Ryuichi Sakamoto has been our TMT pal for what I would have previously considered to be a “long time” now. But actually…no. It hasn’t been that long. In fact, no one who works here WAS EVEN BORN YET when the precocious Japanese composer first busted out onto the scene with his solo debut Thousand Knives Of, originally released in back in 1978 via the Better Days label.
But now — on November 8, 2019 A.D. C.E. — Sakamoto’s early foray into the kind of playful, improvised avant garde electonica we all know and love him to pieces for today is coming our way as a newly-minted vinyl and CD release courtesy of the French label Wewantsounds.
Named after Belgian-born poet Henri Michaux’s description of a mescaline experience, Thousand Knives Of was meant to serve as “a reflection on how synthesizer technology might come to change the face of music, and except for a “small-scale release” back in 1982, this is the first time the album is being released on vinyl outside of Japan. To mark the occasion, the whole thing has been “remastered from the original tapes by renowned producer and engineer Seigen Ono” and will also feature a new introduction by Paul Bowler.
Apropos of neither of those last couple of facts, you can listen to the track “Plastic Bamboo” down below. After that, grab the CD edition here and the vinyl version right over here.
O brave new world, that has such people in’t!
Thousand Knives Of… tracklisting:
01. Thousand Knives
02. Island Of Woods
03. Grasshoppers
04. Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied
05. Plastic Bamboo
06. The End Of Asia
More about: Ryuichi Sakamoto
