Name: Leo Takami
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation: Guitarist, composer, improviser
Current release: Leo Takami's Next Door is out October 6th 2023 via Unseen Worlds.

If you enjoyed this Leo Takami interview and would like to know more, visit his artist page on the website of Unseen Worlds.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?  

I started playing guitar when I was 14. At first I liked popular rock and pop music. When I was about 17, I started listening to blues and jazz and became interested in improvisation.

Improvisation was an important element in blues and jazz, unlike the music I had listened to before.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

Robert Johnson's spontaneity, John Coltrane's spaciousness, Bill Evans' colorfulness, Pat Metheny's buoyancy.

Focusing on improvisation can be an incisive transition. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in which way?

I'm looking for it. But so far I haven't found it yet.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

Not only in improvisation, but also in terms of musical expression, the influence of what I perceive in the world, time, and the culture I was born into is tremendous.

In that sense, yes, I am part of the historical tradition.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

The guitar, the instrument I use to improvise, is a very complex, imperfect and interesting instrument.

I have not yet discovered all of the possibilities of this instrument, so it is still a work in progress. I have a long way to go

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?

I use the guitar or keyboard to compose and create music.

The guitar, with its irregular sequence of notes, has a certain idiom. My compositions and creations are based on it, for better or for worse.

The keyboard, which has a completely regular sequence of notes, allows for free composition and creation without idioms to follow – again, for better or worse.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

Tree of Life in 2017.



The use of keyboards and computer instruments has given me new ideas, and has allowed me to create sounds that would have been impossible with just a guitar, even if I'd have had the idea.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

I don't have much to say about collaborations, as I haven't had much experience with them since I started playing my own music.

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

If improvisation is a search for infinitely transformable material, then the motive will inevitably be atonal and rhythmless. That's great.

On the other hand, I like beautiful, simple, sometimes strange and complex melodies, harmonies and rhythms. They need tonality and a certain pulse.

Hence, what I am exploring in improvisation may be transformation in the finite.

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

Wayne Shorter once said, "I'm listening to the universe." I wish I could say the same, but I am not there yet. Especially these days, I tend to write songs that are beyond my ability to improvise on.

I think my improvisation is based on preparation, practice, and a little bit of revelation. Sometimes I hear "sounds from the universe"

The improvisation of "Family Tree" on the album Next Door felt like a revelation to me.

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

There is only one rule. Develop the motive and go to a different dimension with the music.

In a live situation, decisions between creatives often work without words. How does this process work – and how does it change your performance compared to a solo performance?

I only perform solo, so let's talk about solo performance.

Solo performance is realized by resonance between my body and mind, and the audience's body and mind.

When that resonance is going well, I feel as if I am the conductor and the audience is the performer.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? In which way is it different between your solo work and collaborations?

There is no trick to getting into a creative state of mind at any time. It just comes out of nowhere.

It's important to always be open to what's happening around you and to keep your engine idling even when you're not in a creative state of mind.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

The essence of Japanese spatial beauty lies in the contrast between light and shade.

Therefore, in my performances, the performer becomes part of the light and shade in the dimly lit room, and only the sound echoes ethereally.

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

In my opinion, music and improvisation capture the brightness of life that is on its way to destruction with the increase of entropy.

I wish my music to be like that.