Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway Duo

This duo began in 2016 as a series of residencies, rehearsals and performances in Ireland, and further evolved in 2018 in the context of a trio with bassist Barry Guy with the release of the recording “Illuminated Silence”. Both the duo and trio have since co-existed but it is the duo that has become a central platform for both players. There is by now a shared and well understood language between them that moves seamlessly between formal structures, spontaneous invention, as well as their unique interpretations of song. The release of “Kairos” in 2023 debuts this array of possibilities which continue to grow as a rich and varied performance platform for both musicians.

Writing for the WIRE about this release Bill Meyer summarizes.. "Dublin based Japanese pianist lzumi Kimura and Connecticut born, Switzerland based percussionist/vocalist Gerry Hemingway have recorded previously with Barry Guy, but Kairos is their first duo effort. While each brought a piece to this session, most of it is jointly credited, but it does not sound like a product of free improvisation so much as an investigation in how each can support the other's strengths. Even in free moments, the pianist is inexorably drawn to melodies, which Hemingway abets with complementary tonal lines on his vibes and drum kit. And Kimura, who combines preparations with conventional keyboard sounds, uses a staccato attack to reinforce the drummer's intricate constructions. lt's a complementary partnership." Bill Meyer / Jazz & Improv - The Wire October 2023

Bandcamp Release May 2, 2025 - Click here

Masterfully recorded in a duo improvisation, yet not your average improvisational fare: The second release by Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura and Lucerne-based US drummer Gerry Hemingway is characterized by an idiosyncratic aesthetic. There's the percussively shimmering, structuring, and then again elegiac-atmospheric sonority of piano and marimba/vibraphone, sometimes almost indistinguishably intertwined, yet also contrapuntally expanding each other in independent lines. Bright glitter and trickling runs contrast with dark accents. Varied rhythmic textures alternate fluidly with ghostly soundscapes. And with track 10, the blues suddenly return: Hemingway sings and stretches the syllables of his poem "This Waiting Place" as a re-recording of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" into a mysterious in-between state. The music takes on a new meaning, an existential undertone that, with the note on the CD "this recording is dedicated to all of those who are suffering unbearable oppression while seeking peace," reminds us, in all our powerlessness and with all our compassion, (also) of our sociopolitical reality as privileged people. And how we deal with it.

Pirmin Bossart July 2025 - Jazz'n'More

Swiss resident, American drummer Gerry Hemingway’s line “we are millions of things” offers a suitable entry point into the nuanced, multifaceted world of How The Dust Falls, his second duo outing with Ireland-based Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura. Rather than aligning with the growing lineage of piano/ drum duets, the album unfolds as a dialogue between two percussive voices, shaped in part by Kimura’s unconventional pianism, which privileges sound and attack over harmony and melody. Her use of prepared piano techniques emphasizes the instrument’s physicality, while Hemingway broadens the palette yet further with marimba, vibraphone, cymbals, drums and even vocals on one track.

The partnership between the two traces its roots to a speculative invitation from the pianist, having witnessed the drummer’s mastery of free improvisation, which culminated in a trio completed by bassist Barry Guy. The rapport nurtured within that configuration also spills into this arena, now distilled into a remarkably determined focus, exemplified by the album opener “Waterspear”. This cut is the longest of the 14 jointly credited tracks, wherein they establish a patient and deliberate build. Over spaced, weighted chords, Hemingway incrementally ramps up to a dynamic, roiling cascade. Though Kimura gradually elaborates her motif, her steadfast approach anchors the piece’s progression.

Throughout the set, the roles remain balanced, undercutting the common trope of piano dominance. The pair tackle a diversity of gambits, often avoiding conventional development or resolution, instead creating contained sonic environments. “Third Story” sets tone colors from clanking piano and resonant metal within a lurching rhythmic flow, while “Dock Driftings” unveils music box timbres through plinking piano lines and woody marimba. With its modulating minimalist mutations and drums sparkling like steel pans, “Entrainments I” sounds like something imagined by rhythmically-oriented composer Steve Reich. Conversely, the slowly decaying reverberations and sudden swells of “Stillness” suggest traffic looming out of a fog.

Capping their multiplicity of ideas is the duo’s reconsideration of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night”, here titled “This Waiting Place”. Kimura’s bluestinged phrases intertwine with Hemingway’s reflective lyrics, subtly nodding to themes of displacement. It is an aching performance, which, in tandem with the remainder of the program, accentuates the pairing’s unique take on contrast and cohesion, signposting a vast creative horizon ahead.

