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Crossing over is usually something an artist does when they want to embark on a new project or collaborate with another artist. But for Kurosawa, crossing over is her aesthetic and compositional journey. Her mind searches the world for the best talent and ideas. She's at home living on the border and between worlds - Traditional Japanese, contemporary music and diverse genres.

From Morioka-city, Japan, Kurosawa moved to New York in 2002. "I wanted to blend my music with other cultures," she explained. She plays the Koto, which is Japan's national instrument, with more than 1300 years of history. She was born into a Koto-playing family, receiving first prizes at national Koto competitions from a young age. She's made it something of a mission to bring the distinct sound of her beloved instrument to other artistic communities. She has collaborated with artists in the areas of Hip Hop, Ballet, opera, and even short film. As an acclaimed composer, she has been commissioned by august institutions such as Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, for example.

While Metamorphosis may be vintage Yumi, it's a discovery for those who are uninitiated into her musical world. The album begins with Oneday Monday which connotes the busy life in New York. Carlos Maldonado's hand percussion adds to the tumult, evoking the pitter patter of people walking on sidewalks. The piece is a terrific opening salvo of what's to come: inviting, developing sonic landscapes.

Yumi wrote Journey while she was touring as an artist through several countries in South America. "This piece represents changing scenery, people, and cultures," said Yumi. The piece is like a series of snapshots. You hear Yumi's virtuosity throughout but set amid various textures.

Dawn is dedicated to the beauty of Japan. The national flower of Japan is the cherry blossom or Sakura. "I was thinking about the petals of the Sakura on the mountains of Japan while composing," reflects Yumi.
Kabir Sehgal,- producer

Track Listing

Press Quotes

Yumi Kurosawa is one of the top players of the Japanese koto, the winner of several competitions on the instrument. She moved to New York in 2002, and since then, her music has often incorporated non-Japanese influences. The 2023 release Metamorphosis offers new thinking along these lines, and it is quite an accomplishment. For the first time, Kurosawa appears with a trio, with herself on 20-string koto, Naho Parrini on violin, and Eric Phinney on percussion. The contrast between the percussive sounds of Kurosawa and Phinney and the melodic violin is fundamental to the sound here, but it breaks down further than that. Phinney features an Indian tabla prominently, and this comes into contrast with the Latin percussion of guest Carlos Maldonado, quite active in the final 'Departure,' a piece depicting an autumn festival in Kurosawa's hometown. A second guest is Zac Zinger, who plays shakuhachi and an alto saxophone that offers a cadenza-like passage toward the end of 'Restless Daydream,' the longest piece on the album at just under eight minutes. All these strands are woven into the basic structures heard from Kurosawa's koto, quite virtuosic in many places. Most of the pieces gather in intensity as they proceed and hold together kaleidoscopically as they approach a climax. There is one solo koto piece, 'Inner Space.' Far from being the usual kind of international release in which an exotic instrument is pasted onto homogeneous New Age textures, this is chamber music of a very high order.

     —James Manheim, Allmusic(dot)com