The pieces in this recording belong to Messiaen's first compositional period, from the 1940s to the early 1950s.

The music of O. Messiaen had a major influence on the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu

(Tokyo, 1930 ibid., 1996). Raised in militaristic Japan during the Second World War (at just 14 years old, in anticipation of an American invasion, he was drafted into the Japanese army), Takemitsu initially had a sort of rejection of the culture and philosophy of his own country and instead showed great interest in the various musical trends of the Western avant-gardes, especially French.

The pieces in this recording cover a compositional span of about fifty years.