« BLENDS was written in Tokyo in 1977, in partial fulfillment of a commission from the National Endowment for the Arts. It is the second piece I’ve written for shakuhachi in traditional “Kinko” style, the first being the solo work Hi Kaeshi Hachi Mi Fu which was performed by Shudo Yamato at The Kitchen in 1974. In Blends, I attempted to combine the traditional Kinko School idiom with those of contemporary shakuhachi music, and also with my own interests in electro-acoustic interactions ». (R. Teitelbaum, program notes, concerts February 27, 28th, 1979, The Kitchen Center for Video, Dance & Music, New York, http://archive.thekitchen.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Program_Teitelbaum_Electro-Acoustic.pdf)

« Blends (1977) a kind of circumnavigation, is an exploration of the shakuhachi’s timbral world in an extended dialog with Moog synthesizers, a pairing that was quite controversial at the time » (Liner notes New Albion Records, Inc., 2002, n. NA118cd).