Browse by Artist: KOSUGI, TAKEHISA

Artist:	KOSUGI, TAKEHISA
Title:	Violin Improvisations
Label:	LOVELY MUSIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	LCD 2071

"1990 CD release of solo violin & electronics recorded in NYC in September of 1989. Kosugi is of course the main 'Taj Mahal Traveler' and key player in Fluxus related activities during the sixties. This is some of the most beautiful mathematical-relationship inspired solo performance grate/scrape out there, it's really hard to believe that all present glossed-out cavern/tank sonics are derived from a single violin & a digital delay unit. Just enough trace of certain 'Eastern' micro-tonalities & alien gesture to keep your ears dancing on end. Sublime." -- Hrvatski.

Artist:	KOSUGI, TAKEHISA
Title:	Violin Solo 1980 N.Y.C.
Label:	P-VINE RECORDS (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	PCD 5765

A previously unreleased solo violin performance by the founder of the Taj Mahal Travellers and legendary Fluxus conceptualist. Active since the 1960s, Kosugi has more recently served as the music director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Troupe. He is currently involved with the composing and performance of impromptu music and electronic multimedia music. To be brief, Kosugi is one of the most important and influential Japanese experimental avant-gardists, alongside the likes of Yasunao Tone, Toshi Ichiyanagi & Yuji Takahashi. This album was recorded by Kazunori Sugiyama, 6/22/80, in NYC, and features a breathtakingly live solo violin performance.

Artist:	KOSUGI, TAKEHISA
Title:	Catch-Wave
Label:	SHOWBOAT/SKY STATION (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$28.00
Catalog #:	SWAX 502CD

Official CD reissue (more recently repro'd by World Psychedelia), licensed from Sony Japan. Originally issued by CBS in Japan-only in 1975, this album has been as difficult to find as either of the original Taj Mahal Travellers' LPs. The descriptive text on the back jacket of this exact repro gives an insight: "sounds speeding on lights, light speeding on sounds, music between riddles & solutions." A devastating, drone-intense record (unlike Kosugi's later solo recordings for Lovely Music or P-vine; Catch-Wave is the closest follow-up recording to his Taj Mahal Travellers group in the form of group improvisation), finally accessible.

Artist:	KOSUGI, TAKEHISA
Title:	Catch-Wave
Label:	WORLD PSYCHEDELIA (WORLD'S LEADING TERRORIST STATE)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	WPC6 8506

Gray-area reissue, previously out on CD via the Showboat label. "Takehisa Kosugi is without doubt one of the most important and influential figures of the Japanese avant-garde still performing. Over the years he has worked with everyone from John Cage to Sonic Youth as well as being an active member of the Fluxus group and starting his own performance units Group Ongaku and the Taj Mahal Travellers. His album Catch-Wave, originally released in 1975, features on side A 'an excerpt from a meta-media solo improvisation' utilizing heavily-processed violin, voice, radio and oscillators (the latter modified via wind and light) to create a massive drone. Side B is 'a triple performance by a solo vocalist' where a vocal phrase is taken and electronically modified until it loses any meaning other than as part of the wave form.' Booklet contains biography, and discography for this important avant-garde performer."

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