Keiko Matsui no Borders

Fusion/new age keyboard player Keiko Matsui grew up in Tokyo and took her first piano lesson at the age of five. Influenced by Stevie Wonder and Rachmaninov as well as early fusion masters Maurice Jarre and Chick Corea, Matsui began composing while in junior high but studied children's culture at the Japan Women's University (Nihon Joshidaigaku). She moved to the Yamaha Music Foundation in Tokyo after graduation and formed Cosmos, recording four albums with the new age group. Her first album as a leader, 1987's A Drop of Water, was released in the U.S. two years after the fact on Passport.

If there's such a thing as poetic music, Matsui continues her discovery of it on this effort. For all its beauty ad more aggressive touches, this collection doesn't quite measure up to her previous collection No Borders, but there are moments of fusion in her work here which cook like never before, thanks to Eric Marienthal, Gerald Albright and guitarist Ron Komie. While husband/producer Kazu Matsui adds his mysterious shakuhachi wind to "Grey Cliffs," Matsui spends her time creating soundscapes which range from mainly acoustic to punchy electric pieces like "Hope." Clay Jenkins' flugelhorn is a plus. The two vocals here don't give Greg Walker enough excitement to play with; instead they seem too ambitious. Don't let the flowers on the cover fool you because this disc is anything but fluffy and pastoral in nature.