KITARO
- A Profile with comments from the composer
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EAST
GOES WEST
A batch of synthesized sounds, some natural sounds, acoustic
instruments - preferably or oriental origin - and a strong
imagination with a love of nature.
The result?
A Japanese master who has swapped the beloved mountains
of his native Japan for the Rocky Mountains in the USA to
continue to offer us more highly suggestive music. Let's
learn more about this Nipponic genius... |
In the early 70s, Kitaro formed the Far East Family Band, which
released several albums of progressive rock recorded at Virgin
Records' Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, UK with Klaus Schulze as
producer. The band's first album was however recorded in Tokyo
in 1975. Klaus Schulze came over from Germany to mix it. "Klaus
taught me that you could create scenes of nature with a synthesizer.
Technology is often used as a substitute for music. Through Klaus
I learned that when a true musician moves his spirit through technology
remarkable music is created." At this time the band was known
as the Far Out Family Band (or just Far Out) and lived communally
in a beautiful traditional Japanese house with a garden.
Kitaro returned home and built his first synthesizer. After 24
hours of trying to coax some sort of sound out of his electronic
equipment, the composer was soon creating the sound of crashing
ocean waves and noisy flocks of birds. This has become an indispensable
arsenal for the composer. He always composes on the synthesizer
first, and later decides what instruments should be used to fill
out his original concept.
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"When
I did my first solo album, that's when I started to think
about the connections between East and West. Western music
is all over Japan. People still focus mainly on Western
culture, but japan has a very deep and meaningful culture
and I want to bring some of that to the West."
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HIS SOLO CAREER
When his first solo album 'Astral Voyage' appeared in 1978 it
quickly gained a cult following. It was this album that set the
pattern for future works with its sweeping electronic sounds and
the use of traditional Japanese instruments such as the taiko
drum and bamboo flutes.
Kitaro followed on with 'Full Moon Story'. One year later he produced
the first of several soundtracks for "Silk Road", a Japanese television
documentary series that ran for five years based upon the theme
of the ancient Silk Road trade route between Europe and the Far
East. Several albums of music from "Silk Road" were released to
a growing international contingent of fans who admired his combination
of lush, majestic textures and gentle, almost naive, melodies.
More than 200 songs were composed for the series, yet fewer than
30 were used.
In
1982 Kitaro wrote the musical score for the highly acclaimed animated
science fiction film "Queen Millen-nia" by Reiji Matsumoto. Over
the next few years he released the albums 'Silver Cloud', 'Asia'
and 'Toward the West'. Kitaro, however, was still considered an
underground artist in America until he signed with Geffen Records
in 1986, which released seven of his earlier albums and gave him
the support to expand his scope in many ways.
For instance, after years of creating albums in the privacy of
his home studio near Japan's Mount Fuji, Kitaro produced his 1987
release 'The Light of the Spirit' with the help of Mickey Hart.
The album featured an array of American musicians and was nominated
for a Grammy Award in the best New-Age performance category.
That same year, Kitaro also made his first live tour of North
America and sold two million albums in the US alone. Kitaro's
style had changed as well, becoming more theatrical and assertive
while retaining a certain level of innocence and purity. 1990
saw the release of 'Kojiki', inspired by traditional Japanese
stories depicting the creation of Japan. This album has sold well
over 220,000 copies to date. Also in 1990, Kitaro embarked on
his second tour of North America.
FROM EAST TO WEST
In 1990 Kitaro moved from his 200 year old farmhouse in a
remote valley near Mount Fuji in his native japan to his present
8,000 square foot home with its custom-made recording studio
in Ward, Colorado. While the location of his new home allows
him to be in contact with his friends and other artists, he
also isolates himself in some ways. He does not possess a
TV set or a radio. He does not read the newspapers.
Living in the USA, he says, has helped him to concentrate
more effectively on the American market. "I live there - I
have my Green Card, I can live in the U.S. forever. I will
stay here for the next 30 or 40 years. I'm not a visitor.
