Masahiko Togashi

This solo percussion work was recorded in 1980 and released in 1981 by Masahiko Togashi, one of Japan’s leading percussionists and drummers. After becoming partially paralyzed, he created this recording of a world of sound using drums, bells, gongs, and a wide variety of percussion instruments, together with his own original playing methods and techniques.

Togashi lost the use of his legs in 1970 and returned to the stage in 1973 with a kit of his own design, played with his hands alone. The Face of Percussion was recorded over six days in August 1980 at King Records Studio #2, produced by Motohiko Takawa and engineered by Hatsuro Takanami. Togashi is the only performer, on drum set, gong, cymbal, talking drum, bongos, maracas, cowbell, wood block, temple bells, antique bells and small bells, and he composed all seven pieces, from Something Coming to Something Leaving. He also took the cover photograph, a Graphium sarpedon butterfly on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, in May 1980.

This edition, part of the Spin This Now! reissue series, comes with obi and liner notes.