Tomita "Space Fantasy" on 4.0 SACD

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DuncanS

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
QQ Supporter
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
8,652
Location
UK
More Tomita on a Japanese 4.0 SACD. I got this from an email from Farsidemusic.com in the UK, www.farsidemusic.com , I haven't seen it mentioned on CDJapan yet.

TOMITA Space Fantasy (SACD Hybrid + Bonus Track CD) 4ch Surround Sound

Ref: FSD6731 Price: £29.99

Space Fantasy was released internationally under the title 'Kosmos' in 1978, and also as Cosmos in Japan, although each version had different tracks and artwork. This new version in addition features tracks from The Bermuda Triangle and Firebird. Comes with bonus CD of unreleased/rare tracks. (not SACD)

CD1. (SACD Hybrid)

1. Space Fantasy - Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) Tannhäuser: Overture (Wagner) 2. The Unanswered Question (Ives) 3. Pacific 231 (Honegger) 4. Star Wars Main Title (John Williams) 5. Aranjuez (Rodrigo/Tomita) - Based on Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez 6. Peer Gynt: Solvejg's Song (Grieg) 7. Hora Staccato (Dinicu/Heifetz) 8. The Song of Venus (Violin Concerto No. 1: Andantino) (Prokofiev) (from Bermuda Triangle) 9. The Dazzling Bright Cylindrical Object Which Had Crashed Into Tunguska, Siberia (Symphony No. 6: Allegro Moderato) (Prokofiev) (from Bermuda Triangle) 10. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy) (from Firebird) 11. A Night on Bare Mountain (Mussorgsky) (from Firebird)

CD2.

1. The Sorceror's Apprentice (Dukas) .2 The Nutcracker - Arabian Dance (Tchaikovsky) 3. The Nutcracker - Trepak (Tchaikovsky 4. Pastoral Symphony No. 6 V. Allegretto (Beethoven) 5. The Nutcracker - Valse des Fleurs (Tchaikovsky)
 
oooo...
I have "The Bermuda Triangle" on LP...and "Kosmos" is one of those Japanese ONLY "Holy Grail" CD-4 LPs...

Funnily enough, Tomita's recent reissue of his Debussy album "Snowflakes are dancing" is the ONLY SACD I have seen that actually has musical info ABOVE 22K !!!! Hope this one does too!!!
 
This is great news! It looks like a bit of a mishmash but I'll take whatever I can get. (Though would trade in the Star Wars theme for anything on the CD disc 2 in quad.) The Unanswered Question and Pacific 231 should be very strong in discrete quad.
 
Can someone please post a link for the best source to purchase this? Seems like I always find the most expensive option!
 
you're not alone Kap'n, I had it on order from the fist posting on this thread-delivered about 4 weeks back and it is not bad.
 
Can someone please post a link for the best source to purchase this? Seems like I always find the most expensive option!

Tomita's Space Fantasy Multichannel SACD is showing as available at several stores including CD Japan, Amazon and JPC.de.
I've had good success with CD Japan so you might start there. At $32.58 plus shipping (vs. $40 and up at Amazon), not a bad deal at all. Especially if you plan on buying some other SACDs from them! :)

Space Fantasy - Tomita - Cover - COZQ-1023.jpg

Space Fantasy - Isao Tomita (Denon, Hybrid Multichannel SACD + CD Set, COZQ-1023)
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/COZQ-1023
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R198O56
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/space-fantasy/hnum/6712155
 
I'm real curious about the source of the bonus disc (stereo only), have not managed to find the notes translated. All the bonus disc tracks have Disney's Fantasia in common (and Night on Bald Mountain originally on his "Firebird" album is on the main disc). The pieces appear to be only completed to a point and then stops, much like Tomita's abandoned "Scheherazade" on "Ultimate Pictures at an Exhibition". I hear sampled instruments so its a later work 80s or 90s work. No idea if I'm guessing correctly but I know Tomita used Opcode StudioVision software on a Mac in the 90s for recording and quite infamously the software owner abandoned support and updates, so it could be the bonus disc is did work in progress stereo mixdowns for a project he halted work on and now has no simple way of accessing the multitracks?

The main disc is most of "Kosmos" (known as "Cosmos" in Japan and "Space Fantasy" in a truncated version that seems to have been adjusted for England regarding the arrangement rights issues the UK label ran into with the Holst estate in the 70s). What is not included from "Kosmos" is "A Sea Named Solaris" which was included in edited form on "Pictures at an Exhibition" (have not 100% confirmed but the shorter "A Sea Named Solaris" version seems to have been issued in the 90s as a bonus CD to go with the release of the Tarkovsky film on a more DVD in Japan). The album is definitely not a reissue of "Bermuda Triangle" as only 2 tracks are reissued. Additionally it contains both tracks on Side B of the original "Firebird" album.
 
I've just translated the liner notes using my smart phone. It's pretty easy for anybody to do these days, but seeing as I'd done it, I thought I might as well share the results. Obviously they are not super-accurate, but there's a lot of interesting stuff in here - comparisons to the original works, sources of Tomita's pieces and discussion of the bonus CD. Note (right at the end) it explains that the bonus tracks were for an updated soundtrack to Fantasia, so they synchronise with the movie. I've not tried that.

