Understanding by Asta Hiroki
Asta Hiroki shares a modern jazz single ‘Understanding’ from his forthcoming second solo full length album via Folded Music.
Emotive piano lines from Asta Hiroki and some velvety sax work from Danish multi instrumentalist Teis Ortved intertwine wonderfully over the intelligent and groovy harmonies of Stephen Patota on bass (Beth Orton, FLOCKS) and flowing and evolving rhythms of longtime drums and percussion collaborator Robbie Hookins. It's not a straight up jazz detour from his signature sound as all the ambience and sound design of his work are still present, however it’s very much more live instrument focused with an emphasis on intriguing musical ideas and energy.
All the elements have moments to shine within the four and a half minute arrangement as they go through various peaks and troughs as a unit. Reminiscent in places of Radiohead, Sven Wunder, and Ishmael Ensemble there is the kind of exploration that previously occurred on tracks like ‘Cherry Blossom’ (also featuring Hookins on drums) from his debut record ‘Entropy’. Its the first teaser of a clutch of more jazz inspired tracks on the full length record so if this sounds like your kind of listening experience then the album is going to be a must-listen.
Asta Hiroki delves deeper into the process of writing the track:
“It was a truly international effort on ‘Understanding’. I composed the main arrangement on piano and bass whilst living in Cyprus before playing it back to Robbie Hookins in the UK who came up with some ideas to move the piece along and inject some pace. Stephen and Teis helped fill out the ideas and by the end there was a multifaceted, deeply layered composition that was beyond what I thought it would be in the beginning. It’s like an ongoing conversation with the various instruments representing ideas and thoughts being thrown around between people. It was a real joy to write something so musically rich with a crew of talents like these folks.”
Since his debut release in 2017 Asta Hiroki has long been considered a notable figure across multiple independent music scenes and turned heads at key tastemakers and outlets across the industry. Seeing regular support as a staple of BBC6Music, FIP, BBC, JazzFM, and KCRW. Winning further plaudits from national paper The Guardian for his composition work and XLR8R, Dummy Mag, CLASH, Magnetic Mag Exclaim! on the music media side. Not to mention the multitude of editorial placements on Spotify and AppleMusic across Jazztronica, All New Jazz, Fresh Finds, Butter, and more.
