Taj Mahal Travellers 'August 1974' 2LP NEW Aguirre Records

$

30

High quality reissue of the monumental work August 1974 by Japanese experimental music ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers. Pressed on 180gr. vinyl with extensive liner notes by Julian Cowley.
In April 1972 a group of Japanese musicians set off from Rotterdam in a Volkswagen van. As they crossed Europe and then made their way through Asia they made music in a wide range of locations. They also paid close attention to the changing scene and to differing ways of life. Midway through May they reached their destination, the iconic Taj Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna river in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal Travellers had fulfilled physically the promise of the name they adopted when they formed in 1969. But their music had always been a journey, a sonic adventure designed to lead any listener’s imagination into unfamiliar territory.
The double album August 1974 was their second official release. The first July 15, 1972 is a live concert recording, but on 19th August 1974 the Taj Mahal Travellers entered the Tokyo studios of Nippon Columbia and produced what is arguably their definitive statement. The electronic dimension of their collective improvising was coordinated, as usual, by Kinji Hayashi. Guest percussionist Hirokazu Sato joined long-term group members Ryo Koike, Seiji Nagai, Yukio Tsuchiya, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa and Takehisa Kosugi.   
The enigmatic Takehisa Kosugi, whose soaring electric violin was such a vital element in their music, had been a pioneer of free improvisation and intermedia performance art with Group Ongaku at the start of the 60s. Later in that decade, before launching the Taj Mahal Travellers, he had become known internationally through his association with the Fluxus art movement. During the mid-70s the Travellers disbanded and while his colleagues more or less stopped performing as musicians Kosugi continued to reach new audiences across the course of several decades as a composer, regular performer and musical director for the acclaimed Merce Cunningham Dance Company. 
August 1974 captures vividly the characteristic sound of the Taj Mahal Travellers, haunting tones from an unusual combination of instruments, filtered through multiple layers of reverb and delay. Their music has strong stylistic affinities with the trippy ambience of cosmic and psychedelic rock, but the Taj Mahal Travellers were tuning in to other vibrations, drawing inspiration from the energies and rhythms of the world around them rather than projecting some alternative reality. Films of rolling ocean waves often provided a highly appropriate backdrop for their lengthy improvised concerts. This is truly electric music for the mind and body.
SHIPPING / ORDER INFORMATION: Orders with a value of $30 or less: $5.50 per order: USPS Media Mail (includes tracking).  Orders with a value of $30 or greater: $6.50: USPS Media Mail (includes tracking, insurance). In either case, if you paid multiple shipping charges when checking out, all overage will be refunded to you! 
Some items may have a mandatory service based on value or type of item (for example: USPS Priority). Examples: high value and non-media items. 
All packages ship media mail unless requested by the buyer to ship another method (the difference for upgrading will be covered by the buyer). Orders are shipped out twice per week, but not on set days - it just depends on the volume. You will not see tracking info posted until the package is ready to go out the door (from which point they get dropped off that night or the following day depending on when they're being worked on).
SHIPPING and PACKAGING (updated 10/09/22): Shipping is a flat $5.50 per order (apologies on the $4.50 referenced on the listings - these will slowly be changed). Orders over $50 include insurance. Orders over $100 ship for free. All packages ship media mail unless requested by the buyer to ship another method (the difference for upgrading will be covered by the buyer). Orders are shipped out twice per week, but not on set days - it just depends on the volume. You will not see tracking info posted until the package is ready to go out the door (from which point they get dropped off that night or the following day depending on when they're being worked on). Records that are shrink-wrapped will ship sealed unless otherwise requested by the buyer. Records that are in poly-sleeves or resealable sleeves will be removed from the jacket to prevent damage. For LPs, we use brand new mailers, Bags Unlimited's standard- design heavy duty mailers. Please note we do not do refunds for minor wear that occurs during transit (corner dings, seam split on a sealed record, etc). The orders are packed with quality supplies and a lot of care, but once in awhile we all get packages that get have been roughly handled along the way. If you're preferring your order to be packed a specific way, just send over a message and we can sort it out!
TRACKING ISSUES (updated 05/15/22): All packages are dropped off at the Phoenix, AZ hub. The benefit of this is it will save a couple of days of transit (as all AZ mail is processed through the hub before leaving state). The disadvantage is that they are not consistent in doing a receival scan. With many packages, your first scan may not pop up until it arrives at another distribution center (sometimes with a phantom AZ scan minutes before it). Some packages are making it to buyers across the country in three days, some are sitting for a month on end in various USPS black holes (Phoenix Annex, Jersey City, Bell Gardens - if you ever look at tracking info, these names are surely familiar to you)! Because of this very abnormal and sporadic delay, orders will need to be considered "in transit" for the duration of the time that USPS indicates the order is still "in transit" which is an annoyance that requires patience from everyone involved.
CONDITION (updated 05/15/22): Almost all of the records for sale are NEW. Although there's been records made new without being sealed for decades, some people are convinced that all records come sealed - of course they do not, but as a precaution it's being disclosed. (Believe it or not I have had PayPal claims come through because of a record being "new" but not sealed). When the records are NEW, but not sealed, the record is not removed from the inner sleeve to inspect for quality. The first time it is pulled out will be when the buyer pulls it out. This is important to note as increasingly, new records frequently come with light surface marks, finger prints - etc - doesn't matter if it's DIY release or a professionally packaged-at-the-plant release, these things are packaged by hand. If you're unhappy with the quality of a NEW release, the suggestion will be to contact the label that released it. There is always the potential for minor wear to the corners to occur during shipping even though the Bags Unlimited mailers are heavy duty and nice. If a release arrives from a distributor with observable wear, it will be noted in the listing.