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A E J O T Z
Joined: Aug 14, 2011
Posts: 423
Location: Griffith, Indiana, USA
Audio files: 148
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 Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 7:16 pm Post subject:
Isao Tomita 1932 - 2016 |
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One of my two synth gods has died.
What is it with this @#$% year!?!?
I enjoyed a lot of early electronic music but Tomita was the first to impress me with creating appropriate interpretive synth voices for musical parts instead of just making music with "funny sounds." The album "Snowflakes are Dancing" opened new worlds for me. Everything changed, as far as I was concerned; even though most musicians continued to use synths for funny sounds. "The Planets" was another masterpiece.
My other synth god is Larry Fast, who recorded as "Synergy." He took the next step of writing and arranging music specifically for synthesizer.
I haven't followed Tomita for years but will always cherish his early work. My heart hurts to know he's gone.
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AEJOTZ is pronounced "A-Jotz"
retro-futurism now
electronics = magic
free albums at http://aejotz.bandcamp.com
listen to genre-defying synthetic music at http://sat-5.com |
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varice
Joined: Dec 29, 2004
Posts: 961
Location: Northeastern shore of Toledo Bend
Audio files: 29
G2 patch files: 54
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| Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 12:02 am Post subject:
Re: Isao Tomita 1932 - 2016 |
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| A E J O T Z wrote: | | ...I enjoyed a lot of early electronic music but Tomita was the first to impress me with creating appropriate interpretive synth voices for musical parts instead of just making music with "funny sounds." The album "Snowflakes are Dancing" opened new worlds for me. Everything changed, as far as I was concerned; even though most musicians continued to use synths for funny sounds. "The Planets" was another masterpiece... |
My first experience with Tomita’s music was “The Planets”. Yes, I also agree that it is a masterpiece. He skillfully combines other worldly synth sounds and effects with excellent emulations of acoustic instruments and sounds. To a casual listener that is unaware that all the sounds on this album are produced with an analog synthesizer, they may mistakenly think that there are many “real” instruments and sounds used.
Another striking thing about this album is that it is the first that I know of to use stereo sound field effects to make sounds appear to come from well outside of the normal stereo sound field. You hear this effect at the very start. Two vocal emulations that appear to be an astronaut and a mission controller are “talking” via radio just before the rocket launch. The mission controller’s voice appears to come well to the right and farther behind the right stereo speaker. The effect really is just… spooky  
After “The Planets”, I also picked up Tomita’s “Kosmos”. I wore out both of those vinyl discs by playing them so much… so I was eager to replace them with the CD versions as soon as they were released. And later on, I also added “Pictures at an Exhibition” and “Snowflakes are Dancing” to the collection.
To celebrate Tomita’s work after news of his passing, I lit a candle and listened to these four CDs… R.I.P. Tomita...
| A E J O T Z wrote: | | ...My other synth god is Larry Fast, who recorded as "Synergy." He took the next step of writing and arranging music specifically for synthesizer... |
I got Tomita “The Planets”, Synergy “Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra”, and Tangerine Dream “Phaedra” all about the same time. Those sure were the Good Old Days of my electronic music universe expansion… Synergy and Tangerine Dream also became my favorites.
| A E J O T Z wrote: | ...One of my two synth gods has died.
What is it with this @#$% year!?!?... |
It has actually been a couple of bad years I think, starting early last year with the death of Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream. The passing of Chris Squire, the virtuoso bass guitar player of Yes and Keith Emerson of ELP were also very sad events... 
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DES
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 796
Location: New Jersey
Audio files: 8
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 8:49 am Post subject:
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It's certainly been a rough year...and it's not even half over... 
Tomita and Carlos were the first two synthesists to get my interest in this strange new instrument. I really liked how Tomita used synth textures - while he did emulate existing instruments he also created unique sounds and used them effectively. Over the years I bought Pictures, Planets, Bermuda Triangle (in it's pink coral glory  Supposedly it is recorded in 5 channel 'pyramid' sound and has a message encoded into it.)
After those two I started looking for others doing this new electronic music thing... Thats how I got into Fast, Jarre and TD.
What a trip it's been. Thank you Isao for starting me on it!
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Dave
www.davesneed.com |
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Dragon's Lair
Joined: Dec 29, 2006
Posts: 205
Location: Hope BC, Canada
Audio files: 1
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varice
Joined: Dec 29, 2004
Posts: 961
Location: Northeastern shore of Toledo Bend
Audio files: 29
G2 patch files: 54
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 4:41 pm Post subject:
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Thanks for the link Dave. This is a very interesting interview.
It reveals that Tomita paid the equivalent of about $125,000US to purchase and import his Moog modular system to Japan And Isao admits that he did not even really know how to play it as musical instrument at first. Now that is what I call a leap of faith Well, he obviously learned how to use the modular and went on to produce some fantastic synth music masterpieces... 
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varice |
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