Sunrise From West Sea

Description

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of *Sunrise From West Sea*, one of Stomu Yamash'ta's most sought-after albums, featuring jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh (well known for his collaboration with the New Herd Orchestra and his soundtrack for *Belladonna of Sadness*) and Takehisa Kosugi, founder of Taj Mahal Travellers, on electric violin. The album, recorded live in 1971, also includes Hideakira Sakurai on shamisen and is a fascinating improvisation. Remastered from the original tapes, the album is reissued here for the first time since 1971. Born Tsutomu Yamashita in 1947 into a family of musicians (his father was the conductor of the Kyoto Philharmonic), he studied at Juilliard and Berklee in the 60s, where he honed his percussion skills, becoming one of the most gifted of his generation, playing both contemporary repertoire (Cage, Morton Feldman, Toru Takemitsu...) and jazz. In New York, he witnessed the birth of the "New Thing" revolution led by John Coltrane, which profoundly marked him and led him to continue his studies at Berklee in Boston. There, he met Japanese musician Masahiko Satoh, who was also studying there. Their friendship led them to record the cult album *Metempsychosis* for Nippon Columbia. The album, released in 1971, consists of a composition for percussion and jazz orchestra that blends Yamash'ta's percussion and Satoh's piano, accompanied by Toshiyuki Miyama's New Herd Orchestra in a powerful free improvisation. 1971 was also the year Yamash'ta released his solo album *Red Buddha*, which was very successful in Europe and the United States. Inspired by the *Metempsychosis* experience, Yamash'ta wanted to recreate the album's energy in a live setting with a smaller ensemble. Recorded at the Yamaha Hall in Tokyo on April 18, 1971, just days after the *Red Buddha* sessions ended, the concert lasted all night and was recorded in front of an audience of friends and musicians. Yamash'ta enlisted Satoh on keyboards, as well as Taj Mahal Travellers leader Takehisa Kosugi, whom he had met through his mentor, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Hideakira Sakurai on electric shamisen also joined. Edited for both sides of the album that would become *Sunrise From West Sea*, the concert is both hypnotic and ethereal. The album begins with Kosugi's electric violin and transforms into a spiritual conversation between the four musicians, giving them all the space they need to improvise freely and interact with each other, mixing electronics, percussion, electric organ, and shamisen without ever clashing. The interaction alternates between meditative passages and more rhythmic sections, fueled by Yamash'ta's extraordinary percussion playing. Later known for the soundtrack of Robert Altman's 1972 film *Images* - with John Williams - and Nicolas Roeg's 1976 classic *The Man Who Fell to Earth*, and also for his foray into fusion with his band Go, Yamash'ta would never achieve the creativity of *Sunrise From West Sea*. The album was recorded during one of the most fertile periods of Japanese music, where bands such as Les Rallizes Dénudés and Taj Mahal Travellers and musicians such as Yamash'ta revolutionized the Japanese music scene. Wewantsounds is pleased to reissue one of the flagship albums of this period, which had never been reissued in fifty years.