Kaiju Project Aseo Friesacher

• 1Kokin Choshi07:08
• 2Koto Song07:08
• 3Ringo Oiwake06:33
• 4Legend of Ashitaka04:52
• 5Unspoken Words09:14
• 6Ryukyu Islands06:29
• 7Akatonbo04:55
• 8Kawa No Nagare05:26
• 9Sakura04:45
• 10Furusato04:23
• Total Runtime01:00:53

Info for Kaiju Project

Kaiju Project is a Japanese inspired jazz group formed by the half-Japanese pianist Aseo Friesacher. Their initial idea was to bring old folk songs into a new modern context, but in addition to their compositions, this group has found their very own musical direction: a perfect blend of traditional Japanese music and modern creative jazz.

Aseo’s composition style is clearly rooted in Jazz, but with the use of traditional Japanese melodic elements and sounds, the music becomes very storytelling and gets a beautiful and mystic character. Also some famous soundtracks from the Ghibli movies and songs by the Japanese singer Hibari Misora, that Aseo has arranged for the band, are included in their repertoire.

The bandleader has had the vision for a long time to create this unique fusion of traditional Japanese music and Jazz in order to bring together the eastern and the western world. In fact, the meaning lies his name A-se-o, “亜為欧“: living for Asia and Europe.

The band went through a couple of changes in their formation but finally resulted in a dream team, featuring two Japanese musicians who bring the authentic sound to the band: Waka Otsu as the vocalist and Fuefuki Kana on Japanese flutes and silver flute. Furthermore there is the highly accomplished and respected ECM artist, drummer and percussionist Joost Lijbaart and the virtuosic and talented bassist Johannes Fend, who make the group complete. So far the Kaiju Project has toured in the Netherlands where most of the band members are based, they have performed in Germany and recorded their first album.

Aseo Friesacher, piano
Waka Otsu, vocals
Ayumi Matsuda, flute, recorder
Bintang Manira, percussion

Aseo Friesacher
is a pianist and composer born in Vienna, Austria. Since an early age he was very interested in music and he was able to pick up melodies and rhythms easily. It was soon clear to him that a music career is the only thing he wants to pursue. Aseo started to play the piano at an age of 6. He was also member of the famous Vienna Boy’s Choir and got the chance to tour around the world and sing in big concert halls like the Carnegie Hall in New York or the Tokyo Opera City Hall.

At the age of fourteen Aseo found his love to jazz music by listening to songs of Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and Didier Squiban. Eventually he formed his own trio with which he played in prestigious venues as the UNO-City. In 2014 the Aseo Friesacher Trio won the 1st price of the Podium.Jazz Competition in Austria. Since then Aseo became very active in the Viennese jazz scene and played in various formations and bands such as the „Princetones“ and the „Libal Bigband“. In 2015 he started his jazz piano studies in the Vienna Conservatory of Music & Arts and studied with Aaron Wonesch. Later he graduated at the Codarts Conservatory in Rotterdam. In addition to his musical growth he could get the chance to have workshops from several piano masters as Harold Mabern, Tamir Hendelman, Peter Beets and Cory Henry.

In 2022 Aseo obtained his master degree in music from the Royal Conservatoire The Hague and is based in the Netherlands since. He became very active in the dutch music scene as well as internationally, playing in several bands such as Aseo Trio, Loek van den Berg Quintet, Kaiju Project, Vishwa and Sinan’s Sufidelica Project amongst others. Also in spring 2019 Aseo got accepted to be part of the Jong Metropole which is a unique collaboration between the Metropole Orkest, the NJO (National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands) and the NJJO (National Jazz Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands). Through the Jong Metropole Aseo could collaborate with conductors like Miho Hazama and Jules Buckley.

Booklet for Kaiju Project