Bleep

Swiss experimental label WRWTFWW Records (in collaboration with the MEG museum) has two new releases ready from the reclusive Japanese percussionist Midori Takada. A renowned composer whose 1980’s work set the gold standard for minimalism, any new music from Takada is cause for celebration. The second of these releases is You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana, another new album created alongside Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san. Recorded in London and Tokyo in 2019, Leaving To Nirvana accompanies traditional Buddhist chanting (recordings of which are archived at the MEG Museum in Geneva) with original compositions lead mostly by marimba and other percussion instruments. Nirvana’s lengthy centrepiece ‘Taiyo’ stands amongst Takada’s most beguiling pieces, both sacred and emotionally resonant all the same.