she loves all the ones we’ve seen & we even got to visit the museum in Mitaka!). Miyazaki-san is a true pioneer and inspiration to all of us & I wanted to give him a nod. But regarding what he is saying, the way he says he has to make movies and that it would be different if he didn’t make a movie, I feel the same way about music. It helps me process everything that is happening around me, good and bad things, and I would be a very different person if I didn’t have music or have the ability to make music. I feel very lucky to have it in my life, & Matt, Chaz & Chris in my life as well.
—The song “Circulating Air” also includes Japanese voices. (Is this a question asked to Ryuichi Sakamoto, “What is music?”) What is your intention and sense of fun in incorporating Japanese sampling?
Shiroishi: I love how you are finding where all of these are from! When we write music, and just with the distance situation we are dealing with, we each add to the music when the time is right individually. Typically, Matt and Chaz are the initiators and lay the groundwork of each song and then we all add our little shimmers and touch to the song.
When I was approaching “Circulating Air,” it was right after news that Sakamoto-san passed away. We all love and appreciate his art so much & knew he was sick, but it just hit unbelievably hard to hear the news. Like with Miyazaki-san, I wanted to give a little nod to him through our music. I stumbled on that passage where he is talking about music and what it means to him…it was such a pure response that is honestly very close to what I would answer if someone asked me that question, so I decided to sneak that in. So thank you for catching that and thank you to Sakamoto-san, you will not be forgotten.
—The songs “Lavender”, “Suzushii Kaze”, and “Hotaru” sing Japanese lyrics. What kind of things can you express by singing in Japanese that are different from singing in English?
Shiroishi: This maybe isn’t the coolest answer, but singing is still very new to me. It is arguably the most intimate way you can make sound & music…in that way it’s very scary!! I’ve known that I wanted to use my voice in music for years but never really knew how & where it would be appropriate or work in the context of everything. Matt, Chaz & Chris really created this honest, safe environment that I felt comfortable to try it out and so that last track on our first record was my vocal debut. Lyrics are hard to write & I am bad with words, so I felt singing in Japanese would bring some relief, to sing in a primitive but honest way (my vocabulary is that of a 1st grader in Japan hahaha).
the Japanese language has an incredible way of painting an immense amount of imagery and metaphor within just a few words
—Where do I know about Japanese language, Japanese seasonal words, and events, please?
Jusell: I think that both Matt and I grew up loving Japanese art and manga and video games, which has certainly stuck with me. But I certainly am not able to speak or write the language. This Shiki project was a bit of learning about these seasonal concepts.
Shiroishi: I had a GameBoy, SNES & N64 when i was growing up. My mom was born and grew up in Omuta and we would visit every August and stay for a month with my family there. It was the hottest time ever each year hahaha but I loved that I had the opportunity to experience this different side of who I am. My Uncles in Japan would also send me different anime shows that they recorded on VHS for me to watch with my brother. I also have a bunch of manga at my parents house from years and years of reading. For example, started with classic Doraemon and Crayon Shinchan into Dragon Ball Z/GT, Detective Conan, Pokemon and Yugioh into Kenshin, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Initial D into Full Metal Alchemist and Attack on Titan hehe
Prymek: My family hosted a handful of students from a “foreign exchange” program when I was growing up, one of which, If I remember correctly, was from Hokido. (I was very young so only remember a little about it) Who ended up taking care of us kids a lot more than she probably should have, but she would cook for us her family recipes and show us TV shows she loved from Japan. I remember always being enamored with and moved by the poetics and imagery of the language. Which has stayed with me, but now I get to learn more about it all from friends, films, art, music, cooks, and the pastry shops.
—Do you ever receive musical inspiration from Japan’s unique words and ways of understanding?
Sage: As an artist and musician I find the concepts of Wabi Sabi and the Japanese aesthetic of valuing wear, age, patina, perfect imperfections. These concepts aren’t really as pervasive in traditional Western culture. So, I take a lot of inspiration from Japanese words and ways of understanding.
Prymek: Absolutely, the Japanese language has an incredible way of painting an immense amount of imagery and metaphor within just a few words. Which is very much my approach to writing a lot of the music I do. How I can paint a vast picture and share a good amount of imagery and information in just a few notes and tones.
—From the songs, I feel the Japanese sensibility of valuing space'' and
enjoying the seasons and natural scenery,” a so-called “wabi-sabi.” How do the impressions of the Japanese names of your band, album, and song names relate to the sound of your improvisational performance?
Prymek: I wonder if there is something about the space in the music that allows the listener to make it something close to home for themselves? I wonder if it’s our artistic influences, like Ryuchi Sakamoto, Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Hiroya Tsukamoto, Eiko Ishibashi, etc, being heard? I wonder if it has to do with similar landscapes? It’s hard to pinpoint why something might feel a way. I feel like we each are deeply influenced by the landscapes we live in, and we each work hard at being more and more present. Music is a place we can flow, breathe, slow down and be present.
