I follow Alexander Frangenheim's adventures in the sonic universe with an individual interest, so that after having introduced some of his stuff (and more recently his solo album "Talk For A Listener") on this webzine, here it is another awesome collaborative output. The title "Kochuu" refers to an idea belonging to Japanese architecture: it means "in the jar" - ...and there's no whiskey into it! - and relates to the tradition of creating small physical spaces to create a sort of detached universe from the surrounding environment. If you are interested in this kind of subjects, I could recommend a documentary by Jesper Wachtmeister, dating back 2003. The sound that Alexander on double bass rendered together with percussionist Roger Turner and the amazing French vocalist Isabelle Duthoit (performing on clarinet as well) manages to develop such a concept using guessed stylistic choices. Full of unpredictable twists and turns that could remind that branch of Japanese theatre, where nothing seems to happen all over the play before that dramatic moment that disrupts a supposedly stable balance, the seven tracks on this album got titled as parts of an imaginary agonizing body: since the opening "Blind Stomach", where Isabelle'0s voice seems to emulate the voice of a starving stomach, whose almost soul-breaking need for food and unuseful discharge of gastric acids match the piercing instrumental and rising dramatic instrumental parts, to the final "Dark Haunch", a visionary crescendo that seems to portray of a prisoner on its last legs, the sound on "Kochuu" evokes a scenario where an imagined confinement got easily turned into a sort of sonically acceptable madness. In many moments of the album (particularly on "Deaf Heart" and the almost disturbing "Loose Liver"), the style this trio explored (the release is a recording of an improvisational session they performed at Berlin-based Frangenheim's studioboerne45 in April 2013) sounded so subversive that even some of the boldest free-jazz improvisations could look like stuff for weenuses.