Over the past few years, alto sax player Masahiko Okura has led an astonishingly full and varied musical life. Active as a soloist, as leader of the jazz-rock band Gnu, and as a member of the improvisational trio Bject (with Tetuzi Akiyama and Utah Kawasaki), he also collaborates with many other improvisers, including Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Ami Yoshida, Axel Dörner, Alessandro Bosetti, Werner Dafeldecker, and Günter Müller. With the recent addition to his repertoire of two more instruments --the bass clarinet and the 'tube,' a reed instrument of his own invention made from a tube and a mouthpiece -- he has further enriched his musical vocabulary. Okura has released three CDs with Gnu and two with Bject. Time Service is his very first solo album. None of its six tracks contain the slightest trace of Gnu's pop sensibility. This is a highly abstract work that brings out the subtle tones and resonance of the alto sax, bass clarinet, and tube, and illuminates Okura's unique musicianship. A masterpiece.