Jonah Parzen-Johnson & Lau Nau LIVE IN ITALY: A FEW WE REMEMBER
JONAH PARZEN-JOHNSON & LAU NAU
LIVE IN ITALY: A FEW WE REMEMBER
We Jazz Records
Lau Nau is the performance and recording name of Laura Naukkarinen, a Finnish composer, producer, singer and sound artist who is a native of Helsinki. She plays violin, guitar, keyboard, various toy instruments, idiophones, and sings. She has recorded for several labels and performed with a number of groups playing experimental music, exploring free improvisation, and psychedelic folk music.
Lau Nau has paired up with Jonah Parzen-Johnson for this double set recording. Parzen-Johnson is a baritone saxophonist based in Brooklyn, New York and born in Chicago. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies from New York University and a Master of Music in jazz saxophone from Manhattan School of Music. Like Lau Nau, he leans towards Avant-garde jazz and folk music. He has a synthesizer built specifically for his saxophone with a set of pedals he can play with his feet. He has recorded solo albums featuring his Bari-sax and synthesizer techniques.
In April of 2026, Lau Nau and Jonah crossed into Italy separately and caught a train to meet in Bolzano for their first tour together. From the moment they began the first concert of that tour, they admit feeling the anxiety and nervous excitement of doing something for the first time. That tour continued across the Italian border into Austria and Germany. They made an in-studio recording in Bolzano, Italy. Consequently, here is an album of improvisations for baritone saxophone, modular synth and other improvised instruments. Some tunes studio recorded and others recorded “live” in concert.
They open with “Longtime Resident.” Parzen-Johnson’s baritone saxophone explores and establishes the melody. Lau Nau provides the accompanying synthesized music. Their music grows, blossoms and stretches the limits of my imagination. The synthesizer reminds me of space without time or confinement. The baritone saxophone is one of my favorite instruments in jazz. It captivates with its strong, deep, rich sound in contrast to Lau Nau’s tinkling keyboard. The bass notes are either pedaled by Parzen-Johnson or played on synthesizer. I think this duo would be fun to see “in person.”
One frustration I have with reviewing this artistic album is that no instrumentation is listed on the CD Jacket, nor in their press package. So, I don’t know who is playing what. There are bells and percussive sounds that tickle the belly of the baritone saxophone and inspire the duo to create and improvise. For example, on “Flight Attendant.”
The two musicians offer a myriad of arrangements that they have created together, either in the moment while playing from charts, or freely improvising. They use sheet music with basic outlines for these stories they tell, but the two musicians hope you will recognize, “this music isn’t about the stories. It’s about how it feels to tell them,” They write in the liner notes.
It’s all about how this music makes you feel and what it inspires in you, from the inside-out.
Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil
