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The Best Of Kitaro
Volume 2
1999
Domo Records
91008
1. Tenku 4:17
2. The Field 4:52
3. Koi 6:32
4. Lady of Dreams 8:25
5. Dance of Sarasvati 6:46
6. The Bottom Of The Sky 7:21
7. Gaia 7:26
8. Heaven and Earth 11:49
9. A La Nanita Nana 5:17
10. Echoing Wall 4:38
Gesamt: 67:23
Kitaro
World music composer Kitaro, real name Masinori Takahashi, has won a Golden Globe Award, had five Grammy Award nominations, and recorded more than two dozen albums during his distinguished career. Kitaro was born an February 12th, 1953 in the village of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. His was a traditional Japanese vegetable farming family, and though raised in a culture that has become increasingly Westernized, he has learned to hold traditional values as most important.
As a youth, Kitaro's favourite activity was playing Tennis and while in high school considered pursuing a career in this Sport. It was while at high school he gut the nickname of 'Kitaro'. He says it is a word that doesn't mean anything and he cannot even really be sure of how he gut it or who gave it to him, but it has stuck with him ever since. When Kitaro began listening to American and English rhythm and Blues artists in the 1960's he soon after decided to become a musician instead.
His First Instrument was the guitar and he went on to form his first band, Albatross, with his school mates. Later he was to become a member, as lead guitarist, of the Far East Family Band, which was to achieve a degree of respect and sales in Japan.
During the recording of one of the two Far East Family Bands albums, Kitaro was in the Studio when he observed another musician playing a Moog Synthesiser. This early 1970s invention was later to have a vast influence on music, as it has dune to this day. It was the same for Kitaro. He immediatly felt the keyboard synthesiser was a much more versatile instrument than the guitar in terms of contemporary or pup music, so he began experimenting with it.
At this time, Kitaro was truly an innovative pioneer because there
were very few other
popular musicians working with the Moog Synthesiser, and he was among the only recording artists who
was solely instrumental.
He performed his first concert at the Koseinenkin Kaikan Little Hall in Tokyo in August, 1979. It was sold out. His popularity grew unbelievably fast; his first show had a capacity of 700 people. By his fourth fhow no less than 5,000 people came to his show at the Nagoya City Athletic Hall.
Kitaro's popularity immediatety led him to be commissioned to write the theme music to a national Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) documentary about the ancient `silk road' that linked
Europe with China. The TV series went an to become one of the most famous in Japanese television
history and was successfully exported to
literally dozens of nations around the world. To this day; the 'Silk Road' titles are among the best selling of
Kitaro's career, selling many thousands each year, nearly twenty years alter their release.
At the end of 1980 he as given the unique opportunity to
have a live concert broadcast
both on television and radio in his homeland. It was estimated that 40 million Japanese
watched and listened to his music at midnight, December 31st 1980.
Kitaro has scored music for other films as well, including 'Queen Millennia', 'The Soong Sisters' (expected to be released in 1999) and 'Heaven and Earth'. His 1997 release, 'Cirque Ingenieux' is the musical accompaniment to a Broadway style show that has been touring America since mid-1997.
In 1986 Kitaro left his original recording label in Japan and signed a long-term deal with a production company called Amuse America, which later evolved into Domo Records. From 1986 until 1993 Kitaro's albums were released worldwide by Geffen Reccords, one of the largest record companies in the world.
From 1994 his releases have appeared on Domo Reccords which has also been re-releasing his old Works with their original artwork and using stare-of-the-art technology to improve the sound quality, which pleases Kitaro immensely.
Today, Kitaro's music is increasingly progressive, lull of innovative touches. Often written, arranged and produced by the musician himself, it is a haunting study in contrasts which takes its cue from nature and spirit, qualities which are of the utmost importance to Kitaro. Resonant wich exotic Japanese, Tibetan, Native American and African Instruments, as well as the more familiar guitar, flute and drums, his music shimmers one minute and rumbles the next. By turns soothing and stirring, atonal and rhythmic, orchestral, full and dramatic, yet always surprisingly intimate, with the ability to transport the listener on a far-reaching musical journey which draw refrains of East, West and beyond. While still extensively using the keyboard synthesiser, Kitaro has tought himself to play dozens of Instruments and now uses all of them in the writing and recording process. As a result, an everincreasing number of listeners have come to appreciate the artistry of Kitaro.
He became even more accessible by collaborating with such high-profile, popular musicians as vocalist Jon Anderson of YES and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.
By the end of 1998, he had sold more than twelve million albums worldwide - three million in the US alone.
Kitaro maintains a home in Japan, but has lived in the US for the past six years on a 180 acre estate outside Boulder, Colorado, where he is inspired by the majestic mountain views outside his 800 sq.m. home studio, called Moochi House.
He returns to Japan frequently, and each year he performs his famous Taiko drum marathon at the base of Mount Fuji. His great love of this percussive instrument led Kitaro to conduct 450 Japanese Taiko drummers at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games.
He has been married twice, now to Keiko Takahashi, a Japanese musician and dancer who tours with him. He has a teenage son from his first marriage who continues to live in Japan.
