Série Réflexion 1 cover

Série Réflexion 1

Released

Few albums of Japanese minimalism/kankyō ongaku are as mysterious as this 1984 album from Oscilation Circuit. A quartet helmed by Ken-Ichiro Isoda, Série Réflexion 1 was not the first entry in a series but rather a debut and farewell, a ripple in a still pond. It’s thankfully reissued after almost 40 years. The group sounds indebted to the New York School of minimalism of Reich-Glass, especially on the epic “Circling Air,” but it’s when the group looses those bonds for something unbound by process and gravity that the magic happens. The introspective “Nocturne” finds a space between environmental ambient and new age spiritual jazz. “Homme” is an indelible drift of chimes and piano, as weightless as goose down ascending heavenward.

Andy Beta

Recommended by

Suggestions
The Order of Change cover

The Order of Change

Orquesta de las Nubes
Seigén cover

Seigén

Seigen Ono
Candida Cosmica cover

Candida Cosmica

Patrick Cowley, Candida Royalle
ぽわぽわーくす cover

ぽわぽわーくす

siinamota (Powapowa-P)
Turiya Sings cover

Turiya Sings

Alice Coltrane
Next Door cover

Next Door

Leo Takami
Get at the Wave cover

Get at the Wave

Takashi Kokubo
Marijuana Summit cover

Marijuana Summit

Don Cherry, Terry Riley