Drummer Noritaka Tanaka and Bassist Jason Ajemian met in 2001 playing at Pete Millers Restaurant in Evanston with Jeff Parker. They instantly decided to get something happening together where they could try and develop the connection on a regular basis. The two started getting together a majority of days in the week to work on rhythm section connections and beat relationships; as well as, conceptual ideas of motion, movement, space and feelings of consciousness in terms of comfort and struggle in relation to sound.
Eventually, Ajemian began vocalizing his notebook within these states of sonic focus. Many times this process constructed songs or referenced previous movements, motifs that existed for more than the instant of creation.
Never Too Fat To Fly 7": is a cover of Michael James Ajemian's song, a 6:00, LayAllOverIt splits the song in half for each side of the single with a different stylistic take for each. Joined by Saxophonist Tim Haldeman who plays with Ajemian & Tanaka in Smokeless HEAT.
Press
"Bassist Jason Ajemian and drummer Nori Tanaka have been regular thursday-night fixtures at Rodan, sometimes in a trio with guitarist Jeff Parker but just as often in an idiosyncratic improv duo. Starting with precomposed melodic fragments, the music moves organically from Tanaka's fierce swirling grooves to Ajemian's meditative, standalone arco passages. Ajemian adds spontaneous vocals that range from howled chants to original poems sung as the kind of raw, plaintive folk music that the native of Virginia's mountain country seems to have in his blood."
