Taj Mahal Travellers - Sound Picnic At Kuwanichika

Considering how often Taj Mahal Travellers performed in the early/mid 1970s when they were constantly on tour through Europe and Japan, it's surprising how few official recordings were issued. During the band's existence, they only produced three albums and one tour movie. One might assume that scores more recordings exist, but are languishing in university and gallery archives. This unofficial document, a double CD set to accommodate TMT's typically long performances, is one of the few gray-area live documents to trickle out into the public. It's distilled from a five-hour-long 1977 performance in Tokyo, and it's a good one. Bandleader Takehisa Kosugi, who would go on to write music for Merce Cunningham's dance company and perform with David Tudor and John Cage in New York, leads his ur-drone troupe through seriously somnolent mystical/ritual-adjacent murk.

disc 1
disc 2