Black Sun (Black sun)

‘Just under 20 years after the end of the war, Japan presents itself as a quasi-apocalyptic landscape. The protagonist, Akira, is an aimless drifter obsessed with jazz who lives in the bombed-out ruins of a church. His walls are covered with posters of his heroes – Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus – his dog is called Thelonious Monk, and his greatest treasure is a record by Max Roach. An encounter with a wounded African-American soldier on the run – like Akira, an outcast from society – triggers a chain of projections and misunderstandings.” (Arsenal, Oct 2024)

‘Much of the thematic material in the soundtrack stems from a free-jazz-style passage in which Max Roach lets loose completely and pounds his drums with a barrage of free, powerful beats, whilst producing bursts of machine-gun-like fills, whilst the singer Abbey Lincoln screams and shrieks in an atonal catharsis. In a particularly striking scene in which Akira removes a bullet from Gill’s leg, the harrowing images are accompanied musically by a slow ballad, composed by Toshiro Mayuzumi and performed by the Roach Quartet. This creates an extreme emotional counterpoint, the likes of which I have never before experienced in film music.’ (S. Fairbank, Dec 2025)