Bleep

Even in the rich and varied modern musical landscape the vibraphone doesn’t tend to get much of a look-in. However, composer and former Jan Jelinek collaborator Masayoshi Fujita is out to change all of that. Book Of Life is the final record in a trilogy of LPs that see the Japanese artist put the vibraphone front and centre. Aided by sweeping chamber strings and the occasional dash of woodwind, Fujita uses the ten tracks here to show the full range of what the vibraphone can do. At times he draws eerie ambient drones from the instrument (‘Harp’), while at others he hammers away in a manner that recalls the compositions of Steve Reich (‘Mountain Deer’). There are points when he even goes so far as to prepare it with kitchen foil or play it with a cello bow.