Ten

Recording and remix engineering by Kitaro
Assistant engineering by Atsushi Kaji
Recorded at Kitaro's Nagano Yasaka Atelier
Remix at Sound Design Studio

A very special thanks to
Isao Tamai (NHK)
Koichi Hirao (NHK)
Silk Road Project (NHK)

Korg Synthesizers, Roland Synthesizers,
Prophet 5, Mini Moog, 12 String guitar,
Acustic guitar, Yamaha CP-80 electric piano,
Fender rhodes, Emulator drums, Percussion,
Sitar, Santool, Tambra, Harp

Music copyrights controlled by Sound Design Music Inc.
Recording managemants by Tetsu Hayase
Associate producer: Moko Nanri
Photography: NHK, Jigou Ohmura and Yasuo Muro

Booklet-Text:

TRAVEL THROUGH TIME

There is one scene that I will neuer forget; even now it floats up vividly before my mind's eye.

It was in May of 1980 that we went out to film location at the Hotan Oasis. The Hotan is located an the Hsiyü-nantao road which runs along the outskirts of China's Taklamakan Desert.

Early afternoon in Hotan Town - the temperature had already climbed dose to 40°C and there was not another soul moving about the oasis. They were all shut up inside their houses, trying to avoid the midday heat. The desert sun beat down upon the main street of town; all the morning's hustle and bustle had given way to dead silence and not even a stray dog was in sight. The faint whisper of leaves from the large poplar trees reaching up to the heavens was the only Sound one heard.

The only creatures moving about this deserted stage were the members of our team, come to gather materials for the television programme "Silk Road". Shouldering cameras, tape recorders and other heavy equipment, we trudged along, enduring vertigo just short of heat prostration.

It was there, at the edge of the road where the poplars cast their shadow, that I discovered them.

At first glance I thought that a row of large brown sacks had been dumped by the side of the road. But on closer examination, I knew that was not the case. Somehow, incredibly, the Sand had spun a thick cocoon about each of a row of recicling human beings!

The Sand of the Taklamakan Desert is composed of fine, powder-like grains of pulverized earth. It is lighter even than powder snow. These sand particles fall to earth softly, piling up, and flowing along over the surface of the road like water. At the edge of the road, they amass into "snowdrifts" of powdered earth.

That row of people had fallen fast asleep by the roadside and now their bodies were almost buried in these drifts of earth, which only the faces left peeking out. Elderly travellers using their satchels for pillows snoozed away, along with little boys who were closed to naked. Two of the slumberers had even propped up their bodies against each other for support as they slept. And all were enveloped in earth, enjoying the subtle coolness it afforded. In the faint breeze an old man's long and dusty beard fluttered, and it seemed as if the flow of time there at the Oasis has suddenly stopped dead in its tracks.

Back home in Japan, those sleeping figures would probably be taken for mere paupers or vagrants. But this utterly natural siesta style was Hotan custom that had endured for centuries. When noontime arrives, all who are walking about the streets suddenly lay themselves down at the very spot they stand and while away the hottest hours of the day, sheltered in the bosom of the earth. A few hours later they will awaken, rise, and resume walking on towards their destinations. These sleepers buried in earth where silently and unconsciously asserting the value of an unhurried, unflustered way of life - a lifestyle which does not seek to run counter to the will of Nature.

Watthing them sleep, I felt that a totally different kind of time must be at work here in the Taklamakan Desert - something experienced in today's Japan. Or perhaps it might be more correct to say it was not really "variant time", but only the moments that we impatient Japanese have somehowe lost track of.

While filming "Silk Road", we fancied that we could feel ourselves actually traversing time. I do not mean simply retracing the past, but also journeying in search of the precious time that we haue lost or overlooked. Since we first began working on the series, the "Silk Road" has captured the interest and imaginations of a great many television viewers - this, I believe, is because a mysterious sense of nostalgia for that distant "Silk Road time" has been awakened in the hearts of the audience.

THE GRAND JOURNEY CONTINUES

We spent the years 1979 and 1980 gathering material for the series along Silk Road in China. Returning home for two years of further preparation, we have now, again, set out another "Silk Road" journey. The Silk Road stretch all the way west from China to the final destination of Rome; in Part II of the series we will cover far more of this territory than we did in "Silk Road 1", pushing further back through space and, so it seams, through time.

