Tenkai Ten Kai  Astral Trip (German title) Astral Voyage (U.S. title) 1978 Victor, Wergo/Spectrum (Ger) SM1021 Kitaro's first solo. Lots of acoustic instruments. Quite charming, though on a track or 2 he meanders. Kaiso, I recall is a superb track. Quite different from his subsequent work and worthwhile. Seems to be out of print. Tenkai translates as Heaven World. <- Japanese CD cover design similar to the Wergo design.

Oasis Oasis Kitaro 1979 Canyon (JP), Kuckuck (GER) lp: 053 Recently 20 Bit remastered by Domo Almost evolved up to THE Kitaro sound. Quite pleasant sounding this time, though the compositions are better on the next one.

Silk Road I Silk Road II Both 1980 Canyon, Kuckuck (GER) double lp: 054 Recently 20 Bit Remastered by Domo (as separate CDs.) A classic of the genre. These are 2 separate albums. Kuckkuck, the German label, released these as a double allbum. They are normaly sold separately these days. I've seen the English language video version of the NHK documentary series about ancient China, Kitaro's music works very well. I guess the Chinese made it rough on the Japanese crew, or it was just low budget, because the photography on the series looks kind of economy from a technical standpoint. Still the content and images very exciting. The music is very memorable.

Live In Person Digital In Person - Live 1980 Canyon (JP), Gramavison (US), Kuckkuck (GER) lp:056 Recently 20 Bit remastered by Domo (US) As this contains tunes from other albums, I thought this would be dull. The tunes actually have a nice edge to them. The live sound is first rate, unlike many other artist's live albums. "Person" is the name of the concert hall.

Ki 1981 Canyon (JP), Kuckkuck (GER) lp: 057 Recently 20 Bit remastered by Domo (US) Slightly thicker sound, Not that memorable melody wise, though good texture.  Cool cover art. Reminds me a little of early 1970s Vangelis (Earth, etc.) Ki is an abstract word. Generally it is a spirit which comes from nature.

Tonko

also known as Tonfa

also known as Silk Road III

Sound track from the Silk Road documentary series. One of my favorites.Wonderful. Solid melodies, great playing. This is the best in my opinion of the style that made him famous. The wonderful sitar piece, Lord of the Sand, is much more up-tempo than Kitaro usually is.

HH: Tonko is Tunhuang. Chinese call it Tunhaung. Japanese call it Tonko because Japanese and Chinese pronounce same Chinese characters differently. This is the name of a place in China. You can check it on the world historical map. This album is the third one of NHK (Japanese public television) documentary Silk Road series. Tunhuang is the famous historical place of Silk Road culture. I like it better than Silk Road 1 & 2 because I feel it has more solid concept in whole album. As a matter of fact , this album was made after Kitaro took a trip to Tunhuang . Seems to be out of print.

Queen Millennia

Millennium (U.S. title)

Millennia

Soundtrack to an animated film. Pretty much like a Kitaro album, except many of the pieces are variations on the main themes. Quite nice. I've actually seen the movie. My jaw dropped when I saw this huge spaceship battle scene with all this beautiful romantic Kitaro music and everything smoking and exploding. I didn't know what to think of it. Was it a brilliant and ironic post-modern juxtaposition or an inept mismatch of ill-suited music. It was memorable. The character was created by the famous manga artist Renji Matsumoto. Seems to be out of print.

For some reason the Japanese record industry used to put out double record sets of the complete audio tracks from movies. The one from this one is Canyon C38G0135-6

Hoshizora No Angel Queen

(*)1982 single cover version (#)

HH: Sung by Dara Sedaka (the daughter of Neil Sedaka) and Guitar: Steve Lukather (TOTO), Background vocal: Pages (who sing 'Caravan'). Arrangement : David Foster It's is also the last piece of SYMPHONIC SUITE QUEEN MILLENNIA (see Orchestral)

A page on Queen Millennia can be found here (thanks Jane H. Warriner)

Kitaro In Budokan (Live)

Also available on VIDEO which had slightly different pieces. I've never heard it.

Osakajoe Live

Tenjiku (NHK soundtrack) India (U.S. title) (also known as Silk Road IV) 1983 Sound Design lp: 1342-5 (28SD) Wonderful and massive sound. Carefully constructed, one of my favorites. Superb arrangements and orchestration. The title translates as India Singles covered by other artists: (* single) Caravan (1983) (#) Pages sings. David Foster arranges. (*) Umezawa Tomio Caravan (sung by Umezawa Tomio) (1983) (#) Mr.Umezawa is famous in Japan for the an unique actor as a female impersonator. Dreams like yesterday in silver cloud was dedicated to him. ( therefore there is a vocal version of Dreams like yesterday) Also he sang caravan in Tenjiku and eternal road from Silk Road on his album. Seems to be out of print. <- Later Japanese CD cover. The original Japanese LP and U.S. CD had different art

Hiun Silver Cloud (a.k.a. Flying Cloud) 1983 Sound Design lp: 1342-17(28SD) A bit too rock and roll-like for me. Follows up on the sound of the prior album but has electric guitar melodies. Nice moments and melodies though. Seems to be out of print. (*) Noa No Hakobune(= Noah's Ark, side A) / Utopia(side B) (1983)(#)

Seiho-Western Toward the West (U.S. Title) 1985 Geffen (USA) 24094-2 This one goes back to an earlier style. Much more simple but also not very original. I was very frusterated by this album. Nothing in the way of good new melodies. Same old stuff. Stamped from the same mold. Out of print Japanese CD artwork ->

Aoi Kaze

Sung by Iwasaki Motoyosi. The title means Blue Wind. I've never heard it.

