The world sadly lost Takehisa Kosugi in October this year. A key driver in the superb Taj Mahal Travellers and a player in several stunning improvisation albums later in the seventies with the likes of Michael Ranta and Toshi Ichiyanagai. He was also involved with Fluxus and music director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. But his approach is rightly zoned in on in probably his most celebrated piece, the melding together of processed voice, electronics and violin in Mano Dharma ’74.
In my ongoing voyage through music, despite the strange twists and turns, even the most challenging music sometimes opens out as a linear journey. Growing out of layering buzzing electronics this track rolls in like a high-quality sonic event slowly moving in and out of phase like the patterns of interference and calm on the sleeve. But the introduction of his processed violin is incredibly powerful. The lilting quality literally describes a hairpin bend in sound, 2:40 minutes in, which feels like nothing short of a landmark moment in recorded sound.
The violin and drone element are the perfect distillation of a strange marriage of folk music and electronic experimentation. A journey that superbly fills your head before tailing off into the droning vocal of infinite bubbles…
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