The refined jazzy elegance of Yumi Kurosawa’s Metamorphosis is certainly a pleasure beholden. Born into a koto-playing family, she won several first prizes at Japan’s National Koto Competition. Her classical training and development were probably fairly standard in traditional Japanese music and koto, a 13-string plucked zither of Paulownia wood with movable bridges under each string. I would assume that, inspired by the cultural veneration for this instrument, she most likely pursued advanced studies in contemporary koto music. Now based in New York, Kurosawa is focused on original music, and she blends her compositional style with other cultures and traditions to create new, vibrant and borderless music.

Her first album since 2015’s Looking Up at the Sky, Metamorphosis also features Naho Parrini (violin) and Eric Phinney (percussion, tabla).  Four tracks incorporate the Latin percussion of Carlos Maldonado with “Oneday Monday” and “Departure” serving as bookends to the set. Commissioned by the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art in 2019 to celebrate a special exhibit by Tomioka Tessai, “Restless Daydream” is particularly evocative with the colorings of guest artist Zac Zinger’s shakuhachi and alto saxophone. The duality of the yin and yang in her music incorporate call and response, tension and release, notes and space in a dynamic and expressive way that creates many moods as she weaves traditional Japanese forms with threads of other neo-classical genres.

Kurosawa’s modern pieces vary their tempos. The inspiration of her classical training comes through in melodic lines with meandering, contemplative notes built around pentatonic scales in a piece like “New Found Land.” While her koto can capture the innermost soul and being of Japan itself, specifically in pieces like “Dawn” and “Mandala,” her new arrangement of the first piece she wrote, “Inner Space” is a splendid showcase for her mastery of koto techniques to convey images of birds in flight, clouds, cherry blossoms, and shadows of life itself. String bends, plucks, strums and other techniques in "Departure” capture her nostalgia and feelings for ancestors during the Obon season in Morioka, Japan. “Zealla” uses Middle Eastern scales, minor thirds and angular lines to tell an intriguing story of passion.

Metamorphosis is largely a sound poem with its many verses inspired primarily by the elements of nature. A master instrumentalist, Yumi Kurosawa uses her koto to pull us in, play on our emotions, and leave us to reflect with greater awareness of both the subtlety and uniqueness of each fleeting moment.  Her quality compositions are obviously the result of many years of training to develop highly proficient technical skills, a good ear, much sensitivity, and a thorough knowledge of how to present the nuances and colors of sound. Sound is much like paint with varying colors, and Kurosawa uses her koto as the paintbrush. The entire set is very colorful due to the relationship of notes to those around them, successive tones in musical space stimulating imagination and creating illusions. I was glad that Kurosawa offers more bright than dark sounds, and her sonic colors primarily collaborate to produce happy feelings, upbeat emotions and great sensory impact. Metamorphosis is a joyful experience. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)