"Teiji Ito is one of contemporary music's most elusive mavericks. Born in Tokyo in 1935, he moved to NY at the age of six, and by 1952, at the age of seventeen, he was already composing music for the influential avant-garde film work of Maya Deren. Accompanying her to Haiti in 1955, Ito learned ceremonial and secular drumming techniques from the legendary Haitian musician Coyote. Applying these principles to his knowledge of traditional Japanese music, contemporary classical and African traditions, Ito's scores are a shocking precursor to today's cutting-edge composers. King Ubu, originally written for a 1961 NY production of Alfred Jarry's pre-dadaist masterpiece, is a delightful and eclectic score filled with sly humor and ingenious dramatic effects. Intermixing a wise range of traditional and ethnic instruments, all of which are performed with great skill by the composer himself on this rare original recording, Ito's score to King Ubu establishes him as one of the most extraordinary and personal composers in the NY underground."

Composed By, Performer, Conductor, Recorded By, Artwork, Other [Scores] – Teiji Ito
Design – Heung-Heung Chin
Executive-Producer [Associate] – Kazunori Sugiyama
Flute – Unknown Flutist
Liner Notes – Cherel Ito, Teiji Ito
Mastered By – Scott Hull
Other [Materials Made Available By] – Guy Klucevsek
Producer – John Zorn
Voice, Frame Drum, Conch [Conch Shell], Clarinet, Percussion – Teiji Ito (tracks: 2 to 5)
Voice, Narrator [Narration], Percussion – Diane (tracks: 2 to 5)
Axis Mundi recorded at The Chapel, Center Stage, Baltimore, 1982. Quetzalcoatl recorded in rehearsal c.1980.
Tracks 2 to 5 feature an unknown flautist, possibly Dan Erkkila, and two unknown percussionists, possibly Genji Ito and Yukio Tsuji, who play water drum, gamelan, frame drum, various hand drums, finger cymbals, bass drum, shakers, triangle, gongs, berimbau, xylophone, log drum, woodblocks, steel drum, drum set, sleight bells, bells, thumb piano, glockenspiel, and miscellaneous percussion.
All materials are used by permission from the Ito Estate.
These recordings were made available for release through the kind cooperation of the Teiji Ito Collection of Noncommercial Recordings, c.1952-1982 at the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound/The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Teiji Ito Estate. Axis Mundi was first released by Steve Peters on ¿What Next? in 1996.
Special thanks to Guy Klucevsek, Steve Peters, Sara Velez, Tom Christie and of course Tavia Ito.