Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ Domo Records) For over 40 years and throughout his musical career, Kitaro has been a truly groundbreaking artist known for his amazing live performances and music that blurs the lines between many musical genres including classical, jazz, rock, new age and world music.
His tireless dedication to his craft and ability to repeatedly produce an astronomical body of work in terms of numbers of releases and quality of work makes The Kitaro Quintessential a "must have" addition to any collector of fine works' musical library and places Kitaro in the dialogue and conversation as one of the most prolific artists of his generation.
This authorized two-disc set includes a dynamic CD that has taken Kitaro to the four corners of the globe and back again, spiritually, physically and musically. Musical masterworks from the Sacred
Journey Of Ku-Kai series, Kojiki, Dream, An Ancient Journey, Ancient, Gaia Onbashira, Impressions Of The West Lake and Kitaro's Grammy Award-winning disc, Thinking Of You are featured on this release.
The DVD contains 105 minutes of breath taking live performance footage of his most popular and elaborate productions that now appear as technical achievements in concert videos. It includes live performances from An Enchanted Evening, Kojiki: A Story In Concert, Tamayura as well as The Light Of The Spirit, on which Kitaro's music is blended to spectacular nature videos.
Known for his reluctant superstardom, an exclusive, rarely seen 18 minute interview with Kitaro is also a feature on the DVD as a special tribute to his loyal fans.
Listen to "Stream"
https://soundcloud.com/domo-records-kitaro/stream-1
ALBUM CREDITS:
All songs Composed, Arranged, Performed and Produced by Kitaro
Executive Producer : Eiichi Naito
Artists + Repertoire, Compilation Producer, Mastering: Dino Malito
Business + Legal :
Howard Sapper
Marketing + Promotions : Atsuko Mizuta, Mai Okuno
Album Art + Design : Kio Griffith / 9rpm.com
Artist Management : Eiichi Naito, Dino Malito
Liner Notes :
Craig A. Melone
MORE ON KITARO:
https://www.domomusicgroup.com/kitaro/
https://www.facebook.com/Kitaro
https://www.twitter.com/Kitaronetwork
https://www.myspace.com/kitaronetwork
https://www.reverbnation.com/kitaro
https://www.youtube.com/kitarotv
https://www.soundcloud.com/domo-records-kitaro
https://www.vevo.com/artist/kitaro
https://itunes.apple.com/artist/kitaro/id2382005
BIOGRAPHY:
For over a quarter century, Kitaro has been an internationally recognized icon, globally acclaimed composer and musician. He's one of the founding architects of the New Age music category and movement. His ongoing inspirational musical message of Peace and Love allows Kitaro to take his fans to the four corners of the globe, shining the spotlight of his musical message on audiences as he inspires fans from around the world to unite as one.
Influenced by American rock and R&B, his pioneering fusion of electronic artistry, traditional Japanese forms, and pop-inflected Western idioms created a lush, harmonic, and poetic sound that won the now legendary artist a huge international following.
After few years in the Japanese music group Far East Family Band, Kitaro became a solo artist in 1978, and released his first album entitled Astral Voyage. In 1980, he created the theme song for Japanese national TV broadcast, NHK's TV show featuring Silk Road. The show made an enormous success and increased Kitaro's recognition worldwide. Kitaro released the soundtrack albums Silk Road and Silk Road Vol.2. In 1984, he toured in Asia as a first-ever Japanese musician who performed in Taiwan and China.
In 1985, Kitaro signed worldwide contract with Geffen Records. Shortly after that, in 1987, Kitaro created the Grammy-nominated The Light Of the Spirit, a collaboration with
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. This album exceeded two million dollars of sales in the U.S. alone. This created a turning point in Kitaro's career and aided to elevate Kitaro's presence to an unprecedented degree. After this, Kitaro continuously toured in the US and
Europe and attracted a following worldwide.
Of all of his works, in addition to his breakthrough release of Silk Road, Kitaro considers Kojiki as one of his finest efforts. Nominated for 34th Grammy, the album reached the Billboard Top 200 Pop Charts at #159, an amazing feat for an album in the New Age genre. The album also became #1 Top New Age Album for 8 weeks.
