Toshiro Mayuzumi
Bugaku / Mandala Symphonie
Columbia (Japan) 1969
OS-10050-J (LP) Original pressing. gatefold sleeve. w/obi.
sleeve : EX-(WC, wear on corner, slightly dirts.)
media : EX-/EX-(some slightly surface noises and some light click noises.)
This album, released in 1969 by Toshiro Mayuzumi—a leading postwar Japanese composer and figure in contemporary music—pioneered the introduction of musique concrète, electronic music, and avant-garde music to Japan in the early 1950s. It’s the first volume in Nippon Columbia’s Contemporary Japanese Music series. Side A features a ballet composition for orchestra, commissioned by the New York City Ballet in 1962. Inspired by the traditional Japanese bugaku dance customs, it’s structured in two parts that intertwine two dances into one, notably without the use of any Japanese instruments. Side B features the Mandala Symphony, completed in 1960, which uses no concrete materials but constructs a soundscape that represents the Buddhist world. This original pressing includes a six-page booklet within a gatefold sleeve, with what appears to be Mayuzumi’s signature on the booklet.
A: Bugaku
B: Mandala Symphonie