This album features serenely beautiful, centuries-old compositions performed solo by shakuhachi master Kohachiro Miyata of the Ensemble Nipponia and recorded live during the group’s first North American tour in 1976. In the years since its original release on vinyl, Western audiences have become increasingly knowledgeable about the sounds of both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. That familiarity makes the performances preserved on this disc perhaps even more compelling to the informed audiences of today.

The shakuhachi is the most important wind instrument of Japan, where it has been used for well over a millennium. There are few, if any, other instruments in the world that associate so complex a playing technique with such simplicity of construction. Despite the presence of only five holes (and no keys), the instrument has a complete chromatic scale of more than two octaves. Larger shakuhachi have a warm and full tone similar to the flute, recorder, or clarinet families of Western instruments. Many of the solo pieces are conceived as aids for meditation, both for listener and player. A number of compositions also draw on distinctive ancient melodies in a way that preserves their unique regional character without undue emphasis on folkloric aspects.