Tenku

Less numbingly similar to other albums as Toward the West. Still nothing memorable. Another "by the numbers" album. The title means Planetarium.

Barbara Campbell adds:

In TENKU, his first Geffen record - the baby you hear in the beginning of the record is his son, this was recorded in his home in Japan with the windows open and the earth's sounds drifting through. This is again about the cycle of life..."Unfolding a drama day by day, plants breath a rhythm, insects play their melody, light flies as wind cries, now catch the sound... feel the light. Originally, the working title was MILKY WAY. Of course there is repetition...did you ever sit and listen to the sounds he just spoke of when recording this album?

The Light of the Spirit 1987 Geffen (USA) 9 24163-2 (original) 1997 Domo (USA) 71061-2 (20 Bit Remaster) Surprise, this album sounds very different. Was co-produced by The Greatful Dead's Mickey Hart. A big sound, plenty going on., all sorts of styles. Maybe too much because the compositions and performances are big but not very tight. It has these big masses of sound, even soul music, but kind of sounds like a big jam session. I caught Kitaro's American tour for this album. There is a single called The Field which earned Kitaro his first of 5 Grammy nominations.

(These) Ten Years

This "Best Of" was prepared by Kitaro and contains 2 new pieces and all other pieces are new arrangements. New arrangements- yes. Flow -okay. Interesting -not really.

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Kojiki

Back to the older style, slightly less rigid in format. Nothing exceptional.

Barbara Campbell adds:

Kojiki - the translated meaning is really "the old story" as in the Japanese Shintu Bible.

LIVE IN AMERICA (@)1991 Geffen I've listened to it. Pleasant. Nice though nothing too memorable.

Heaven & Earth (soundtrack)

The Oliver Stone film telling the life's story of a Vietnamese woman. Interesting to hear music for specific scenes rather than have a bunch of regular-style album tracks as with his earlier film scores. Includes an orchestra and acoustic Vietnamese instruments. Quite a different style. Closer to Dream than the next album.

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Mandala

Back to the earlier style, but clear effort to include more variety. Some new textures plus some of the nicer old trademarks to remind you this is a Kitaro album. Has a piece where Kitaro combines Indian and Native American music. An enjoyable listen. First album for Domo records.

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An Enchanted Evening (live)

I've not heard this one.

Peace on Earth 1996 DOMO 71014-2 (USA) This is Kitaro's Christmas album. It has an acoustic ensemble led by Keith Heffner and the International Peace Choir (a children's choir). Kitaro plays synth, organ, percussion and guitar using his trademark sounds. He plays arrangements of old standards plus a couple pieces less well known including a final piece composed by him (and certainly more a spiriual piece than a Christmas one). I played it at an Xmas party and everyone enjoyed it quite a bit. They didn't mind hearing it several times over. (I didn't have many Xmas CDs and everyone still enjoyed it after a couple plays)

Cirque Ingenieux 1997 DOMO 71022-2 (USA) This is music for a theatre-style circus. Early on the album is kind of new-agey, which I didn't care much for. Soon, though, the album gets quite surprising and interesting. He does a 3 part track called Underworld which is by far the darkest piece he's composed, other tracks have some meanace too. Also Contortionists has neat clockwork sequencing.

Gaia Onbashira

Here Kitaro does a sort of World music thing with many influences. Though the openning track has the overblown guitar sound not heard since the 80s, its a a decent listen. Sort of a summing up of many musical ideas he's been working with, but far from a definitive statement. A mix of electronics and live ethnic instruments with singing/chanting.

Soong Sisters (soundtrack)

2002 DOMO (USA) 73009-2

While I think the Soong Sisters soundtrack is a separate release in Japan, US pressings in 1999 included in with best of album include it as a bonus disc. It is crerdited to Kitaro and Randy Miller is most notable to me as being mostly orchestral with little up front synth use. While a pleasant score, I didn't find it memorable at all from a CD listening standpoint. It was released separately in the US in 2002

Best of Kitaro Volume 2

1999 DOMO 72438-47110-2-3 (USA), after 2001 without the bonus- cat# 47111-2

US copies before 2001 included the above soundtrack as a bonus.

Thinking of You

1999 DOMO 72438-48129-2-8 (USA)

While the cover with an old upright piano makes one think this might be some kind of piano solo or something, its actually done in his older synth and multi-instrument sound with some guest instrumental soloists. Its kind of enjoyable to hear a lot of sounds similar to his earliest abums. This album won a Grammy Award.

