Naoko Sakata
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Naoko Sakata is a Japanese pianist who currently lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. Naoko is recognised for her fearless and intuitive improvisations and her heartfelt playing has become her personal trademark. Her music reaches from the very depths of calm poetic beauty to intense explosive chaos, where everything comes together as one powerful expression. The music she creates is the daughter of the moment and therefore unrepeatable, pure improvisation. In addition to the artist's freedom of expression, there’s nothing else and is almost impossible to classify into a genre or a category.
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Naoko has received multiple prestigious awards for her music and performance, among these are: the Alice Babs award, Stena Stiftelsen culture award, SKAP-Swedish composers and authors award and Swedish National Radio prize "jazzkatten" etc.
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To date, Naoko has released three albums on solo piano: Inner Planets (2020), Dancing Spirits (2021), and Infinity (2023).
The Guardian selected "Infinity"as one of the best contemporary albums of 2023 and several tracks being played on the BBC radio by Mary Anne Hobbs and Iggy Pop.
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-Pianist Sakata plays with a striking fierceness and energy- John Lewis, The Guardian
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- Naoko Sakata makes music that touches the sublime- Lorna Irvine, SNACK Magazine
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- Experimental piano incantations. Instinctive, feminine and absolutely wild - Mary Anne Hobbs BBC 6 Music