As before, we have investigated several different Silk Road routes. Our journeys have taken us once again to the China/Pakistan border pictured in the final scene of "Silk Road Part 1", then along the "Buddha Road" running from Kunjerad Pass in the Pamit Mountains through to Pakistan and India; west from Pakistan along the Oasis Route passing through the desert regions of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria; and finally along the steppe route beginning at the Sino-Soviet border which runs clear through the Soviet territory of Central Asia.

The scenes shot for "Silk Road Part I" were filmed in only one foreign country - China. But footage for Part II has been shot in 14 different countries. Filming conditions in many of these countries were complicated by internal disturbances or ongoing wars. Passing through these troubled internal areas or across sensitive national borders presented many serious problems. In fact, the greater part of our two year preparatory period was spent in negotiating with these foreign powers for permission to film in their territory.

No foreigner, for instance, had ever before been allowed to travel from Pakistan through the Kunjerab Pass to China. When a joint British/Pakistani survey team once attampted to cross this border in the course of a geological survery, the British team members were forced to remain behind at the Kunjerab Pass even though they had already been issued travel permits!

A phantasmal Buddhist "nation" said to practise the original form of Tantric Buddhism taught by Saint Kobo at Koya Mountain has been preserved in Indias remote Ladakh region of the Karakorum Mountains near the Sino-Indian border - but here, as well, all foreigners were strictly barred from entry.

Iran and Iraq are at war with each other, and free collection of materials in either of these countries is extremely difficult. In Iran, in particular a special "wartime enactment" placed rigorous restrictions on the removal from the country of film shot within.

All film had to be developed in Iran and could not be brought outside the country until it had passed a strict official inspection. Because of the mang different types of film used and the nature of the local developing facilities, this regulation was so restrictive as to result in the abandonment of most film footage shot within the country by foreign cameramen.

But, one by one, we managed to unravel most of these problems. In Pakistan, for instance, filming of Kunjerab Pass scenes was finally approved by the personal decision of President Hak himself! India authorized our intrance to Kashimir and Ladakh and permitted free collection of material there. The Iranian government made a special exception to their regulations, allowing all film shot by the NHK "Silk Road" team to go out of Iran undeveloped and without inspection.

But even if one finds a way to surmont these political walk, the severity of the natural terrain and climatic conditions present problems of its own for traveller an the Silk Road. Imagine filming at an altitude of over 5000 meters above sea level ... or during a snowslide or avalanche! Braving a world of bitter cold 30° C below zero . . . or a blazing desert of 40° C above!

Yet, the bigger the obstacles to overcome, the more bountiful our film harvest become. Keeping our sights an the world to the west, we pushed an step by step towards Rome, inspired by the certainty that the fruits of our labours would be well worth the hardships endured.

And inspired, also, by our constant companion along this and our previous "Silk Road" journey - the beautiful music of Kitaro.

KITARO AND THE "SILK ROAD"

It has been five years now since I first made Kitaro's acquaintance an our Chinese Silk Road journeys. Now, as we meet again in the tunes of this new album, I strangely feel a kind of relief - what a comfort it is to be hearing him again!

In the expanded space and time of "Silk Road Part II", Kitaro soars freely, at once meditative and restlessly searching. The sounds spun out of this spiritual journey elevate our film work to a level far above the mere physical labour exerted, enlarging upon whatever themes we have introduced.

The Silk Road that we caught an film is nothing but a 20th century view of the regions. But our real objective in filming was to try somehow to capture the grandeur of the time and history which have accumulated slowly like vast drifts of sand - a backdrop to the modern scene. It was the music of Kitaro alone which could draw out this invisible element to make the "Silk Road" complete.

So many paths to travel - the avenue followed by Buddhism as it spread, the route of Alexander the the Great, the roads over which thousands of nameless people transported their burdens and their very hearts.

Ch'ang-an to Rome -13.000 kilometers. For the first time in the history of television, this grand expanse of Silk Road will be traversed end to end. And when we have finally finished our long and weary journey, we shall know, too, that Kitaro will have consummated the first suite of "Silk Road music" that the world has ever known.

The road ahead from here may harbour unknown perils, but we shall look forward to its strange and new delights.

KOICHI HIRAO

NHK Special Program Division