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The Best Of Kitaro
Volume 2
&
Soong Sisters Original
Motion Soundtrack
2 CD
1999
Domo Records
47110
CD 1
1. Theme From Silk Road 6:16
2. Tenku 4:14
3. The Field 4:53
4. Koi 6:27
5. Cosmic Love 6:05
6. Dance Of Sarasvati 6:45
7. Bottom Of The Sky 7:21
8. Gaia 7:12
9. Heaven & Earth 10:51
10. Lady Of Dreams 8:17
CD 2
1. Soong Sisters 4:44
2. Nowhere To Land 2:51
3. Dr. Sun & Ching-Ling 2:36
4. Man On Fire 3:40
5. Ching-Ling Assassination... 4:03
6. Ching-Ling Goes To Russia 3:53
7. Waltz & War 3:48
8. Bonfire 1:48
9. Xi-An Airport 1:21
10. Scroll Is Dead 4:04
11. Ching Ling Escapes 2:55
12. Parachutes 2:21
13. Echoing Wall 4:38
Limitierte Auflage:
Die ersten 25.000 Exemplare enthielten als Bonus die CD "The Soong Sisters".
Composer Kitaro, winner of a Golden Globe Award and recipient of multiple Grammy Award nominations,, is revered for his ability to embody the human spirit with music of passion and drama. He hays released more than two dozen albums, during his long' and inspiring career.
Kitaro is the consummate hyphenate composer-arranger-producer-performer-multiinstrumentalist - but he calls his music simply "spiritual." His recordings are distinguished by their warmth and emotion as opposed to the New Age emphasis on digital-technique over humanness.
Space, solitude; acid nature are the key elements in Kitaro's creative process but, feeling," he says, "is the most important element in my music,"
Born Masinon Takahashi in the N illage of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture into a traditional Japanese vegetable farming family Kitaro has used his music to hold traditional values most important. In all of his work, Knaros dream is to instill harmony and a peaceful coexistence, building a balance between nature and humanity. Each eagerly anticipated new release is celebrated as a journey of discovery and challenge.
'As a youth, Kitaro's favorite activity was tennis, and while in high school he almost considered a career in the sport. It was also at this point in the turbulent Sixties that he began listening to American and English rhythm and blues artists. This fueled a desire for him to become a musician instead.
He picked up the guitar, going on to form his first hand Albatross with his schoolmates. His bandmates nicknamed him Kitaro after a popular Japanese TV cartoon character of the time. As his reputation grew, Kitaro became lead guitarist for the Far East Family Band, a group which developed a solid following and generated
impressive sales of their two Japanese albums.
During the recording of one of the Far East Family Band's albums, Kitaro discovered the Moog Synthesizer, While on a later trip to Europe, he met Tangerine Dream cofounder Klaus Schulze, a synthesizer pioneer, who encouraged Kitaro to experiment with new sounds.
The synthesizer, one of the most influential inventions of the Seventies, would have a lasting influence on Kitaro's musical direction.
Appreciating the versatility of the keyboard synthesizer in terms of rock arid pop music, he became one of the instrument's first and most enduring champions. "With a synthesizer, I could create an ocean, a winter coastline, a summer beach, a whole scene," says Kitaro.
After the Far East Family Band disbanded in 1978. Kitaro performed his first concert as a solo
artist at the 700-seat Koseinenkin Kaikan Little Hall in Tokyo. The August, 1979 concert was a sell out. By Kitaros fourth show the crowd numbered 5,000, enough to fill the Nagoya City Athletic Hall.
Word of Kitaros popularity soon reached the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, NHK. They commissioned the artist to write the theme music for a documentary about the ancient "silk road" that linked Europe with China. The resulting TV special became one of Japanese television's most famous, finding a place on broadcast outlets around the globe. Nearly 20 years after their initial release, the Silk Road titles are among the biggest sellers of Kitaro's career.
AL the end of 1980, television beckoned Kitaro again. He starred in a live concert broadcast on both TV and radio, a performance that was enjoyed by more than 40 million Japanese when it made its debut at Midnight, December 31, 1980.
Through the ensuing years, Kitaro has scored many other films including the animated science fiction classic Queen Millennia. Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth and the controversial historical
drama, The Soong Sisters, lie has also expended to works for the stage. His 1996 release, Cirque Ingenieux, is the musical accompaniment to the Broadway-bound stage show that has been touring America since mid-1997.
In 1986, Kitaro signed a long-term deal with the production company Amuse America, which soon evolved into Domo Records. The international label has released not only his latest work, but also many of Kitaros early titles complete with original artwork and sound quality improved by state-of-the-art technology.
Kitaro continues to merge the finest of Eastern and Western culture and tradition in his music. He has lived in the U.S. for the past five years on a 180-acre spread outside Boulder, Colorado - a studio big enough to hold a 70-piece orchestrawith his second wife Kciko Matsubara and her son from a previous marriage. A modern dancer, Keiko also plays keyboards in his touring band. Kitaros son resides in Japan.
Kitaro maintains a home in his homeland,
where he returns each year to perform his Taiko
drum marathon at the base of Mt. To ji. In a
ceremony he instituted in 1983, he beats towering
Taiko drums from sunrise to sunset, playing so
passionately that his hands often bleed.
"Music is a very emotional thing," says Kitaro. "I'm just trying to discover the purity of sound.
Through the years, Kitaro's music has become increasingly progressive and full of innovative touches. Teaching himself to play dozens of instruments, he uses all of them on albums that are often written, arranged and produced by the
artist himself. As a result, an ever-increasing number of listeners have come to appreciate the artistry of Kitaro.
As Billboard Magazine said, "Few artists are identified as closely or as positively with New Age as the Japanese composer/performer Kitaro."