Ancient

2001 DOMO 7 9401-73000-2-3 (USA)

This one was released in 2000 in Japan and it was tied in to a TV documentary series it was the soundtrack to while the U.S. release is not billed as a soundtrack per se (although it uses the artwork from the series that as I understand it, Kitaro had a hand in producing. While its by no means bad music I was a bit dissapointed that seemingly the tracks are meant to evoke the great early civilazations - Egypt, the Indus Valley, Messopotamia and China -- maybe it was Kitaro's intention to make them all sound kind of similar, but if not, wind up sounding similar. To me the only slightly standout element is some wordless vocal contributions by Slava, who is a Russian-British opera trained male singer who has an, no disrespect, very eerie very high register voice. But even he is kind of blended in rather than really showcased -- so I guess what I'm trying to say is while the album is quite listenable the subject seems so promising that when I hear a not exceptional Kitaro album as the result, I'm more dissapointed than if it were non-thematic based music, which it could have been if I didn't see the booklet.

I've seen a CD5 single in Japan. It has track names from the album, presumably the same versions as on the album but I've not confirmed it.

Ancient Journey

(*) 2002 Domo (USA) double CD 73002-2

Different from Ancient. The music is from the same documentary TV series project as far as I can tell. Grammy Award nominated.

Daylight, Moonlight Live in Yakushiji

(*) 2002 Domo (USA) double CD 73015-2

also released on SACD and DVD .

Kitaro and Peter McEvilley

Ninja Scroll (soundtrack)

(*) 2003 Domo (USA) 73020-2

Anime series soundtrack. 2 themes by Kitaro.

Sacred Journey of Ku-kai

(*) 2003 Domo (USA)73022-2 also 73024-2 SACD [HYBRID]

Inspired by the events of September 11 and tied into Kitaro's 88 temple pilgrimige on the Japanese island of Shikoku

Symphonic cover versions: (all *)

KITARO MEETS THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (SILK ROAD SUITE) 2LPs 1980 SILK ROAD SUITE was recently 20 Bit Remastered bt Domo.

Kitaro No Sekai (1982) Kitaro's World -Symphony versions: MIRAGE, FLIGHT, AURORA, FIRE, AQUA, SPRING of YOUTH, SHIMMERING HORIZON, OASIS, PILGRIMAGE.

The World of Kitaro was recently 20 Bit Remastered by Domo.

PORTPIER MATSUSHITA KA
HH: It is the name of theme park in KOBE-- Portpier Exhibition. Matsushita is Panasonic--- a Japanese electronics maker. Kitaro composed the theme music. It translates as SPRING of YOUTH

PHILHARMONIC 1000 QUEEN (SYMPHONIC SUITE QUEEN MILLENNIA) - Arranged & Conducted by Jeremy Lubbock

Silk Road Junrei Best (1983).(#?)

Kitaro No Kiseki (1984) (#?) = Kitaro's history This is the symphony version of "Silver Cloud" + "Tenjiku " + Silk Road

Silk Road Junrei Best II (1984) (#?)

AURA NO SAITEN (Probably it is for some exhibition. SAITEN = Festival)

ENDLESS JOURNEY (Probably it is from SEIHO in 1985)

Best Ofs (*)

• Silk Road Best
• Super Best
• Super Best 20
• All The Best
• Best Album
• Best Collection
• The Best of Kitaro
• Best Selection
• Best Selection -Silkroad Fantasy
• Kitaro's Best
• Kitaro Special
• My Best
• My Best (Celestial)
• CD*2
• CD*2 Volume2
• The Greatest
• JVC Best One
• Kitaro Greatness
• Selection 16
• Tokusen II - special collection (includes some pieces from the video OSAKA Joe Live)
• TWIN BEST
• Best of Silk Road - 2003 Domo (USA) 73014-2 -includes an exclusive live track from China, I think these are later recordings not the original soundtracks

Reinterpretations - Inspired by the works of Kitaro 04.08.24 Kanpai Records (USA) cd: 73037-2 1. Crystal Tears - Audiomoe 2. Michi - Turbotito 3. Theme from Silk Road - Inside the Sun 4. Beat Break - Peas 5. Shizuku 2.0 - Timmy the Terror 6. Kuu - Appogee 7. Tienshan - Occidental 8. Shizuku - Inside the Sun 9. Low Pass Dub - Peas 10. Mercury - Inside the Sun 11. Fairy of Water - Occidental 12. Cocoro - Stephen Hauptfuhr

This is an album of remixes by the newly formed Domo related label Kanpai. What's happening here is Kitaro's melodies are often quite sucessful backed by generally uptempo sounds. Kitaro's material has unquestionably a lot more of a solid melody than a lot of riff based dance tracks and still works well in place of repeated hooks. You can catch excerpts of any of the tracks with the link below

Kitaro's label's page http://www.domo.com

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