Takehisa Kosugi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Takehisa Kosugi (小杉武久; surname Kosugi; b. Tokyo, Japan, 1938) is a Japanese composer and violinist associated with the Fluxus movement.

Kosugi is probably best known for the extraordinary experimental music that he created between 1960-75, first in the early 1960s with the Tokyo-based seven member ensemble Group Ongaku ('music group') and thereafter as a solo artist and with itinerant octet Taj Mahal Travellers (1969-75). Kosugi's primary instrument is the violin, which he sends through various echo-chambers and effects to create a bizarre, jolting music quite at odds with the drones of other more well-known Fluxus artists, such as Tony Conrad, John Cale and Henry Flynt.

Since 1978, Kosugi has served as music director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and lives in New York. His 1960s career with Group Ongaku is extensively explained in the 32-page essay "Experimental Japan," which appears in the book Japrocksampler (Bloomsbury, 2007), by author/musician/occultist Julian Cope. The book also features a detailed 12-page biography of Kosugi's Taj Mahal Travellers, the music of which Julian Cope describes as being "reminiscent of the creaking rigging of the un-manned Mary Celeste". According to Cope, Kosugi's finest work is the 1975 solo album Catch-wave (CBS/Sony).