is a 1970 album by Japanese musician

Kuni Kawachi Kuni or KUNI may refer to: People * Kuni-no-miya (久邇) ''ōke'' (princely house), the second oldest branch of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya house * Kuni Nagako (1903–2000), member of the Imperial ...

and the

Flower Travellin' Band was a Japanese Rock music, rock band that was formed in 1967. They were connected to Japan's Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movement and noted for their mixture of early heavy metal music, heavy metal with psychedelic rock, psyched ...

. It was originally credited to when initially released. The album showcases Kuni Kawachi's

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

influences, as well as the growing heavy metal sound that the Flower Travellin' Band were honing.

Overview

It is the first album released by Kuni Kawachi after leaving the

group sounds , often abbreviated as GS, is a genre of Japanese rock music which became popular in the mid to late 1960s and initiated the fusion of Japanese '' kayōkyoku'' music and Western rock music. Their music production techniques were regarded as playi ...

band the Happenings Four. Although sometimes co-credited to the Flower Travellin' Band, only vocalist

Joe Yamanaka , better known as , was a Japanese singer and actor. He is known for both his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician; singing at a vocal range of three octaves. As an actor, he appeared in many television shows and movies, such ...

and guitarist

Hideki Ishima is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and for creating the sitarla instrument. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2 ...

took part in the album. It was recorded between '' Anywhere'' and ''

Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, "comprehension; understanding". It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, ''satori'' refers to a deep experience of '' kenshō'', "seeing into one's true nature ...

'', before the band went to Canada. Ishima later recalled that this was the first time he heard Yamanaka sing in Japanese; an experience he referred to as "strange." In 1971, the song "Works Composed Mainly by Humans" was reworked, renamed "Map" and released as a split single by Flower Travellin' Band without Kawachi, together with the song "Machine Gun Kelly" by American band Jo Mama. ''Kirikyogen'' was later released on CD by King Records. In 2002 it was bootlegged under the name ''Music Composed Mainly By Humans'', which replaced "To Your World" with the live track "I'm Dead" and renamed "Classroom for Women" to simply "Classroom". This bootleg also included "Map", as previously released by Flower Travellin' Band, instead of the original song "Works Composed Mainly by Humans".

Reception

Hernan M. Campbell of Sputnikmusic wrote that with this album the Flower Travellin' Band began "cultivating a heavily dissonant guitar style that emphasized on a low-tuned sound and slower tempos, thus giving their music a more menacing characteristic." Together with ''Satori'', he cited ''Kirikyogen'' as playing a part in the creation of doom metal.

Track listing

Credits

- keyboards * Akira "Joe" Yamanaka - vocals *

- guitars *Pepe Yoshihiro - bass *Chito Kawachi - drums * Yuya Uchida - producer

References

{{Authority control 1970 debut albums Kuni Kawachi albums Flower Travellin' Band albums Collaborative albums Japanese-language albums