Taj-Mahal Travellers, The

• DIGITALLY REMASTERED

Takehisa Kosugi was a hippie who become an avant-garde composer. Born in Tokyo in 1938, he graduated in 1962 at the Tokyo University of Arts, and then founded the Japanese equivalent of the Fluxus movement, called Group Ongaku, a group devoted to improvisation and multi-media performances. In 1969 he formed the Taj Mahal Travellers, a psychedelic rock group that played lengthy improvised jams that can be summarized in three principles: a far Eastern approach to music as a living organism, an intense electronic processing of instruments and voices, and a semi-mathematical overlapping of frequencies. Basically: La Monte Young on acid. Kosugi mainly played violin. He was on the road with this group between 1971 and 1972, traveling in a Volkswagen minibus from Holland to the Taj Mahal itself. Two albums were made out of that experience: one of them this release, July 15, 1972.

Includes an English translation of the original Japanese LP insert. Digitally remastered.

PERSONNEL:

• Takehisa Kosugi - electric violin, harmonica, voice
• Ryo Koike - electric double bass, suntool, voice
• Yukio Tsuchiya - bass tuba, percussion
• Seiji Nagai - trumpet, synthesizer, timpani
• Michihiro Kimura - voice, percussion, mandoline
• Tokio Hasegawa - voice, percussion
• Kinji Hayashi - electronics

Recorded live at Sohgetsu Hall, Tokyo, July 1972.

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. The Taj-Mahal Travellers between 6:20-6:46 p.m.

• SIDE B
• B1. The Taj-Mahal Travellers between 7:03-7:15 p.m.
• B2. The Taj-Mahal Travellers between 7:50-8:05 p.m