We would love love love to come to Japan
—I read in an article that Patrick Shiroishi has been exploring his Japanese American roots through music. How is this endeavor expressed in Fuubutsushi’s activities?
Prymek: In Fuubutsushi, we give each other a lot of room to explore ourselves, family histories, cultural histories. We celebrate who each other are, and where each other have come from. It’s these things that make us who we are. We each come from such different backgrounds, and that is a beautiful thing.
Our history is full of incredible times, but also tragedy and wrong doings, like what we are seeing now in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Mexico, etc. etc, what we saw very recently during the pandemic with the violence towards AAPI folks. We have a lot of samples and clips in our music dealing with internment camps (which some of Patrick’s and I’s families were held), we sample field recordings of us at protests during the George Floyd riots, etc. To remind us of what was, and lead us away from that, into what could be.
We hope that, as slow and spacious and sweet as our music can be, that it can also be something to motivate us into action to take care of each other and never let those parts of our pasts never repeat itself. To fight for all peoples to get to live a life free from oppression and violence.
—Even after the “Shiki” series, works such as “Meridians” have continued to be released. Please tell us about your plans for future activities.
Sage: We spent nearly 2 years, twice as long as the time it took to make “Shiki” to make “Meridians” and that slower pace was a very different experience for us, so I think our next record will be another change for our process, but for the time being we aren’t quite sure what is next for our new music, which is exciting. We do have a live album – a recording of the only show we’ve ever played – coming out early next year.
We would love love love to come to Japan. We would love to play in an outdoor space. I know Chaz really wants to play Fuji Rocks! 🙂
Shiroishi: ME TOO!! お願い!!!!
Prymek: We really want to come out as a band!
Shiroishi: 心で聞いてくれてありがとうございます <3
—Do you have any other messages for Japanese Fuubutsushi fans?
Sage: We feel very honored to have such caring listeners in Japan. Thank you for your listening and appreciation for Fuubutsushi music! We look forward to playing in Japan one day soon!
Jusell: It’s extremely exciting and such an honor to know that our music is appreciated in Japan, and I truly hope we get to come play live shows for such a caring and appreciative audience.
Prymek: Thank you for listening, we are honored that our music resonates with some of you. We hope we get to share it with you soon. Please send us pastries.
Profile
Fuubutsushi
Fuubutsushiは、2020年に結成されたChris Jusell、Chaz Prymek、Matthew Sage、Patrick Shiroishiのカルテット。新型コロナウイルス感染症(COVID-19)のパンデミック中に、リモートコラボレーションを通じて活動し始めた。2020年から2021年にかけて、季節ごとに1枚ずつ、合計4枚のアルバムを制作。2024年には初のアナログ盤として、2枚組「Meridians」LPをリリースした。
音楽性としてはECM、クールジャズ、アンビエント、ミニマリズム、実験音楽、ネオクラシック音楽などにインスピレーションを受けている。
Chris Jusellは多くのグループやアンサンブルだけでなく、多くの古典的な組み合わせやオーケストラでも演奏している。Chaz Prymek(別名 Lake Mary) は、アンビエントミュージックとフィンガースタイルのフォークミュージックが重なり合う中で地位を確立。Matthew Sageは、ジャズのイディオムと相互作用するアンビエント、実験的、電子音楽を探求するソロおよびアンサンブルの作品で知られている。Patrick Shiroishiはフリージャズの即興演奏家兼作曲家として知られている。
Fuubutsushi is a quartet --Chris Jusell, Chaz Prymek, Matthew Sage, Patrick Shiroishi-- formed in 2020. They began working together by way of remote collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic; they created four albums, one for each season, from 2020-2021. In 2024 they return with their first vinyl release, a double LP titled "Meridians." This new album is their most refined, focused, and developed release to date; it solidifies many of the ideas they've explored in their previous works and elevates their unique genre-spanning musical stylings across nearly 80 minutes and 15 songs.
Inspired by ECM, cool jazz, ambient, minimalism, experimental, and neoclassical music, but wandering across many genres and moods, the group has established themselves as a brotherhood of musicians who find catharsis, joy, play, and meditation through creating together. Their sound often forefronts melody and compositional grace but makes room for experimentation and abstraction throughout their songs.
Jusell plays with many groups and ensembles as well as in many classical combinations and orchestras. Prymek (aka Lake Mary) has established a place in the overlaps of ambient music and finger style folk music. Sage is known for his solo and ensemble work that explores ambient, experimental, and electronic music interacting with jazz idioms. Shiroishi is a regarded free jazz improviser and composer.
Writing / Editing : Yutaka Ishimatsu
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We are disseminating the appeal of ``calm music'' in many ways.Like sunlight filtering through the trees, we take it for granted in our daily lives, but we don't really recognize it, but when we turn our gaze to it, we can feel the beauty that soothes our souls.