Masahiko Okura

Active Recovering Music (ARM) is a slide whistle ensemble led by sax player Masahiko Okura. All of the members play the slide whistle. Okura debuted ARM in concert with a five-member formation in 2008. He's since continued the group's activity (though their live performances are infrequent) with changing numbers of players. This is the recording of a performance by ARM--this time with eight members--which took place at Ftarri, Tokyo, in February 2013. Each of the three pieces was composed by Okura, and each is about 15 minutes long. The players' supple long tones pile up and overlap repeatedly, and the increasingly thick sound clusters and subtle sonic tremors give the music a deep flavor. The members are Masahiko Okura, Masahide Tokunaga, Toshihiro Koike, Taku Unami, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Shibatetsu, Satoshi Kanda, and Masae Okura. On the first track, the members all use percussion instruments and percussion sounds can be heard from time to time.