Itoko Toma: Beside the Moon
Schole Records

With her latest release an ultra-compact twenty-three minutes, Japanese pianist Itoka Toma (b. 1977) would seem to prefer her albums short. In that regard, Beside the Moon is much like her other Schole releases, 2024's Beyond the Mountain and 2017's when the world will mix well, which are likewise modest in duration. But when broaching Toma's music , it's worth remembering that a short poem can be as profound as a longer one (think Dickinson's “If I can stop one heart from breaking” vs. Keats's “Endymion”) and a short story can have as indelible an impact as a novel (Carver's “Cathedral” vs. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina). Certainly the seven solo piano settings on her latest don't suffer for their brevity, separately or collectively.

Recorded at Studio SALO in Oiso in the summer of 2023, the piano settings were inspired by a photo exhibition by Schole Records' art director Shin Kikuchi on display at the studio. With the images around her, Toma played the pieces on a meticulously tuned upright, her playing free of needless embellishment. Entrancement sets in quickly with “Robin,” the tune as uplifting and calming as a dew-dappled spring morn. A simply, rhapsodic melody drives the piece, which, in being so sparse allows for the action of the piano to become part of the production. The haunting “Shine” is even more skeletal and as such reveals even more the presence of the instrument. A peaceful nocturnal setting is conjured by “Muni,” with Toma's pretty vignette so suggestive one can easily visualize the moon mirrored in a gently rippling lake. Prettier still is “Muku,” as spellcasting a lullaby as you'll ever hear, whereas the stately “Seto” faintly echoes the melody from “The First Noel” at album's end.

Each of these haunting songs is emblematic of her beguiling, melody-rich style, and while the arrangements are in many cases reduced to their core, her classical training imbues them with a noticeably refined quality. Exquisitely presented by Schole, Beside the Moon is a fine complement to the small yet solid discography Toma is gradually building. No matter how brief a recording is, any one that includes a piece as enchanting as “Shine” encourages duration to be set aside and its musical content treated as the primary object of concern.

October 2025