Cinedelic returns with the latest installment of their Orient Series, the first-ever vinyl reissue of the legendary Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi's landmark 1975 LP Story Of Wind Behind Left. A symphonic poem in seven movements, building on territory cultivated during his work with Don Cherry the year prior, it is the first step in a new creative music for the artist, creating a highly specific form of organic music, marked by equal parts elegance, restraint, and hard blown fire.

For more than 20 years, Cinedelic has gained a remarkable reputation for illuminating unexpected trajectories within the world of avant-garde sound. While the primary body of their efforts has been dedicated to reissuing unconventional soundtracks and Italian library music, increasingly they’ve been casting their eyes and ears further abroad. This was particularly noteworthy with the launch of their Orient Series in 2021, which endeavors to make seminal gestures of historic Japanese music available to a wider audience. It’s been an exciting ride so far, which crested new highs with last year’s reissues of Masahiko Togashi Quartet’s “Speed And Space” and Masayuki Takayanagi And New Directions’ “Independence: Tread On Sure”. Now the label returns to the remarkable output of Togashi, with the first ever vinyl reissue of his 1975 LP, “Story Of Wind Behind Left.” A landmark in the history of Japanese free jazz that has been nearly impossible to obtain outside of that country for decades, this fully licensed new pressing, remastered from the original tapes, including an insert with the original liner notes translated into English, is a truly visionary, unique artefact of the Japanese avant-garde of its era.

Masahiko Togashi (1940-2007) was among the most important jazz drummers to emerge from post-war Japan. He first gained acclaim while still in his teens, playing with Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Tony Scott, as well as within the pickup bands of Ornette Coleman, Blue Mitchell, Lee Morgan, and Sonny Rollins on South-East Asian tours. During the late 1960s, alongside Masahiko Sato, Masayuki Takayanagi and Yosuke Yamashita, he became a central figure in the development of Japan’s unique vision of free jazz, producing remarkable work as a band leader, in addition to, over the decades, appearing on noteworthy recordings by Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, Charlie Haden, Mal Waldron and Paul Bley.

Togashi had a singular sound behind the drums, partially due to an accident in 1969 that cost him the use of his legs. As a result, he designed a new kit that would allow him to continue playing. It’s only been recently that the thrilling byproducts of this have begun to reach new audiences outside of Japan, with reissues of his seminal albums “Speed And Space - The Concept of Space in Music”, “Pulsation” (a duo with Masayuki Takayanagi), and “Session In Paris, Vol. 1: Song Of Soil" (a trio with Don Cherry & Charlie Haden) all having witnessed reissues during the last year. Now joining this incredible canon is the first ever vinyl reissue of his 1975 LP, “Story Of Wind Behind Left”, recorded with an ensemble made up of himself, Keiki Midorikawa on bass and cello, Yoshio Ikeda on bass, Sabu Toyozumi on percussion, and Mototeru Takagi on saxophone and percussion.

Recorded in September 1975 at Columbia Studios, and issued by Columbia records later that year, “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is a symphonic poem in the shape of a suite. The album came at a crucial period of development in Masahiko Togashi’s career. The year prior had encountered him working with Don Cherry, resulting in the album "Song for Myself”, which had cultivated, under the trumpet player’s direction, a more free, purer, open, and natural way to create music. “Story Of Wind Behind Left” can be considered the drummer’s first fully fledged movement in this new direction, which revolutionized the thriving Japanese free jazz scene during the mid 1970s, infusing it with innovations in creative music and free improvisation from the United States and Europe, as well as an entirely unique, personal, and culturally specific approach to improvised music.

Comprising seven movements - “Premonition Of Wind's Coming”, “Reunion”, “And Then”, “Life Story Of Wind”, “Those Passing Things” and “Things That Will Come Again”, “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is an album of pitch perfect, elegant restraint. Across its length, Togashi furthers his explorations of new depths of sound and rhythm, threading each element with lyricism and joy, and creating a form of collective improvisation with the ensemble that seems to make nods toward the meditative tones and textures of the music of Japanese Zen. The six movements display a remarkable amount of space, with the trickling patter of bells, drums, and bass lines, played against slow melodic lines rendered by saxophone and cello, with many of the ensemble’s players doubling on percussion and rhythm instruments. This builds a remarkable amount of tension and release, which then unfurls with unrestrained hard blown fire of the album’s final movement, “Things That Will Come Again”, pushing this new territory of free jazz ever further again.

Marked by a deep sense of abstraction and space, exploring silence, changing dynamics, and glacial structures that feel remarkably organic and natural, Masahiko Togashi’s “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is a truly monumental piece of work. Towering with rare artistry and incredibly distinct on creative terms, it’s a lost free jazz gem of the highest order.