TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI - Independence - Tread On Sure Ground

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 -جø¬-?? 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 Takayanagis theories about progressive art. As Alan Cummings explains in his liner notes, the groups 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 w