New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Domo Music Group) 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.
Kitaro's New Project for 2013 is an homage to his lifetime of reverence for Nature. Final Call is a departure from Kitaro's Kukai series. While Kukai was originally inspired by 9/11 and an artistic statement constructed and recorded as a means to unify all people, Final Call is a project specifically concerned about how we treat the planet. It's Kitaro's assertion the planet itself is crying out and warning us about potential serious consequences if we don't address these global issues in a timely fashion. The music on Final Call is a CALL TO ACTION and a journey/voyage of introspection for the listener to help everyone discover methods to treat our planet better and put those methods into practice.
In his own words, Kitaro describes his new musical work.
I have always felt we all must respect the providence of the Universe. Unfortunately, through the course of time and the growth of civilization, many living creatures that we now know will become extinct. If we don't alter how we treat each other and our planet Earth, many habitats and portions of this earth may become devastated and eventually disappear.
After meeting Professor Kazunari Shibata, at Kazan Observatory at Kyoto University, nature photographer Mr Toshio Ushiyama and the staff at Nagoya Science Museum, I had an epiphany of sorts. I began to recall the greatness of constellations, our solar system, galactic systems, the macrocosms that they create and the beauty of our planet Earth.
As in the story of Noah's Ark, this album is the story of an epic voyage… A voyage of hope that all living creatures can someday live happily in harmony with each other.
The story begins from where we board for departure.
新たなる旅に大きな夢を
ノアの箱舟のように
Bon
Voyage - Kitaro
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 "The 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.
2013's release continues Kitaro's respect for our earth.
Artist: Kitaro
Title: Final Call
Release Date:
September 10th, 2013
UPC: 794017320229