In 1992 Kitaro released transcendent Dream, a collaboration with Yes' Jon Anderson. After release, this was another Kitaro hit and Kitaro was nominated for another Grammy. Working with acclaimed director
Oliver Stone, Kitaro won a Golden
Globe Award for his
Heaven & Earth Original
Soundtrack in 1994.
In 1994, Kitaro signed with Domo Records. 1994's Mandala and 1995's An Enchanted Evening were both released and nominated for Grammys only adding to Kitaro's legacy of Grammy accolades.
In 1997, Kitaro produced music for the Broadway production Cirque Ingenieux and released same titled original soundtrack. The following year, Kitaro's original soundtrack album Soong Sisters received, Best Original
Music Award from the Hong Kong Film Award as well as the Taiwan Golden Film Festival and Award. In 1998, Kitaro was invited to become an Olympic musician and perform Taiko
Drums at the closing ceremony of Nagano Winter Olympics.
In 2000, Kitaro's Thinking Of You, which the online music bible allmusic.com calls, "one of the most beautiful CDs of all time," won a Grammy for Best New Age Album. Kitaro credits this Grammy to philosophy that fundamentally, at its heart, his music is always about sending a profound message of peace and spiritual development, both personally and globally.
Kitaro's Ku-Kai series arose after the global events on the fateful day of
September 11, 2001. On that day, Kitaro was on a jet from Japan traveling en route to Los Angeles when the transcontinental flight was diverted to Hawaii for 5 days due to the tragedy. It was during this time of disbelief and uncertainty that Kitaro envisioned the Ku-Kai series as a means of uniting the world by music embracing a universal message of peace. The Sacred
Journey of Ku-Kai series is an earthly travel that transports the listener to the 88 sacred temples located on Shikoku Island in Japan. The music is a serene journey in its own right. The true to life excursion made over 1100 years ago on Shikoku Island in Japan endures to this day.
The Ku-Kai series, Sacred
Journey Of Ku-Kai Vol. 1 in 2003 and all the future volumes released: Sacred
Journey Of Ku-Kai Vol. 2 in 2005, Sacred
Journey Of Ku-Kai Vol.3 in 2007, and Sacred
Journey Of Ku-Kai Vol.4 in 2010 earned Kitaro Grammy Nominations for Best New Age Album.
The global admiration for Kitaro and his music that unites the world is, of all things, real and constant. His desire to continually breaking new ground and blur the lines between musical genres is visible on Kitaro's Spiritual Garden in 2006.
In 2007, Kitaro launched his "Love And Peace World Tour" in conjunction with the Ku-Kai series. He has performed in The Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Greece, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, China, Jakarta, and Uruguay in order to help spread his goal of world peace.
His 2010 release, Impressions of the West Lake (Featuring vocalist and Chinese pop diva Jane Zhang) captured the artist's 13th Grammy nomination and was hailed by critics as a cultural masterpiece. It was written for the modern day opera by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou. Kitaro also provided music for Japanese American documentary movies Toyo's Camera, 442-Live with Honor, Die with Dignity by director Junichi Suzuki and released same titled soundtrack albums.
In 2011, Kitaro started his Asian tour entitled "The Silk Road - East & West" and performed for more than 40,000 fans. Also, Kitaro participated the event MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) and shared the stage with Crosby,
Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, The
Doobie Brothers and other world-top artists.
Kitaro's project in 2012 is the collaboration album, Let Mother Earth Speak with world-renowned Native American activist,
Dennis banks. With a focus on world and inner-peace, the unique mix of Kitaro's music with Native American instruments along with the insight of
Dennis Banks makes Let Mother Earth Speak one of the most unique marriages of musical and spoken word driven projects of this or any year.
His latest album Final Call has been released in
September 2013. As a homage to Kitaro's lifetime reverence for Nature, the album is a voyage of introspection specifically concerned about how we treat our planet.
Kitaro is universally acknowledged as the founding architect of new age music. His various sound collaborations and resonant, multi-textured compositions truly defy the constraints of any genre. The Grammy and Golden Globe-winning Kitaro has garnered global acclaim over a more than three decade long career with a signature sound and a pioneering fusion of cultures, techniques and spheres of consciousness that are truly his own.
