Michel Reis ミシェル・レイス - piano
Akihiro Nishigushi 西口明宏 - reeds
Takashi Sugawa 須川崇志 - bass
Shun Ishiwaka 石若駿 - drums
The Michel Reis Japan Quartet features Michel Reis’ long time collaborators Akihiro Nishiguchi and Takashi Sugawa whom he has been working with for the past 15 years. They met while studying together in Boston, MA. In 2015, together with rising-star drummer Shun Ishiwaka, they formed the Michel Reis Japan Quartet. This band has since touring numerous times, playing at some of Japan’s most famous clubs and festivals.
The Japan Quartet recorded its first album in 2017, and it features all original material by Michel Reis. The music bears Reis’ typical traits as a composer, with a focus on clear melodic content. However the Quartet also ventures in more avant-garde territory and explores free form improvisation. Four tracks on their new album are freely improvised, yet still focusing on recurring themes and ideas, invented and developed in the moment. Michel Reis and the members of his quartet try to broaden the musical horizon of the band, by taking advantage of every sonic and rhythmical esthetic which they spontaneously encounter while interacting on stage. Michel Reis’ Japan Quartet combines well crafted compositions with a more loose improvised approach in order to create an exciting and fresh musical soundscape.
