snobb Japanese pianist and composer, Satoko Fujii, is on my list of leading avant-garde jazz artists of the last decade, but "Minerva" doesn't add much to her excellent discog.

This is not the first Satoko collaboration with one of the best known Japanese avant-garde musicians, Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, but just as often happened before, the result is quite a mixed bag. Everyone familiar with Yoshida's machine-gun drumming dominance on any possible collaboration can expect a similar situation on this release - fortunately the music is a bit better balanced here. That doesn't mean this album isn't a real Satoko work - she has some moments for her piano, but the common atmosphere is still more as on a Yoshida release.

The album's main problem, in my opinion, is an unsuccessful mix of brutal avant-garde rock improvs aesthetics from Yoshida and Satoko's multi layers of complex, subtle and intellectual jazz (influenced even by some classical techniques of her early music). Yoshida's openly "underground" drumming (together with the loud and almost aggressive sound of Natsuki Tamura's trumpet) openly dominates the sound and all the music is more of an experimental mix of two very different aesthetics rather than a successful brew.

As is the case in almost any of Satoko's work, this album still has its bright moments, but possibly this is more interesting for Yoshida's fans, rather than for Satoko's.