We hope you will enjoy the Best of Kitaro, Volume 2 as it encompasses much of his finest work fron 1986-1998, and we hope that in another ten years we will be able to bring you the Best of Kitaro, Volume 3!
1. Tenku
From the Album:
Tenku DOMO 71060-2
First released by Geffen Records in 1986. The word 'tenku' can be translated as meaning 'heavenly sky' which Kitaro thought truly epitomised the manner in which his Japanese home studio embraced the top of the Japanese Alps. The studio, located in Yasaka, was built in a 200 year old farmhouse and saw Kitaro use it extensively in the years before he moved to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The themes of Tenku are the fleeting, but joyful memory flashes and impressions of childhood.
2. The Field
From the Album:
Light of the Spirit DOMO 71061-2
First released by Geffen Records in 1987. This CD earned Kitaro his very first Grammy Award nomination, for the track 'The Field'. 1987 was also the year of the very first Kitaro tour of the United States which sold out showes from coast-to-coast. The music expresses Kitaro's vision of life, death and rebirth and continued his musical exploration of the life cycle. Also the first album which saw Kitaro extensively using American musicians and a vocalist.
3. Koi
From the album:
Kojiki
DOMO 71064-2
First released by Geffen Records in 1991. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed of all Kitaro albums aside from Silk Road and Heaven and Earth, Kojiki tells through music the fascinating Kubiki myths of the creation of the Japanese people and nation. A spirited work that earned Kitaro another Gramme Award nomination.
4. Lady of Dreams
From the album:
Dream
DOMO 91012
First released by Geffen Records in 1993. Dream features the incomparable vocals of YES legend, Jon Anderson. This was the first time that Kitaro ever used lyrical singing on a recording. For this reason and the sheer quality of music, it has become one of the best selling Kitaro releases in many years.
5. Dance Of Sarasvati
From the album:
Mandala
DOMO 81001-2
First released in 1994. Kitaro's first album for Domo features several titles that have become fast favourites in his live performances, and none more so than the Grammy Award nominated 'Dance Of Sarasvati'. The first album to be recorded in Kitaro's Moochi House studio in Colorado.
6. The Bottom of the Sky
From the Album:
Cirque Ingenieux
DOMO 7102-2
First released in 1997. Released in Europe with a special limited edition bonus CD-ROM with extensive biographical materials. This CD is the musical accompaniment to a 'Broadway' style French Canadian dance production which began touring the United States in 1997. A musical adventure for all, this CD is considered by many to be vintage Kitaro.
7. Gaia
From the Album:
Gaia
DOMO 91003
First released in 1998. A concept album meant as a tribute by Kitaro to the planet. The word 'Gaia' loosely translates to 'mother earth'. 'Onbashira' is a Japanese festival in which devoted followers pay special homage to Earth through a symbolic spiritual performance of cutting down and re-planting the trees required for the ritual building of one of Japan's oldest structures, the Suwa Grand Shrine.
8. Heaven & Earth
From the Album:
An Enchanted Evening
DOMO 71005-2
First released in the US in 1995. Recorded using the most technologically advanced equipment then available, this CD features the most
crystal clear sound yet possible to provide on a Kitaro live CD. A fine collection of recent Kitaro favourites are presented, from his American Mandala tour. The performance of `Heaven and Earth' enclosed is considered the best ever captured. This Grammy Award nominated CD also features CD-ROM enhanced visual materials as a special bonus.
9. A La. Nanita Nana
From the album:
Peace on Earth
DOMO 71014-2
First released in 1996. In late 1995 Kitaro was asked by Domo Records (US) to create an album of Christmas music. In the United States it is considered an honour and a mark of distinction to he asked to make such a recording, as only superstars have the weight to have such a recording accepted. It was thought that Kitaro would be able to provide a unique perspective to this wonderful tradition. With the help of producer Gary Barlough, Kitaro decided to approach Chrismas through the spiritual nature that brings such joy to people around the world. It is for this reason he choose folk music from many different nations and cultures and transformed them as only Kitaro could.
10. Echoing Wall
From the forthcoming album:
The Soong Sisters
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ANYWHERE.
Another film score by Kitaro. This CD, which is finally expected to be released in either 1999 or 2000, some three or four years after its original recording, explores the incredible lives of three Chinese sisters through the Imperial, Communist and Nationalist movements of early 20th Century China. A stunning release that is expected to become a classic.
Executive Producer:
Phillip Hardy
Management:
Eiichi Naito & Penny Muck
Booking Agency:
POW
Original front cover photo by:
Peter Dokas
Inner photos by:
John Epperson
Front cover montage and design by:
Anonymous
DOMO 91008
© 1999 Domo Records, Inc.
All songs published by Domo World Music Publishing, Inc. (BMI) except
'Heaven & Earth' published by New Regency Music (ASCAP)
and 'A La Nanita Nana', public domain
For further information on Kitaro:
Tel: +44(0)1713816766
Fax: +44(0)171 3818113
E-mail: DomoEurope@aol com
http: //www.domo com