Press
DownBeat: Open Question Vol. 1
"The quintet has conjured up a refreshingly tasteful and internally malleable free outing. It moves organically from identifiable tonality and rhythm to their opposites, with a special ensemble fluidity... a notable project at the junction of inside, outside and some hard-to-define X factor holding it all together..."
The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: July 2024
"Tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito exemplifies the modern jazz approach of all-genres-are-fair-game, incorporating elements of indie rock, electronic music, and R&B, thereby accentuating the playful quality and layering in some cerebral intrigue to boot…"
The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: January 2025
"Focused, but affecting a quality not unlike the cut-up narrative method, where the ordering of the music is left entirely up to the individual listener... The saxophonist’s wild aesthetic, sent careening with endless effects, thrives in this environment…"
The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: March 2024
"Improvisations that sound like free jazz dipped into a punk-rock fire and burned until it sparks... At times their mix even evokes acid-soaked psych rock, but every time you think you have it pegged, it takes another sharp turn…"
The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: July 2021
"This modern cosmic jazz session has an intoxicatingly drifting ambiance. But there’s always a sense of focus that balances out the album’s ephemeral qualities... the music always remains engaging, despite sending out signals that it is time to bliss out…"
Fifteen Questions
"I believe improvisation is spontaneous music that honestly expresses oneself... since I started playing free improvised music, I have become more accepting of myself..."
Jazz Tokyo Interview
“それまで『上手くないとダメだ』と考えていた。しかし、ダニエルの演奏はそんな考えなど超越している。何をやっているかわからないけれど、凄い。……彼女はテクニックよりもテクスチャーやサウンド全体のことを気にするようになった。エフェクターを使うことを推してくれたのはダニエルだ。『皆がやっているものだけではダメだよ。"Tomorrow’s music" をやりなさい』と…”
The Quietus
"Her artistic voice and skronking jazz rock style have remained refreshingly potent, lending credence to the epithet of ‘up-and-coming sax talent…Ishito’s saxophone rarely sounds like a saxophone here, instead mimicking everything from recorders to analogue synthesisers and wah-wahs, the choice of effects as important as the chords she’s playing..."
Left Bank Magazine
“We are so thrilled to share this new tune from Ayumi Ishito on Left Bank—we regularly share indie rock / shoegaze / dream pop, and while I am a HUGE fan of jazz, it very rarely makes its way on the site.”
The Family Interviews
“There’s something about jazz that is inherently cool. Maybe it’s because people playing saxophones tend to be wearing a trilby or a fedora and some slick shades. I actually hate fedoras with a passion that burns like a thousand suns. They’re ridiculously small for most people’s heads.”
JazzTrail
“Based in Brooklyn since 2010, Ayumi Ishito is a Japanese-born saxophonist/composer whose spunky style consists in a contemporary amalgamation of genres with a profusion of mood changes and predicated in demarcated structures that involve both group texture and individual improvisation.”
Grotesqualizer
“The track “Not Today” stands out with its notable element of the wah-wah sound of the tenor saxophone, which makes the track an infinitely dissolving, hypnotic pill.”