For Patrick Shiroishi, the saxophone is an object of protest and defiance, a talisman against prejudice and a symbolic call to arms. A prolific composer and performer, he sees his instrument as a tool in an ongoing fight against racial inequality, and platforms his voice over a wide array of different genres. He is a member of mysterious Detroit-based hardcore punk collective The Armed, contemporary classical tearaways Wild Up, and ambient-leaning jazzers Fuubutsushi. As a solo artist, he works out of Los Angeles. His practice is situated in a rich history of Japanese American culture, a culture that has seen more than its fair share of oppression over the last century.
Forgetting Is Violent is Shiroishi’s fourth solo album, and his biggest statement, both musically and in terms of ideas. Where previous records focused on specific, sometimes historical elements of Japanese American culture and the prejudice it has suffered, this one tackles racism at large, both in the past and from a contemporary standpoint. It is music that recognises a turning point in history and seeks to influence it for the better, which means that it is, by necessity, angry and impassioned music.
But it’s also music defined by control and experimentation. There is a clear symmetry in the two suites that make up the record’s two sides, despite their different premises. Side A deals with wider colonial and racial themes. There are multiple spoken-word recordings, beginning with the layers of voices that make up the album’s first minute or so. Shiroishi’s quick-fingered, scattered sax notes become part of the cacophony as he adds his own weight to the history of his people. It soon grows into a beautiful – if barely comprehensible – musical chaos, a dialogue stretched across years. Mountains That Take Wing begins with a high-pitched, screaming note, then settles into a meditative motif. Shiroishi then picks out a mellow, flighty melody, while guitars crashing percussive effects loom around him. He is extremely skilled at manoeuvring a piece of music between calm and horror. …what does anyone want but to feel a little more free? relies mostly on the former, leaning into ambient and dream-pop territory and aided by the singing and electronics of Faith Coloccia. There is no moment in my life in which this is not happening, which rounds off the first side, has a deeply spiritual feel, an austere underlying note allowing the voices space to expand. It is moving and highly atmospheric.
The second side is far more personal in theme: Shiroishi wrote it in memory of a family member who died of an overdose. But he is constantly aware that the causes and implications of such an event are bound up with racism and the societal problems it engenders. But this is no dry study, it’s a passionate plea for a better world, and pieces like One last walk with the wind of my past feel like a reckoning, a coming to terms not just with grief but with an unfair universe. Prayer for a trembling body is a patient vocal melody, sung sweetly and defiantly, that leads into the short, pulsing drone of To become another being there has to be some kind of death.
The whole of side two features an intermittent fuzz of electronic backwash, which at first seems dreamy and nostalgic. But by the time you reach the final track, Trying to get to heaven before they close the door (featuring a noisy sheet of guitar courtesy of BIG|BRAVE’s Mat Ball), you realise it serves a bigger purpose: it carries the constant undertow of history and acts as a constant reminder of injustice on all levels. That Patrick Shiroishi’s work is able to carry such depth of meaning even at its most minimal is testament to his obvious skill as a composer and a musician, but also as a listener and interpreter of stories. Forgetting Is Violent is a lightning rod for those stories, a vivid warning from history and a vibrant cri de coeur.
Forgetting is Violent (September 19th, 2025) Amercan Dreams