a r t i s t : Masayuki Takayanagi and New Directions
t i t l e : Independence: Tread on Sure Ground
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Tiliqua (TILAR-5008)
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Jun/2007
t r a c k s : 07
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 61,3 MB
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All music and arrangements by Masayuki Takayanagi
Masayuki Takayanagi and New Directions
Masayuki Takayanagi: guitar
Motoharu Yoshizawa: bass, cello, percussion, folk pipe, voice
Yoshisaburo Toyozumi: drums, percussion
Recorded at Teichiku Kaikan First Studio, Tokyo, September 18,
1969 (1-6) and February 2, 1970 (7)
Original jacket design by Nobuhiko Yabuki
Degitally remastered from the original master tapes
Jacket design preparation and art direction by Nekoneko Shokai
Includes liner notes in Japanese by Masahiko Yu and in English
by Alan Cummings
Released in March 2007
Originally released in 1970 as an LP on Teichiku, without the
bonus track, which was originally released in 1970 on the
omnibus LP Guitar Workshop on Union/Teichiku
http://www.japanimprov.com/indies/tiliqua/independence.html
New release in Tiliqua Records' ongoing Archival Series is
this quintessential album by Takayanagi Masayuki. It was his
debut recording as a leader with his newly erected unit The
New Directions, a trio consisting out of bassist Yoshizawa and
drummer Toyozumi 'Sabu' Yoshisaburo. Recorded at the Teichiku
Kaikan studios on 18 September 1969 (released in 1970),
Independence -- Tread on Sure Ground, is largely regarded as
the first true classic of Japanese free jazz. The group
thrashes out an entirely new Japanese methodology for
improvisation based on Takayanagi's theories about progressive
art. As Alan Cummings explains in his liner notes, the group's
sonic outburst is pregnant with an urgent intensity similar to
a violent rotating windstorm.
"An electric guitar string is pinged with a sour and markedly
unlovely resonance. It is left to fade away naturally, its
dying whisper replaced with a wavering feedback tone that
grows steadily in volume and thickness. Against the slow
feedback wave, a sudden loud percussive crash, urgent staccato
rolls across the toms, and the dry rasp of a rattle. A choppy,
non-sequential series of chords from the guitar, still mouth-
puckeringly bitter is set against the warmer resonance of an
alternately bowed and plucked double bass. Each instrument
sounds self-contained, like lunar bodies spinning on their own
axes at different tempos, but locked together by unfathomably
complex rules of motion. Additional percussive rattles and
scrapes have been overdubbed to fill in the blank space.
Tendrils of feedback snake in and out, like cosmic dust from
some cataclysmic celestial event. The playing is exploratory
and deliberate, technically adept and keenly judged, easily
sustaining interest and motion across the track's eleven
minutes. Its sense of focused concentration is more akin to
the European free improvisation of AMM or The Spontaneous
Music Ensemble than the violent ecstasies of American fire
music." (AC -- from the liner notes).
The CD reissue includes also the bonus track Mass Projection
which was originally issued on the compilation album Guitar
Workshop (Teichiku, 1970). This CD is housed in a high quality
mini-LP styled gatefold sleeve, completed with obi and
extensive 4-paged illuminating liner notes by Alan Cummings.
Original artwork is faithfully reproduced. One time only
limited pressing.
http://www.tiliqua-records.com/
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01-The Galactic System [11:28]
02-Sick, Sick, Sickness, My Aunt [01:14]
03-Study No. 3 Up and Down [05:58]
04-Herdsman's Pipe of Spain [06:47]
05-Deepnight, Swamp [01:25]
06-Piranha [13:22]
07-Mass Projection (Bonus Track) [04:52]
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45:06 min