Sanctuary
Claudio Jacomucci, accordion
Japanese-born composer Akemi Naito claims that her initial attraction to the accordion was its timbral similarity to the traditional Japanese sho. But the sho, a mouth organ related to similar instruments in China, Laos and northern Thailand, goes back centuries before free reed instruments were developed in the West. So don’t expect a polka or a tarantella here. Instead, Naito takes advantage of the accordion’s power to sustain pitches to create an ethereal web of harmonies.
—FJO