CyberFusion is going to introduce fusion musicians in Japan. Although fusion music was introduced to Japan from outer country, it has been developed in different ways, different manner. Sometimes those differences create very unique sense, unique understanding, and unique playing of fusion music, which cannot be seen in other countries. And, of course, there are many orthodox type of players and bands of high level and high quality in Japan. They cannot be neglected. But regretfully, those outstanding Japanese players are hardly been introduced to outer world of Japan. In the term of this, the object of this article is to give information those "cool, but hidden" musicians and their works to you!!
Vol.1 Fragile Handle with care! Otherwise their sound blows up and destroys your nerves!! They are the Fragile!!
Fragile is getting to be a major band in Japanese fusion field with their strong, aggressive, and sometimes tricky sense of music. Fragile is consisted of Koich Yabori(guitar), Masatoshi Mizuno(bass), and Kozo Suganuma(drums). You will be surprised when listening to them those only three players can generate incredibly powerful, heavy, but colorful sounds. Yabori mainly plays a guitar synthesizer. It generates thousands of tones and makes the entire sound very vivid and colorful. And also he is well known as a Pat Metheny freak, so he sometimes emulates and fakes Pat's sound and play purposely. That's could be a fun for both Yabori's and Pat's fans. Mizuno plays the fretless bass. His bass play has plenty of flexibility came from his unique jazz understanding, and the sound of his bass play is really sexy and melodious. Mizuno is also known as a skillful composer. This might be a reason of attractiveness of his melodious bass play. Suganuma is a great hero of young drummers. His drum play sounds like as if he has three or more arms and legs like an ancient oriental god. The powerfulness of Fragile's sound mainly owed to Suganuma's drums play. They, Fragile, describes themselves as "Loud, Noisy, and Overvolume" , but it is not true. They can (and actually they do) play really lyrical music in a certain part of their works. And those parts of them eventually attract their fans. Fragile has released three CDs. The first album "Fragile" firstly introduces the world of Fragile. Their sound in this album varies tune by tune. Sometimes wild and powerful, sometimes very moody and jazzy, sometimes cool and lyrical, and sometimes shows really fresh pop sense. The second album "Handle with Care" focuses on their aggressiveness. Almost this entire album is more complicated, more powerful, and more beautiful than the first. Particularly, "Limited Answers" takes listeners to the world of freshness of early autumn, and "Nowake" shows the last stage of sophisticated jazz sense! The third album "Downside Up", which has just been released, appeals Fragile's flexibility. They adopted "Heavy Metal","Pure Fusion", and "old fashioned Jazz" sense to their originality. It's really challenging! But they did make it happen!! But, in the meantime, Fragile is developing day by day/minutes by minutes. They will, and I'm sure, please us with great idea and fresh sense of wonder.
