A great collection of earlier compositions by Cage – most of which we prefer to later work, because of their striking and bracing approach to the music. Titles include "She Is Asleep", a duet for voice & prepared piano, "A Room", for prepared piano, "Two Pastorales", for prepared piano, "Seven Haiku", for prepared piano, "And The Earth Shall Bear Again", for prepared piano. Joshua Pierce plays piano – and the prepared piano sides sound great! LP, Vinyl record album

The Japanese scene of the 70s had plenty of experiments that blended contemporary and traditional instrumentation – but this album-length jam from percussionist Stomu Yamashta may well be one of the most striking from the time! You'll no doubt know Stomu from some of his later records that got more global circulation – but this set was originally only issued in Japan, and mixes some of his progressive leaning with a very free jazz sensibility – served up by a quartet that also features Masahiko Satoh on organ, Takehisa Kosugi on electric violin, and Hideakira Sakurai on electric koto, shamisen, and more percussion! Stomu himself is unbound, and plays with a frenzy we've not heard before – and the mix of the other instrumentation, especially koto and shamisen, creates all these really unusual sounds and tones throughout. The album features one long track, recorded live at Yamaha Hall in Tokyo! (Rock, Out Sound) CD