In the final stages of World War II, a 14-year-old conscript named Toru Takemitsu huddled with friends around a gramophone, playing a forbidden French pop record with a needle carved from bamboo because metal was gone. This episode follows him from that moment through tuberculosis, the U.S. Armed Forces radio that became his lifeline, and a self-taught path to becoming one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century.

The conversation explores why he rejected Japanese traditional music for years after it was co-opted by wartime nationalism, the experimental workshop where he manipulated tape independently of Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrète, and the 1958 broadcasting mistake that put his Requiem for String Orchestra in front of Igor Stravinsky. It also covers how John Cage led him back to his own heritage, the concept of ma, the  ...