Trumpeter Toshinori Kondo was revered for his bewildering avant-garde jazz improvisations, as well as dabbling in electronic music. In 1996 he came together with fellow Japanese artist and hip-hop producer DJ Krush, releasing collaborative album Ki-Oku to wide acclaim. The album blended Kondo’s fluid jazz with the serrated production DJ Krush was known for, with relentlessly inventive trumpet atop Krush’s fierce beats and scratching.