TOMITA

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Wendy Carlos rip off or Japanese SCi Fi art genius?

― Pennysong Hanle y, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Being Japanese, he obviously had to copy SOMEONE.

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Uh-oh.

― Sean, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Both: Snowflakes are Dancing is GRATE!!

All he "ripped off", incidentally, was the idea of playing the classics on electronic instruments — which you could argue Carlos stole from Perrey and Kingsley (they did pop classics) or Theremin (or even Thaddeus Cahill) (where isX.Y.Zedd these days?)

― mark s, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How I loved the single that was taken from 'Snowflakes...' - synths that sounded like (slightly goofy) human voices. My brother had it ('Arabesque no.1' on the B-side?). How did he make those noises in 1974? Yr actual Debussy was a bit of a let-down after that.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

earlier than 74, maybe? he 'just' had a big modular Moog, so could have been using the vocoder or something. the whole Snowflakes Are Dancing album is fantastic - anyone heard any other albums by him?

― m jemmeson, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have Pictures at an Exhibition. Its fab!

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three years pass...

BRILLIANT

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, fantastic. I recently managed to come across most of his albums and I would say 50% is legit great/50% is so patently absurd it's almost greater. Plus, his version of the firebird was the one I grew up with, so oddly enough that one still sounds "right" to me.

― b'angelo, Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

Please tell me where to find the patently absurd!

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

well, i guess that depends on your personal opinion? what have you already heard?

― b'angelo, Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

Ummm...Snowflakes Are Dancing and The Planets.

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

If you email me I can try and dredge up the most xxxtreme tomita, aight

― b'angelo, Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

ok!

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

adam, i love that sometimes our tastes are running in parallel (last time it was the Throbbing Gristle/Chrome stuff). anyways, since i can't search on current threads, i can't post this in that recent space music thread, but i put on Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygen" the other night and the wife goes totally straight faced, "Uh, are we in space?"

― [that bastard] jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

Hahaha!

Today I am listening to:

Tomita
JMJ
Perrey-Kingslety
ELO

AND

The Cars!

(and JOURNEY)

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

Isao Tomita? Yann Tomita?

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

Isao

I really love his spacejazz arrangements of Bach for the Black Lizard soundtrack (one of my favorite, favorite movies -- have any of you guys seen this?)

I can't say I've listened to too much Tomita -- the basic primitive phase-heavy arrangements repel me a bit. A friend advised that Bermuda Triangle was his weirdest, and briefly checking out Snowflakes, Planets, and the truly worrying Mind of the Universe... just never got sucked in, but just thinking about them makes me want to check them out again.

reading through http://www.artskool.biz/jem/itc.html

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

I love just finding things like this online... just look at this

http://www.users.bigpond.com/cosmic_voyager/cosmosepisode13.htm

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

good christ he reconstructed ALL OF THEM

http://www.users.bigpond.com/cosmic_voyager/

we should start a wednesday night SF Cosmos party, I've still only seen about 3 of them

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

LOVE this artwork

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/030/32956.jpg

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

one of the wife's all-time faves, so we've got a huge chunk of his output. Plus, sampled by the Dungeon Family! CLASSIC.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

no wonder jmj had something to prove!

On September 8, 1984, Isao Tomita presented a live, outdoor concert on the shore of the Danube River in Linz, Austria, for an audience of 80,000 people. The concert was called "The Mind of the Universe", and through his interpretations of classical music, Mr. Tomita was attempting to describe the 15 billion year history of the universe. He employed 13 channels of sound, including one from a helicopter 1,500 feet above the river, multi-channels on either side of the river and on a ship that also carried the violinist, shakuhachi player and a chorus of 100 Austrian singers. Special lighting, lasers, fireworks and other visual effects enhanced the sound presentation. Tomita's "stage", where he controlled the sound, was a specially constructed pyramid suspended from a crane near the river.

with the 'CASIO' logo plastered in huge letters on each side of it!

http://www.artskool.biz/jem/pic/b/mindj.jpg

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

I have that album, it's pretty good. I'm sure it was more fun to actually witness.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bulletsofautumn.com/boredoms/superr8.html

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

I love how Tomita lists out all of the gear he used on the back of the LPs.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

They always did that in the '70s. No one would ever just write "John Smith - synths." They had to brag about their ARPs and shit.

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I've seen that on a lot of albums but I can't think of any other lists that were as detailed as Tomita's. It's not just the fact that he lists the equipment but the length and level of detail that I find amusing. On the back of Firebird he lists every module in his synth (with a column listing the quantity of each), the 8 different mixers he was using, and even his 5 tape machines with the tape width and speed specified!

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

He's a GOD, people. For his versions of the Star Wars theme and Clar De Lune alone. Oh, yeah, and his awesome gear lists, too. Made me scratch my head quite a bit as a young 'un.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:42 (twenty years ago)

"one of the wife's all-time faves, so we've got a huge chunk of his output. Plus, sampled by the Dungeon Family! CLASSIC."

i loved that the old pbs late-nite star hustler show used tomita for their theme. there was someone on ilx who used the name star hustler and it always made me think of tomita. i love kosmos and the bermuda triangle. so much FUN to listen to!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

Clair De Lune is great!

― Yakuza Ghost Six (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

in love with 'the planets'!

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

terrible!! i want SO MUCH to like tomita but i could never get into it!

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

damn you Scott Seward for beating me to the punch with the Star Hustler mention! The image of that guy walking to the edge of the comet with snowflakes are dancing playing is deeply, eerily embedded in my psyche---probably has something to do with my fear of outer space

― emilys. (emilys.), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

I've got the Planets LP but never listened to it, we found it in my wife's dad's record collection and thought it looked interesting. It's been sitting forlornly in our records to listen to pile for about 2 years! This may change when I get around to buying a record player that actually works for more than 1 song before cutting out on 1 or both channels.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 10:35 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

so great

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 18:13 (seventeen years ago)

i really like pictures at an exhibition, snowflakes are dancing not so much. need to buy more, though.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 18:19 (seventeen years ago)

I had The Tomita Planets before I had a Beatles album, I think even before I had an Elton John album, and growing up in the mid '70's that last is saying quite a bit.

Ah yes, youth.. . . when my preteen self had gotten himself deeply into another Tomita binge, my sisters would go on about how I was listening to the "funeral music" again. And that Soundesign stereo. . . .

Ah well, anyway, let it be said I prefer The Planets the best.

― SecondBassman, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 19:08 (seventeen years ago)

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