The rather more cruel would say formulaic; the more discerning, perhaps, disciplined.

In a live setting, you could say it encompasses discipline, calmness and melancholic nature music and wild abandon once the improvisations kick in.

Kitaro's music is about discipline, yes, and the trademark whistling wind sounds so expertly programmed into both his digital and his beloved analogue synthesisers will always bring this humble man's music to the fore.

Kitaro delivering `Thinking of You' with an excellent violin accompaniment by Yayol Sawwatari.

It doesn't matter how or where it is played, be it in a shopping mall, an elevator, your own room, or in a full concert setting like the Genting arena of Stars last Saturday night.

Kitaro's themes are all about progression, as well as mixing East and West and electric and acoustic within his now recognised trademark style and sounds.

One supposes--and Kitaro (also known as Masanori Takahashi), 47, also mentioned this during a press conference a couple of days before the concert--that the mountain resort venue was somewhat appropriate for someone as atuned to nature as he is ....

although, at 1,980m it's still nowhere near the kind of heights he is used to. "My studio in Colorado, USa, is 10,000ft (3,300m) high in the mountains,'' he said.

and he regularly performs on the Japanese drum called the taiko at Mount Fuji in Japan, more than 3,900m high, during the second moon festival. His next appearance there would be in September.

 

Kitaro playing wonders on the Japanese flute.

anyway, the oohs and aahhs and initial polite applause of appreciation from the 5,000-strong crowd on Saturday night were already evident as Kitaro began the concert with the sublime, mysterious intro to Waterphone. after that, those trademark sounds began to sound out the melody line to Estrella (from his latest album Thinking of You).

as early as the end of Estrella, Kitaro was already showcasing one of his main specialties, playing the taiko.

Moving on with Caravan Sary and Strength act (yes, the titles are sometimes strange like that) Kitaro and his six-piece band slowly melded themselves to the increasingly more appreciative audience.

You somehow got the idea that there must have been something up Kitaro's sleeves by continuing a quieter, calmer, sometimes melancholic mood, slipping in the familiar theme to the documentary Silk Road and tracks like Galina and the Japanese flute solo-led Korkoro Part 2 in succession.

It was almost as if they were lulling you into a sense of false security, before he finally kicked up the tempo with the fiery, upbeat Dance of Sarasvathi, smoothly lifting the audience into a higher level of appreciation before easing back to the quieter Thinking of You, complete with an excellent electric violin lead (performed exquisitely by Yayoi Sawwatari) to go with those trademark sounds.

One of the highlights of the evening, Fiesta (also from Thinking of You) picked up the beat slightly before exploding into an all-out percussion duel between Kitaro on taiko, drummer Shinichiro Jinto and especially percussionist Tomoko Nomura, whose own stick-work on the xylophone was truly a sight to behold, let alone listen to.

However, the somewhat drawn-out renditions of each song performed did mean that by the time the next song, Koi, was performed, you realised that only 11 songs had been played in 100 minutes.

To say that the crowd was hungry for more would be an understatement.

Perhaps they didn't have the "screech factor'' boy band fans might have but the lengthy cries for more did not go unheeded as Kitaro and his band did return to the stage to perform the remaining two highlights of the evening.

But not before a surprisingly vocal Kitaro said the thank-yous. The theme from the Oliver Stone movie Heaven & Earth was definitely a favourite but nothing could beat the roar of approval when the new age maestro finished the night with the trademark Kitaro sound and theme of the one and only Matsuri.

With some two dozen albums released--even Kitaro admitted at the press conference that he cannot remember exactly how many--some favourites were going to be left out. after all, 13 songs spanning two hours don't even skim the surface of the volume of this musician's output, although careful selection did mean that it did cover the spectrum of his career.

and for the first time ever, his six-piece band is completely made up of fellow Japanese, partly in a noble effort on Kitaro's part to pass on his knowledge and music to the younger generation.

In addition to the drummer Jinto, percussionist Nomura and violinist Sawwaatri, there is also Kitaro's wife Keiko Takahashi on keyboards, Shinji Ebihara also on keyboards and Keisuke Ogawa on guitar.

Of course, the story isn't over for Kitaro. He is already working on new projects and his next album will have cultural civilisation as its theme.

Kitaro explained during the press conference that he is working on a new TV series with NHK, the national Japanese TV station, which will be all about different cultures worldwide.

"There are a lot of good things one can learn from old cultures,'' he said.

and for sure, there are a lot more good things we can learn about Kitaro's music, now and in the future.