Sinsuke Fujieda Group - Fukushima (Superfly Records / SoFa Records Vinyl LP)

Sinsuke Fujieda Group - Fukushima | Vinyl LP, 2026 Superfly Records / SoFa Records (SRLP039, third pressing with black obi, made in Japan)

• Fumiko Takeshita on violin alongside Fujieda's tenor and soprano saxophone, a Tokyo-based sextet playing original compositions that ukvibe described as indistinguishable from the classic period of Japanese acoustic jazz in the early 1970s, except that it was recorded in 2023.
• Hit number one on both the Juno Records Jazz Chart and the Discogs Best-Selling New Releases Chart when the first pressing came out in 2025, and has sold through two pressings before this third run with a black obi.
• Five original compositions recorded at Groove Studio in Matsudo on 16 May 2023, released by France's Superfly Records in partnership with Fujieda's own SoFa Records label. Made in Japan.

Sinsuke Fujieda leads a sextet from Tokyo that sounds like a group that has been playing together for decades rather than one that formed in 2009. Fujieda, from Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture, plays tenor and soprano saxophone and composed all five tracks. Fumiko Takeshita plays violin, and the combination of her strings with Fujieda's saxophone gives the ensemble a texture that distinguishes it from every other contemporary spiritual jazz group: the violin doesn't ornament or fill, it leads alongside the horn, intertwining with it on the opening title track in a way that draws as much from Japanese folk melody as from the Coltrane tradition. Shinichi Tsukamoto plays piano, Shigeru Kato plays bass, Kensaku Ohsumi plays drums and Daisuke Alkhaly plays percussion.

The five compositions were recorded in a single session on 16 May 2023 at Groove Studio in Matsudo, a city in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. Keiichi Sato recorded, mixed and mastered. The title track and "Float In Oriental Spring" fill side A with modal jazz that builds patiently from folk-tinged themes into extended improvisation. "Silent Night" opens side B with a darker, more searching quality. "Nobody Knows" pairs soprano saxophone and violin in what one reviewer called gorgeous, bal-musette-inflected counterpoint. "Perspective" closes the album. Superfly Records, the French label known for reissuing rare Afro-Latin, Caribbean and Japanese jazz, released the first pressing in April 2025, and it sold out quickly enough to reach number one on both the Juno Records Jazz Chart and the Discogs Best-Selling New Releases Chart. A second pressing followed and also sold through. This is the third pressing (SRLP039), released August 2026 with a black obi. Fujieda's next album, Informel, a double LP reimagining a 2020 Tokyo live performance, was released on SoFa Records on 7 October 2026.