Ronin Arkestra

Founded in 2017, Ronin Arkestra is a fusion jazz/electronica collective from Tokyo founded by half-Japanese, half-New Zealander pianist, DJ, and producer Mark de Clive-Lowe. Its membership includes some of the finest players from Japan's contemporary jazz scene from bands such as Jazzanova, WONK, Cro Magnon, Sleepwalker, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Root Soul, Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Routine Jazz Quintet, Sauce 81, and others. Their music is a hybrid that exists between the modern club-jazz scene of Tokyo and the jazz clubs of Los Angeles -- Lowe is a resident of both cities. They began jamming together in a live setting whenever the pianist was in Tokyo. In late 2018, they entered the Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles and cut a series of live-to-tape tracks to reflect their live ethos, and overdubbed electronics later. A four-track extended EP entitled First Meeting, consisting of two long jams ("Stranger Searching" and "Silk Road Prelude"), a single ("Red Eye Reprisal"), and a thoroughly revisioned cover of the third section of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" was issued in the middle March of 2019, with a follow-up full-length planned for a fall release. ~ Thom Jurek