I talk to many artists, producers and directors who come from
Japan to visit the U.S., but they still have the visitors'
mentality. Their minds are not focusing on the USA."
He goes on to say that's why he decided to part company with
the Japanese management firm Amuse, and go it on his own.
However sound a career move this may have been, Kitaro admits
that tearing himself away from the Japanese mountains was
hard.
"Although the Rockies are dynamic, I miss the solemnity of
japan's mountains. Still, I want to settle in the Rocky Mountains,
not just pass through like a traveller. I can really feel
the spirit of the place, and just listening to the rustling
of a leaf provides inspiration."
He also seems to be unfazed by the occasionally inclement
weather of Colorado.
Kitaro
left Japan partially out of dislike of the new government,
which he feels is "moving more from capitalism to socialism.
There are many scandals and the politics destroy artists'
creativity." He also feels that "living is more free and easy
here because in Japan, everyone watches me. In the states
I'm more anonymous." His more recent recordings show a renewed
interest in the rock and pop elements that originally attracted
him to music in the late 60s. In 1992, he released 'Dream'
which contained three songs with vocals by Jon Anderson (vocalist
with the progressive rock group Yes), a collaboration they
had been talking about for 10 years. "He has a good voice,
like an angel." It was about the time of the release of 'Dream'
that he was commissioned by noted film director Oliver Stone
to write the soundtrack for "Heaven and Earth", a film set
in Vietnam.
Although he had written scores for several movies in Japan,
this project gave Kitaro his first opportunity to work on
an American feature film with a major director.
It also gave him the chance to perform with many unusual Vietnamese
instruments as well as incorporate special Chinese instruments
to give the songs a melodic Asian flavour. "I spent over a
year and a half on this project. It was a new experience.
I learned many things from Mr. Stone. We went to Vietnam together.
He talked about his experience there as a Vietnam veteran."
Kitaro says his dream is to someday direct a film and compose
its soundtrack.
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"I
want to heal by music. I want music to make the new
generations think about the future and correct directions."
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MANDALA
'Mandala' (Sanskrit for circle) was the first release for
his own record company, DOMO Records, formed in 1993 with
former Amuse America president Eiichi Naito. "That album has
my kind of original roots, my original desire for this kind
of music.
I like to compose, but sometimes it's too expensive and takes
time," says Kitaro. "I spent three and a half months on Mandala,
from the beginning to the final mastering. Basically, I composed
the whole thing on my synthesizer, and my orchestrator, Randy
Miller, wrote down the score. The sound is so nice, sitting
in front of a 100-piece orchestra, totally perfect - 3D stereo-real
sound!" That's a quality today's digital synthesizers lack
says Kitaro. "The sound is horrible. I'm still using analogue
synthesizers (a 20 year-old MiniMoog, a Korg 700, and a Korg
800) because I can control them better. They're much quicker
and have more flexibility." He describes the closing 'Kokoro'
as being "like a symphony."
In the 12-minute piece he is asking listeners to remain open
to the many gifts of nature. Kitaro recorded the lush, symphonic,
largely non-arranged classical-rock arrangements on Mandala
with the hope that they would somehow appeal to a younger
audience.
The music would then get the new listeners to help make the
world a calmer, better place. "I want to heal by music. I
want music to make the new generations think about the future
and correct directions."
LINKS
Il sito ufficiale di kitaro (in giapponese)
- http://www.kitaro.net
La casa discografica di Kitaro
- http://www.domo.com
Fan club non ufficiali di Kitaro
- http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/eltonjohn/718/index.html
- http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Hall/7878/
- http://www.gigapolis.com/silkroad/kitaro/
- http://members.tripod.com/~EDWARD_YAH/Kitarocontent.htm
Il sito ufficiale del film "The Princess Mononoke"
con musiche di Kitaro
- http://princess-mononoke.com
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