TORU TAKEMITSU / TASHI / BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - QUATRAIN / A FLOCK DESCENDS INTO THE PENTAGONAL GARDEN (LP)

release date May 1st. "Album #3 in the brand-new vinyl series featuring groundbreaking recordings of the musical avant-garde. Toru Takemitsu's Quatrain and A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden exemplify his synthesis of Western avant-garde techniques and Japanese aesthetics. In Quatrain, Takemitsu evokes the Japanese concept of ma-the space between things-through fluid shifts in timbre and atmosphere. He likened the work to an emaki, a scroll of images that unfolds scene by scene, with each musical idea independent yet interwoven. A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden expands these ideas into a circular, nonlinear soundscape. Its "flock" motif, first heard in the oboe, merges into a shimmering harmonic field created by the strings-the "garden." Here, Takemitsu's sense of time and space becomes immersive and cyclical rather than progressive. Mixed and cut from the original analog 1-inch 8-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios. Limited and numbered edition with original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector's cover with new liner notes by Bradford Bailey, pressed on 180g vinyl." (label info)