Takemitsu Quatrain; A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden: Avantgarde Series

Toru Takemitsu's Quatrain; A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden Reissued for the Avantgarde Series on 180g LP from Deutsche Grammophon: Mixed & Cut from the Original Analog Tapes at Emil Berliner Studios

Toru Takemitsu’s Quatrain (1975) and A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) exemplify his synthesis of Western avant-garde techniques and Japanese aesthetics. In Quatrain, scored for clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and orchestra, Takemitsu evokes the Japanese concept of ma—the space between things—through fluid shifts of timbre and atmosphere. He likened the work to an emaki, a picture scroll unfolding scene by scene, where each musical idea is independent yet interwoven.

A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden, inspired by a dream, expands these ideas into a circular, non-linear sound world. Its “flock” motif, first heard in the oboe, descends into a shimmering harmonic field created by the strings—the “garden.” Here, Takemitsu’s sense of time and space becomes immersive and cyclical rather than progressive.

By embracing his cultural heritage within the structures of Western art music, Takemitsu reshaped the avant-garde, bridging modernism and postmodernism, and offering works that still sound strikingly fresh and timeless today.

Mixed & cut from the original analog 1 inch 8-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios.

The Avantgarde Series features original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector’s sleeve with new liner notes by Bradford Bailey, and pressed on 180g vinyl.