UA - Sun

Let me throw a wild concept at you: What if you mix Pop with Jazz? Huh?! HUH?!! "Pfftt... get out of here... like it's not been done to death already". Yep, fair enough, that's totally right. Since the day we thought of throwing the term "Pop" around, Jazz has been there, togheter. They have a beautiful story, but let's not play the historian right now. Ok, what if... what if the Jazz was free? Huh?! That sounds good now, right? You better believe it does!
UA is a Japanese Pop artist releasing records since the 90's. It's no exaggeration to say she's the Nihon Björk. Though it's reductive to compare artists like this (like most people who compare every Art Pop artists to Björk or Kate Bush, and I gotta confess I'm guilt of it too), they're actually very similar in a couple aspects: 1) Their wild, idiosyncratic vocal performances; 2) The refusal to release the same album again and again; Like, really, apart from her 90's discography, she hasn't release a single record that was too similar to the previous or next. Always hoping from one different flavored Pop record to next (also, just saying "Pop", or "Art Pop", whatever, is pretty reductive too, but let's put convenience above).
"Sun", released in 2004, is pretty much what I hinted in the beginning, Free Jazz flavored Pop. And just to give you an idea, her next record, released in the same year, was a Nursery Rhymes record, and the next one, released right in the next year, was more electronic and ambient in approach. Trully a chameleon.
Anyway, "Sun" itself: Wild, just wild! Most songs have some noticeable, simple structure, indicated by verses and chorus, or better saying, they're mostly conducted by the vocals, trying to give some coherence to it, but the instrumentation barely keeps it togheter (in the best sense possible). Best example of it is 踊る鳥と金の雨, where it seems the musicians just can't agree which arrangement was better, so they just throw them all, one at a time. It isn't much that the songwriting is progressive (as in Progressive Rock/Pop/Jazz), but it experiments a lot, letting the voice being the only anchor of familiarity. そんな空には踊る馬 and 忘我 display the most wild side of this record, amazing tracks that just make the Pharaoh, and the Ensemble, and the Sun super proud. 忘我 specially has an outstanding interplay with the horns and a lengthy intro, and just... wow, the many phases of these two first tracks just lets you in awe.
There are many interesting experiments here too, like the Indian influence in ファティマとセミラ and the Gamelan in Papito (which also has a vocal duet with a dog) and Ua Ua Rai Rai. Really, I could just endlessly cite every detail in all these tracks, all the amazing horns, the crazy drums, the vocals and bass interplay, the improvisations... could just go on and on in a track-by-track review and wouldn't make it justice. Like just any good Jazz record, just pay close attention to it and let it unfold slowly.