TAKAYANAGI AND NEW DIRECTION UNIT, MASAYUKI - Eclipse

Masayuki Takayanagi: guitar; Kenji Mori: alto sax, flute, recorder; Nobuyoshi Ino: bass Hiroshi Yamazaki: drums, percussion. "Long-awaited reissue of a true masterpiece of Japanese free improvisation! Mastered from the rediscovered master tapes! Recorded in May 1975, less than a month after the legendarily intense April is the Cruellest Month, Eclipse has always been the rarest and most mysterious of the Takayanagi and New Direction records. With April Is... due to come out on ESP Disk (the release was scuppered when the label folded), Iskra the small label who were putting out Eclipse decided to reduce their pressing to just 100 copies. The original master tapes then vanished, and original copies of the LP began to change hands for huge sums on the collectors market. Eclipse sees the same group that recorded April Is... and the two volumes of Axis playing at a dizzying peak of telepathic empathy. Grimly ratcheted tension, whooping freedom, slash and burn explosions, and the unmistakable hovering, molten whine of Takayanagis guitar... simply put a classic, classic record that needs to be heard by anyone with an ear for freedom sounds." -Alan Cummings