On Burning Wick, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii leads her revitalized avant jazz-rock fusion quartet into exhilarating new territory. Originally formed in 2001, the all-star group — Fujii, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, bassist Hayakawa Takeharu, and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida — was one of her earliest working bands, known for its explosive energy and fearless improvisation. After a nearly 20-year hiatus, the quartet reunited last year with its mischievous spark fully intact. “We are not young anymore — our average age is 68 — but we have so much fun making music together that we feel like teenagers,” Fujii says.
This time around, Fujii’s compositions take center stage. Unlike their previous album, Dog Days of Summer, where she reworked arrangements at the last minute to preserve the group’s wildness, Burning Wick finds the quartet thriving within the structures exactly as written. The band sounded so strong in rehearsals, Fujii says, she barely changed a thing.
The album opens with “Solar Orbit,” a piece that both honors and bridges the members’ differing musical personalities. Fujii’s delicate, atmospheric introduction and Yoshida’s muted drum textures soon erupt into full-throttle turbulence. After a maze of sharp turns and sudden shifts — hallmark traits of Fujii’s writing — Tamura delivers one of the album’s standout moments, unfurling a slow-burn, voodoo-tinged solo over a simmering jazz-rock pulse.
Hayakawa’s imposing, effects-laced bass solo sets the tone for “Rain in the Wee Small Hours,” a striking contrast to one of the quartet’s most relaxed, jazz-forward compositions. The band’s unruly signature returns on “Walking Through the Border Town,” where eerie vocalizations and sound effects intersect with a swaggering rock theme before devolving into a glorious freak-out courtesy of Hayakawa and Yoshida.
“Neverending Summer” pivots from meditative piano reverie to pounding, rock-heavy force, cycling through passages at breakneck speed. Hayakawa unleashes a fuzz-toned bass solo, while Tamura shines in a fiery, jazz-rooted improvisation. “Mountain Gnome” creeps in with fragmented sound snippets — a collage of warped textures — before exploding into the quartet’s most urgent, unhinged playing on the record, complete with vocal shrieks and blistering instrumental volleys.
“Three Days Later,” first introduced on Fujii’s 2019 duet album Confluence, becomes a showcase for individual expression: unaccompanied solos, rotating duets, and a final collective surge. The title track brings the album to a kaleidoscopic close, with Fujii at the center of its churning, colorful motion.
The Satoko Fujii Quartet remains an ensemble of remarkably distinctive voices. Yoshida — legendary co-founder of The Ruins — brings his boundary-pushing rock intensity. Tamura melds lyricism and extended techniques into a singular trumpet language. Hayakawa continues to defy genre expectations with his commanding presence, whether leaning avant-rock or jazz-improv. Fujii herself, hailed by The New York Times for her “rumbling intensity and generous restraint,” continues to stand as one of the most original and prolific forces in creative music.
With over 100 albums as a leader, groundbreaking ensembles from trios to large-scale orchestras, and a global reputation as a composer and improviser, Fujii’s return to this high-voltage quartet feels both historic and vibrantly alive. Burning Wick captures a band reborn — older, wiser, and more joyfully explosive than ever.
Satoko Fujii Quartet — Burning Wick
Libra Records · Catalog 204-082
Recorded September 2, 2025
Release Date: November 21, 2025
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