Music for Isolation
Gideon Juckes & Rie Takeuchi
Featuring: Martin Lee Thomson; Danielle Price
Gururiyoza Records: GR-006
Although living in one of the most populous cities on earth, the Tokyo based duo of tuba player Gideon Juckes and baritone saxophonist Rie Takeuchi continue to find solitary inspiration from the ever changing world within and around us.
Theirs has been a poetic response to the effects of communal disintegration after Covid, to the loss of the stanchion points that reference time and place, and even the corrosion of Christmas tradition.
As everything around us becomes smaller, faster and more intrusive, they somehow manage to find the slow pulse beauty of immersive loneliness.
Rapid metamorphosis
Their fourth album focuses on isolation and climate change – the result of an extended stay on Svalbard, the remote archipelago 80 degrees north that lies at the convergence of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole.
A land that for millennia remained untouched by man’s desire to explore and exploit, it is now undergoing rapid metamorphosis – its glacial foundations melting beneath the feet of the tiny population of the settlement of Longyearbyen.
A land that for millennia remained untouched by man’s desire to explore and exploit, it is now undergoing rapid metamorphosis – its glacial foundations melting beneath the feet of the tiny population of the settlement of Longyearbyen.
As the modern world encroaches and temperatures rise (seven times faster than the global average), scientists monitor the increasing fracture rate of the Kongsvegen Glacier, 20 km long and 350 meters deep. The ominous sound of its internal collapse (recorded and mixed by French glaciologist Ugo Nanni) brings this absorbing release to a sombre, fearful close.
Resonant acoustic
It opens with ‘Om Morgenen’ - the early morning sound of the ever-present icy wind a resonant acoustic that sends mysterious echoes into the inhospitable fjords and razor-edged mountains in the tracks that follow.
The melancholic, empty tones of the baritone sax of Rie Takeuchi sets the immersive feel, with Gideon Juckes offering the layered warmth, like a snug goose down explorer jacket.
The melancholic, empty tones of the baritone sax of Rie Takeuchi sets the immersive feel, with Gideon Juckes offering the layered warmth, like a snug goose down explorer jacket.
It's music of evocative reflection and subtle illusions of seemingly empty vistas; ‘Oboro’ and ‘Dieseldans’ connecting to the landscape, ‘Kuusou’ a touching walk on the shoreline, ‘at the edge of the world there is a diesel generator’ seeing the tuba echo inside the hulk of a throbbing engine – its energy supply both a positive and negative catalyst to change.
Bobbing catalyst
‘Transitions’, recorded at Spitsbergen Artists Centre is a more Carbon-Zero reflection – the tuba a bobbing catalyst to a languid, whimsical sax lead.
‘I shavsbaillen’ draws on an epic sound canvas – resonating deep into the crevices of the landscape, as well as the mind - “a shard of ice” as the duo call it, that pierces under your skin.
The hypnotic folk dance ‘Diedeldans’ appears and then disappears as if passing by a local pub as you walk into the inky Artic night of ‘byakua’ and a midnight sun that never sets, whilst ‘Kos’ features the innocent sounds of the kalimba (plucked tangs of steel) that opens into what sounds like a hidden fjord of mystery and fragility.
‘I shavsbaillen’ draws on an epic sound canvas – resonating deep into the crevices of the landscape, as well as the mind (it refers to Svalbard’s sense of belonging that never leaves you) - “a shard of ice” as the duo call it, that pierces under your skin.
The duo is joined by friends Martin Lee Thomson (euphonium) and Danielle Price (tuba) of Dopey Monkey for ‘Isfjorden’ that adds yet another layer of dark uncertainty to an isolated landscape that subtly changes quicker than we expect before our mind’s eye.
Iwan Fox
Official release date: 3rd October 2025
Pre-order: 8th August 2025
https://www.gideonjuckes.com/musicforisolation
Play list:
1. Om Morgenen
2. Oboro
3. Kuusou
4. At the edge of the world there is a diesel generator
5. Dieseldans
6. Byakuya
7. I shavsbasillen
8. Transitions
9. Kos
1o. Isfjorden
11. Kongsvegen Glacier - 350 Meters Below
