A cult name in prog rock, jazz fusion and modern classical circles in the 1970s, Japanese percussionist and composer Stomu Yamashta is probably best known for featuring on the soundtrack to the Bowie-starring film The Man Who Fell To Earth, and on the non-rock front he has also collaborated with Peter Maxwell Davies, Robert Altman, the Royal Ballet and many more.
Spanning Yamashta’s fertile early years in Europe, this first ever box set of his work maps a kaleidoscopic musical cosmos, from Miles Davis-style electric squelch to primitive proto-techno-beat collages, trippy avant-lounge jams and even a burst of Vivaldi given the full Wendy Carlos synth treatment.
Among the tracks familiar from Bowie’s mind-bending sci-fi classic are the churning Krautish mantra Mandala, the mournfully chiming Memory Of Hiroshima and the lovely, spare, twinkling tone poem Wind Words.
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The last two sister albums in this seven-disc set showcase Yamashta’s supergroup project Go, featuring Steve Winwood and Klaus Schulze, which moved him into more commercial prog-lite terrain, with bluesy soft-rock songs nestled alongside stately orchestral arrangements by another notable Bowie collaborator, Paul Buckmaster.
These are the weakest collections in an otherwise excellent anthology, although the final Parisian concert disc does at least add some pleasing extra rhythmic poke and vintage analogue-era audience cheers.
