In 1999 the recording of Otomo Yoshihide Plays the Music of Takeo Yamashita gave Otomo the opportunity to form a group with four leading figures in the Japanese jazz world--Naruyoshi Kikuchi, Kenta Tsugami, Hiroaki Mizutani, and Yasuhiro Yoshigaki--as a way of coming face to face with jazz, which is one of his musical roots. Along with projects like Filament and Anode, the quintet became one of Otomo's main projects and an essential aspect of his work.