Oneness (FD-009, 2015)
Total: 47:47

  1. Oneness
  2. The Star-Crossed Lovers
  3. Ichinichi No Owari (End of A Day)
  4. Higashi No Kanata E (music by Jacob Karlzon)
  5. A Wish
  6. He Was Too Good To Me
  7. Everything I Love
  8. Tales From The Blue (music by Shinichiro Kamoto)
  9. Meet My Cockatiel and I Fly
  10. Ohgomadara No Mori (Butterfly Forest)

satoko – vocal
Chieko Maki – piano

Recorded on 22 April 2015 at KOKO Plaza Studio, Osaka JAPAN
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered by Hikaru Sawamura (MAGIC BUS Recording Studio)
Directed by Tsutomu Takei (Follow Club Record)
Art work by Mei Obata
​
​Release date: 5 September 2015
Label: Follow Club Record
Distribution: Bomba Records JAPAN

Satoko’s 2nd album “Oneness” well reflects her refined taste in selecting songs. It includes four of her original tunes as well as fine pieces by Billy Strayhorn, Fred Hersch or Richard Rodgers.

Her remarkable talent in songwriting has been developed further in more sophisticated compositions and vivid expressions of nature, landscapes, and fairytale-like stories in lyrics. They evoke a feeling of nostalgia which is shared by Japanese and foreign listeners alike.

A successful attempt she made in this album is what has been sought for and tried out by numbers of non-American jazz singers is to assimilate their mother tongue into jazz music. For example, she gives a lyric based on ancient Japanese poetry – Man-Yo-Shu, 8th century CE - to a song by the prestigious Steinway artist from Sweden, Jacob Karlzon.
The keenness and intelligence of Maki’s touch meets satoko’s warm and spontaneous voice, creating an ideal combination of tension and flexibility.