John Sharpe June 2025 - New York City Jazz Record

“Waterspear” opens and it is filled with suspense, the piano repeating a couple of chords while Hemingway spins around his drumset. Although I think that much of this is improvised, the duo do create their own sound after working together over the last few years. Ms. Kimura plays prepared piano at times by muting certain strings inside the piano with her hands. On "Third Story", the duo slow down to a glacial pace, with both musicians playing sparse, ethereal lines, the effect is most suspense-filled. Kimura only mutes certain notes, balancing between the muted and more organic tones, the duo creating a solemn dreamscape. Both Kimura and Hemingway have a way of locking in rhythmically, tapping out similar lines on their respective instruments. Even when things speed up on "Entrainments I", they play tightly together, pulsating as one force. I like the way they stretch out the notes on "Stillness", slowly extending and slightly bending each sound cautiously. Perhaps it is Hemingway bowing a cymbal or the metal or wood of his marimba or vibes, giving things an eerie ghost-like vibe. Since pulse or space is slowed down on much of this, I had to calm my inner attention span to a more patient rate, making this disc easier to appreciate. I noticed on several of the pieces that the sound of the piano and the sound of the vibes or marimba are quite similar so it is difficult to tell them apart at times. Once I calmed down a bit, I drifted into the magical dreamworld that this duo has created throughout the entire disc. -

Bruce Lee Gallanter, June 13, 2025 - DMG

The fourteen pieces sound like deep and nuanced conversations of two close friends, and Kimura and Hemingway like two parts of a greater whole. She often articulates with concise, contemplative-melodic gestures, letting them float and dive on their own accord, while he resonates - literally - with her gestures with much more energy and volition, and often sounds as if he is all over the recording space. But there is a lot of playful wisdom, sensitivity, and compassion in their playing, and, obviously, great focus on form and structure. They know how to gravitate the spontaneous improvised pieces into instant compositions, with an open, inquisitive approach, elegance, and rhythmic precision, as if all the notes were premeditated, but never surrendering to familiar courses.

...This album suggests so many moments of rare and comforting beauty, and demands more and more listening to reveal its many genre-defying, poetic wonders.

excerpts from Eyal Hareuveni's review for Percosi Musicali June 2025

Bandcamp Release July 3, 2023 - Click here

"Kairos, a duet with Hemingway, takes as its title an ancient Greek word meaning the “right time”, the “critical moment” or “opportunity”. It’s a motto for improvisers, and a defining idea on this very recording, along with possible corollaries, like the apt space or a notion of resonance. The duets are also dramatic and abstract, yet conversational, with Hemingway adding marimba, vibraphone and voice to his drumming. The concluding minute-long “Circadian Twilight” provides a moment of fleeting, evanescent beauty and makes for an apt conclusion to a remarkable program." by Stuart Broomer - New York City Jazz Record February 2024

"This duo is immensely well matched especially since the sound of the piano and assorted percussion often combine seamlessly as one sound/force.” Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

"An uncompromising, persuasive encounter from first to last.” Ian Patterson, All About Jazz - October 2023

"Kairos is a model of sympathetic and eventful improvisation, and an outstanding release." Andy Hamilton, Jazz Journal - October 2023

"Dublin based Japanese pianist lzumi Kimura and Connecticut born, Switzerland based percussionist/vocalist Gerry Hemingway have recorded previously with Barry Guy, but Kairos is their first duo effort. While each brought a piece to this session, most of it is jointly credited, but it does not sound like a product of free improvisation so much as an investigation in how each can support the other's strengths. Even in free moments, the pianist is inexorably drawn to melodies, which Hemingway abets with complementary tonal lines on his vibes and drum kit. And Kimura, who combines preparations with conventional keyboard sounds, uses a staccato attack to reinforce the drummer's intricate constructions. lt's a complementary partnership." Bill Meyer / Jazz & Improv - The Wire October 2023

"this duo has forged an effervescent and deeply engaging partnership. ‘Kairos’ demonstrates that music can link effortlessly across time, genres, and any preconceptions in the hands of the right performers.” Sammy Stein - Platinum Mind

"Both Hemingway and Kimura traverse regularly the permeable boundaries supposedly separating composer from performer, and the results of such multi-dimensional activity is readily apparent as piano and percussion in scintillatingly spacious dialogue send the intriguingly titled “Dendrochronology” wafting and shimmering into existence…. Best though, and a masterful programming choice, is the concluding “Circadian Twilight.” In a way, it returns to the disc’s opening aesthetic and distills it, but it also shares modal space with the preceding spiritual. It’s basically a descent, a quick burst of tone and timbre sloping gradually downward. As its diminuendo makes its shimmering way toward silence, there’s a sense of completion, a winning circularity that unifies a really fine and excellently recorded disc." Marc Medwin / Point of Departure (#84 Sept/Oct 2023)

"playing with our expectations, making us brood and delve into the silences of the afternotes and the physics of striking a note, filling a ticking silence in a vast universe.” Stephen Graham (Marlbank)

"a superb cohabitation whose perfect alchemy offers perfect cohesion.” Alain Dupeux Radio R E C

" ***** - Many wonderful and enchanting things happen when you let yourself drift in such an unstoppable tide. “ Eyal Hareuveni - Free Jazz Collective

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EPK 2024-2025

For bookings and inquiries:

email: gerryhem |at| gmail |dot| com

email: izumikimura |at| gmail |dot| com