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Wednesday March 11, 2009

Kitaro unleashes a tidal show

By AZHARIAH KAMIN


Drawing heavily from nature and the elements, Kitaro unleashed a tidal show at Genting Highlands last weekend.

Spellbinding! That’s the closest word that came to mind to describe the living music legend Kitaro and his solid two-and-half hour concert at the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands last Saturday.

In fact, I had been toying with many different words – from awesome to mesmerising – to describe Kitaro’s magic on stage but in the end, no word could really describe his magnificent showcase of music, energy and passion that night.

Now I know why people have been saying that Kitaro’s music is best experienced live.

Under the Love and Peace World Tour 2009 banner, Kitaro presented a high-tech audiovisual show and the first part of the concert showcased the composer’s latest compositions which were played live to the audience for the first time.

Power of love: Kitaro injects great passion into his performance – for his music, his listeners and himself.

All of the performances from the 56-year-old musician were lyrical in context. Kitaro’s gentle touch and smooth sound design gave the pieces flair and grace at every turn. Two new songs Alex and Gamelan had their own charm, and Kitaro’s New Age stamp on them. On stage, Kitaro was a figure of passion and concentration. The man and the music in total communion. Chat was kept to a minimum. His simple but meaningful words to the crowd at the start of the show was, “We have a very beautiful Mother Earth. Please take care of our Mother Earth and of each other. All of us have a different journey, so let’s have a wonderful journey with these photos.”

From that moment on, the packed out crowd at the Arena of Stars hall stayed rooted in their seats, enjoying an audio-visual feast of a series of a magnificent photos taken by Kitaro’s close friend, Ushiyama.

They featured stars, meteor showers, the sunset and the sunrise – all the things that completed the ‘elemental’ nature of this concert. The atmosphere was almost surreal with the sound of Kitaro’s fluid and harmonic compositions in the background which brought tears to the eyes for its sheer beauty.

Divine source

In the second part, Kitaro delighted his fans further when he played beautifully improvised compositions such as Morning Prayer, Eternal Spring and Oasis (all were taken from his Oasis album), right through Oud and Waterfront Mandolins.

Of course, Kitaro’s concert would not be complete without his popular hits such as Silk Road, Heaven and Earth and Matsuri.

These three songs were phenomenal in a live setting. There were incredible sonic transitions and emotive twists throughout the pieces, making each tune a true masterpiece. Most of his beautiful work that night featured a neat balance of modern and traditional instruments. It was synthesisers on the one hand and traditional wind and percussion on the other. Kitaro’s synthesiser-based compositions were practically aural landscapes full of dramatic peaks of intensity and valleys of emotional calm.

These dramatic atmospheres overflowed with bravado, romance, serenity, and peace. The most important element that Kitaro injects into the performance is love – for his music, his listeners, and himself.

In concert, Kitaro was a world apart from the calm and serene person whom this writer talked to prior to the concert.

Looking very much at peace, the soft-spoken Kitaro declared that music is his love.

“But being a musician is not easy. You have to have the passion and love to be able to play music,” said Kitaro, two days before his concert. He was enjoying the fresh surrounds of one of the hillside resort hotels in Genting and hosting the local media.

He also referred to his secret of going from strength to strength in his musical career which spans more than three decades.

“I never had education in music, I just learn­ed to trust my ears and my feelings,” he added.

Kitaro, who taught himself to play guitar after being inspired by the R&B music of Otis Redding, noted that his music comes from a divine source.

“It is from heaven, going through my body and out my fingers through composing.”

Kitaro started his solo career in 1977. The first two albums Ten Kai and From the Full Moon Story became cult favourites of fans of the nascent New Age movement. He performed his first symphonic concert at the ‘Small Hall’ of the Kosei Nenkin Kaikan in Shinjuku, Tokyo. During this concert Kitaro used a synthesiser to recreate the sounds of 40 different instruments, a world’s first. But it was his famous soundtrack for the NHK series Silk Road that brought him international attention.

Kitaro’s music has long been recognised for its messages of peace and spirituality.

“Nature has always inspired me. That’s how this Love and Peace World Tour came about,” explained Kitaro, referring to his series of world tour dates which kicked off last Saturday. The tour will continue to China and Japan sometime in September and October.

Kitaro explained that he was inspired to go on this tour because of his love for Mother Earth.

“Here we are ... the Earth is so beautiful yet we face many problems such as pollution, climate change and so on. So we, the people, have to do something about it. We, humans, need to look back at how wonderful this planet is and start doing something to restore its glory for future generations.

“I really hope I can create an awareness via my music and hopefully we will be able to do something about it,” said Kitaro, adding that nature has always instilled awe in him.

“I’m always inspired by sounds of nature and its movements and to me, some songs are like clouds and some are like water. Some are gentle and some are hard, but they are all beautiful to me.”

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