We are easily habituated by fixed patterns, whether it's the lifestyle we lead, the way we walk or the type of music we like. Music or songs, in many people's eyes, are just five-minute melodies with tempos and lyrics, telling a story, sad or happy, angry or peaceful. To break out from this audio prison, a group of pioneers started to make live music in a random and extemporaneous way. They played improvisational music, or free music.

As one of the first improvisational musicians in Japan, Sabu Toyozumi has toured around the world and collaborated with many free jazz musicians including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Derek Bailey and John Russell. He plays the drums and the erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed instrument. On January 25 and 26, Toyozumi was invited to Shanghai to take part in a two-day free music festival at 696Live with other artists including Argentinean psychedelic musician Anla Courtis and Chinese electronic musician Ronez. They played as duos, trios and even quartets, sparked by random and instant inspiration.

A poster for Sabu Toyozumi's performances in Shanghai Photo: Courtesy of the organizer

Born in 1943, Toyozumi became involved in free music in the 1960s, when bebop, a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation, thrived in Japan. Toyozumi noted that the Japanese are quick learners, even in classical music. The popularity of bebop in Japan later made way for the rise of improvisational music. For him, experimental and free composition is not mysterious. Instead, it's just a way to break through the old and create something new out of a love for fresh and interesting things. Musicians who keep repeating themselves are just making a living through music.

In 2005, John Russell, a renowned improvisational guitarist from the UK, organized a two-day event dedicated to Toyozumi, which can be seen as a confluence of the work of British free improvisers and musicians from the Japanese scene. "One responds to music through many different filters and combinations of filters that are built up over time. The creative musician/listener is constantly analyzing, revaluing and reorganizing these, while at the same time trying to find new ones to generate further possibilities; but it is in the act of improvising that 'quantum leaps' can occur," Russell wrote in an article titled "Somewhere There's Music" published in experimental music magazine Rubberneck.

Toyozumi was greatly influenced by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, whose drumbeats were like waves of continuous tides. "I was shocked and realized that rhythm can be so different. Everyone has his own tempo. Later I began to try more improvisational drumming," Toyozumi told the Global Times.

Toyozumi's tour in China this month covered seven cities. During the tour, he cooperated with many young Chinese independent musicians. He found them straightforward and simple.