Label:
Columbia – OP-7147~8-N
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: May 1975
Gatefold-cover
/ Originally / First Pressed
Style:
Experimental, Free Improvisation
Recorded
On August 19th, 1974 At The Nippon Columbia Studio No.1 In Tokyo.
Album
design : Michiro KIMURA
Engineering
: Kaoru LIDA
Produced
by Yoshiharu KAWAGUCHI
Liner
Notes – Yuji TAKAHASHI
Ⓟ 1975 Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.
Matrix
/ Runout (A-Side runout): OP-7147~8-N / N-357-449 - 1
Matrix
/ Runout (B-Side runout): OP-7147~8-N / N-357-450 - 2
Matrix
/ Runout (C-Side runout): OP-7147~8-N / N-357-451 - 3
Matrix
/ Runout (D-Side runout): OP-7147~8-N / N-357-452 - 4
Issued
with printed innersleeve (top half text in Japanese, bottom half: liner notes
by Yuji Takahashi / verso: TMT biography).
side
1:
A
- 1 .........................................................................................................................
19:55
side
2:
B
- 2 .........................................................................................................................
21:30
side
3:
C
- 3 ........................................................................................................................ 23:35
side
4:
D
- 4 ........................................................................................................................
23:30
TAJ
MAHAL TRAVELLERS
Takehisa
KOSUGI – electric violin, harmonica, voice, etc.
Ryo
KOIKE – electric double-bass, suntool, voice, etc.
Yukio
TSUCHIYA – bass-tuba, percussion, etc.
Seiji
NAGAI – trumpet, synthesizer mini-korg, timpani, etc.
Michihiro
KIMURA – voice, percussion, mandolin, etc.
Tokio
HASEGAWA – voice, percussion, etc.
Kinji
HAYASHI – electronic technique
Guest
performer : Hirokazu SATO – percussion, voice, etc.
High
quality of the monumental work ''1 - August 1974'' by Japanese experimental
music ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers.
In
April 1972 a group of Japanese musicians set off from Rotterdam in a Volkswagen
van. As they crossed Europe and then made their way through Asia they made
music in a wide range of locations. They also paid close attention to the
changing scene and to differing ways of life. Midway through May they reached
their destination, the iconic Taj Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna river in
Agra, India. The Taj Mahal Travellers had fulfilled physically the promise of
the name they adopted when they formed in 1969. But their music had always been
a journey, a sonic adventure designed to lead any listener’s imagination into
unfamiliar territory.
The
double album August 1974 was their second official release. The first July 15,
1972 is a live concert recording, but on 19th August 1974 the Taj Mahal
Travellers entered the Tokyo studios of Nippon Columbia and produced what is
arguably their definitive statement. The electronic dimension of their
collective improvising was coordinated, as usual, by Kinji Hayashi. Guest
percussionist Hirokazu Sato joined long-term group members Ryo Koike, Seiji
Nagai, Yukio Tsuchiya, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa and Takehisa Kosugi.
The
enigmatic Takehisa Kosugi, whose soaring electric violin was such a vital
element in their music, had been a pioneer of free improvisation and intermedia
performance art with Group Ongaku at the start of the 60s. Later in that
decade, before launching the Taj Mahal Travellers, he had become known
internationally through his association with the Fluxus art movement. During
the mid-70s the Travellers disbanded and while his colleagues more or less
stopped performing as musicians Kosugi continued to reach new audiences across
the course of several decades as a composer, regular performer and musical
director for the acclaimed Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
August
1974 captures vividly the characteristic sound of the Taj Mahal Travellers,
haunting tones from an unusual combination of instruments, filtered through
multiple layers of reverb and delay. Their music has strong stylistic
affinities with the trippy ambience of cosmic and psychedelic rock, but the Taj
Mahal Travellers were tuning in to other vibrations, drawing inspiration from
the energies and rhythms of the world around them rather than projecting some
alternative reality. Films of rolling ocean waves often provided a highly
appropriate backdrop for their lengthy improvised concerts.
This is truly electric music for the mind and body.
This is truly electric music for the mind and body.
If you find it, buy this album!
