Enter the mystical world of Geinoh Yamashirogumi. If you ever felt chills from the haunting Akira Soundtrack, it's this group you need to thank. The Japanese music collective was founded back in 1974 and consists of hundreds people from all walks of life - from students, salarymen, doctors, journalists, etc - working in harmony to fuse traditional folk music with modern synthesizers and instrumentation and the result is absolutely awe-inspiring. Seriously, have you ever heard a 100 people chanting in unison to an army of gamelan and digital sound effects? It's crazy. Ecophony Rinne from 1986 is the first in a trio of albums that found the group incorporating computer-generated sounds into their repertoire, which eventually lead to Katsuhiro Otomo tapping them for the Akira soundtrack. Check the beautiful gamelan work on "Dark Slumber" and "Reincarnation," then go for the haunting ambience of "Primordial Germination" and "Falling As Flowers Do." This is supremely rare find on wax, so you can bet we were more than pleased to see it reissued! Recommended.

• music label: Invitation 1986 / 2014

reviewed by TKB 04/2014