No one in Japan’s contemporary improvised music scene is as hard to fit in a box as guitarist TETUZI AKIYAMA. Like fellow guitarist Taku Sugimoto and electronic musician Toshimaru Nakamura, he’s a deft practitioner of gesture-based minimalism; his ensemble Bject (with reedist Masahiko Okura and synth player Utah Kawasaki) injects long-form improvisations with almost imperceptible but striking details. On Pre-Existence (Locust), an all-acoustic solo album he released last year, Akiyama puts a distinctive spin on fingerstyle guitar, unleashing rapid-fire tangles of notes and dissonant snarls and letting his endings hang inconclusively. On the first half of last year’s Route 13 to the Gates of Hell: Live in Tokyo (Headz), he slightly amplifies his acoustic guitar to play more melodic ruminations, suggesting a less bluesy Loren MazzaCane Connors; on the second half he goes for in-the-red electric choogle, and his dirty riffs sound like ZZ Top tunes melted down to ingots. This is his Chicago debut.