His music has become increasingly more accessible, a move heightened by collahorations
with such high-profile musicians as vocalist Jon Anderson of YES arid Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. By the end of 1997, Kitaro had sold more than 12 million albums worldwide, three million in the US alone.
His is the sound of healing. Peace comes from the heart, and in Kitaro's music, he is constantly trying to bring more peace into this world. "I simply want people to enjoy the music." says Kitaro. "In Japan the word for music means'enjoy the sound.' That's what I want the audience to do."
fie has helped bring the world together before, performing at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. There he lead 450 Japanese Taiko drummers, including 100 on enormous sacred instruments, in
a performance based on the "Onbashira" festival and celebrated on his 1998 release Gaia.
"My ultimate goal," says Kitaro, "is to keep expressing my feelings in music, and for the people to enjoy it."
THE SOONG SISTERS Credits:
Original Music By
Kitaro and Randy Miller
Music Orchestrated and Conducted by
Randy Miller
Music Produced by
Kitaro and Gary Barlough
Executive Producer: Eiichi Naito
Additional Orchestrations by:
Peter Tomashek
Andrew Kinney
Music Engineered by:
Gary Barlough and Peter Kelsey
Music Mixed by:
Peter Kelsey
Music Preparation by:
Sean Hickey
Chinese Instruments Performed by:
Er-Hu:
Warren Chang
Liu Qi-Chao
Yang-Chin:
Buyun Zhao
Pi-Pa:
Ziying Wu
Orchestral Music performed by:
The Northwest Sinfonia
Music recorded at:
Mochi House Studio, Ward, Colorado
Saint Thomas Center, Seattle, Washington
Cover Design:
Masanori Ishizuka
"Theme From Silk Road"
from
The Best Of Ten Years
(1988) DOM 71062
The Silk Road in Central Asia was a trading route between China and
the West for more than a millennium. It was an artery for cultural exchange and later the subject
of a Japanese TV mini series that became an international hit. Kitaro effortlessly captured the history and
grandeur behind the history in his theme. The Silk Road Series has sold over
1.000.000 copies to date worldwide.
"Tenku"
from
Tenku
(1986) DOM 71060
The word "Tenku" means "Heavenly Sky" and reflects the open air environment of Kitaro's home studio. This album was recorded at Kitaro's 200-year-old farm house in the Japanese Alps. Kitaro used the studio located in Yasaka extensively in the
years before he moved to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The themes of Tenku
reflect the fleeting but joyful memories and impressions of childhood.
"The Field"
from
Light of the Spirit
(1987) DOM 71061
"The Field" single earned Kitaro his first Grammy nomination. It was co-produced with
Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), a longtime Kitaro admirer. The year of its release
also saw the launch of Kitaro's first US tour, with sell-out shows from coast to coast. Tile Light Of The Spirit expresses Kitaro's vision of life, and rebirth, and continues
his musical exploration of the life cycle. It is the first of his albums to extensively use American musicians and a vocalist.
"Koi"
from
Kojiki
(1990) DOM 71063
Among the most critically-acclaimed of all Kitaros albums, the songs on Kojiki are based on a famous Japanese Kubiki myth. The original
story of Kojiki is the ancient chronicle of the creation of the Japanese people and nation. A spirited
work that earned Kitaro a Grammy Award nomination.
"Cosmic Love"
from
The Best Of Ten Years
(1988) DOM 71062
"Cosmic Love" was first issued on the soundtrack to the animated science fiction film Queen Millennia, aka Millennia. The song made its Domo Records' debut on the double album
The Best of Ten Years, a compilation of Kitaro's greatest work from 1976 to 1986. The original
greatest hits package also includes an 8-page biography on the musical life of Kitaro.
"Dance of Sarasvati"
from
Mandala
(1994) DOM 71001
The first album to be recorded in Kitaro's Moochi House studio in Colorado, Mandala
features several titles that have become fast favorites in his live performances. Perhaps none is
more popular than Dance of Sarasvati, which was nominated for a Grammy Award to 1994. Mandala was Kitaro's last studio album until Gaia in 1998.
"The Bottom of the Sky"
from
Cirque Ingenieux
(1997) DOM 71022
Kitaro breaks into Broadway with a soundscore created, composed and performed for the backdrop to the French Canadian theatrical production, Cirque Ingenieux. The music ranges from a lilting Viennese Waltz to a driving contemporary beat and features some painfully haunting melodies. Cirque Ingenieux has been touring the US since 1997. This musical adventure is considered by many to represent vintage Kitaro.
"Gaia"
from
Gaia
(1998) DOM 45789
A concept album meant as a tribute to the planet, the word "Gaia" loosely translates to
"Mother Earth." The Onbashira is a Japanese festival where devoted celebrants pay
homage to the planet through a spiritual performance involving the cutting down of trees
and the ritual building of one of Japan's oldest structures, the Suwa Grand Shrine in
Nagano.
"Heaven & Earth"
from
An Enchanted Evening
(1995) DOM 71005
An Enchanted Evening was nominated for a Grammy in 1995. This enhanced CD is a live recording from the Mandala tour and features the clearest sound on any live Kitaro
CD to date. This performance of the theme from the Golden Globe Award-wining original score for
Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth is considered the best ever captured. PBS featured a video of the
artist's performance upon its initial release.
"Lady of Dreams"
from
Dream (1993)
Dream features the incomparable vocals of YES legend, Jon Anderson. This was the first
time Kitaro employed lyrical singing on a recording. For this reason and for the sheer quality of the music, Dream has become one of the best-selling Kitaro releases of recent years.
Original front cover photo by:
Peter Dokus
Inner photos by:
John Epperson
Design by:
Art Slave
DOMO 72438-47110-2-3
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(P) 1999 DOMO RECORDS, INC., 2211 Corinth Ave., Suite 100,
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