----------------------------

¦ SPACE FANTASY: Voice and Song of Tomita Sound

This work "SPACE FANTASY" is based on "Cosmos" (English title: COSMOS) announced in 1978, "Phoenix" (English title: FIREBIRD) announced in 1976, and This is an album with excerpts from "Bermuda Triangle" (English title: Bermuda Triangle), newly composed by Isao Tomita himself, and 4.0ch surround.

As the title SPACE shows, Tomita's sound is not only attractive, but also has a grand scale reminiscent of outer space. However, the sound has another big feature. That is the "voice" of the tone he makes. Noise, intonation, and reverb that seem to come through the vocal tract. Each sound has a faint, sometimes very strong 'voice' characteristic that is different from a mere electronic sound or musical instrument sound simulation.

Reminds me of Tomita's work. Modern orchestral music has the same melody and harmony.

Isao Tomita has been fond of these songs, in many of his songs, which depict scenes and narrative spaces by bringing to the surface specific characters and situations through themes that have voices. Usually, in these songs, the same melody and harmony are passed on to various instruments as the song progresses, giving rise to a single character or situation. On the other hand, the timbre of each instrument is the character of the character and song

It is intended to represent a change in situation or situation, and does not strongly indicate its existence.

However, the Tomita Sound exerts a particularly strange effect on such songs. Each timbre has a stronger 'voice' than the existing instruments, so when the melody is passed on, it becomes: not just a melody showing the same character, but sung by different people. It gives the feeling of being passed down. Sometimes it feels as if the voice is remembering the melody and humming it rather than playing it. This is most clearly expressed in "Theme of Star Wars Sounds" contained in ? of this album. Here, the whistler, a regular at Tomita Sound, is playing the familiar John Williams melody. It's already a sign of a strong character.) On the contrary, he plays with his regular Popo (what should we call this character that reminds me of Cakewalk) and singing a famous melody.

Alternatively, this feature can be taken in ?, Ride of the Valkyries, which has a clear leitmotif. In the original, the three motifs of the sky, riding, and Valkyrie are played simultaneously in forte, and the image of the Valkyries, who have become one with horses and men, soars freely in the sky.

From the other side of the chorus, the heroic Valkyrie leitmotif by fanfare first emerges, followed by the leitmotifs of the sky and riding with faint electronic sounds. Due to this time difference and the difference in strength, Valkyrie sounds like a song that slowly moves through the sky, wrapped in cosmic particles, rather than a character in an opera. The "voice" is stronger than the motif. This work is selected to enjoy the unique space and voice of Tomita Sound in various ways. Below is a brief introduction to each song.

1 Entitled “SPACE FANTASY2015” 2015

Unlike the old RCA version, the first song of Tako was cut from R. Strauss's "Thus Spoke Zarathus Tora" inserted at the beginning and end, and was included in "Bermuda Triangle" instead. The ``Sad Waltz'' (Sibelius) was inserted at the beginning. Isao Tomita calls this changed beginning "a voice of invitation from another dimension."

2. Ives The Unanswered Question: According to Ives' preface, the string playing the long tones is the trumpet playing like a geyser, ``the silence'' of the Druids who do not know, see, or hear. The tone expresses the "eternal question", and the woodwind, which sometimes sounds slowly and sometimes frustratingly, represents the "answer", which always passes by the question. In this piece, the timbres of the instruments are clearly linked to their roles.

3. Honeggeru Pacific 231 The true value of Tomita's sound that breathes life into machines. The original piece has a splendid orchestration reminiscent of the movement of a locomotive, but the Tomita version has a clear, grainy tone that makes it seem as if the parts of the engine are touching each other. It gives the illusion that each part behaves organically as if it were running a single locomotive. Even the signal tones passing by with the Doppler effect are like songs passing by in outer space.

4 John Williams "Star Wars Theme": The light beat is by rhythm box. The sequence of the bass pattern makes us foresee the appearance of YMO later.

5 "Song of Venus/from Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1" : In the symphony, the timbres of the instruments are mostly unknown, but in the concerto the individuality of the soloists stands out. Prokofiev's Violin Concerto is no exception. However, in Tomita's version, the melody of the original piece played by the violin is passed on in turn with characteristic tones, and the song is sung to the next generation.



6 "A dazzling cylindrical object that crashed into the Siberian Tungus Symphony No. 6. Prokofiev: In the original, in the middle of the first movement, the impressive passage of the orchestral bass, beginning with the Andante molto, In Tomita's version, it is linked to the meteorite explosion that occurred over Siberia in 1908. In the year of this meteorite, 17-year-old Prokofiev wrote his first symphony.



7 Concierto de Aranjuez 2nd movement: In the original, the guitar arpeggio is replaced by a woodwind solo, but according to Isao Tomita, this piece has the impression of the Nazca Plain geoglyph rather than Spain. It is said that there is In the second half, an unexpected distortion of space-time, or a warp hole awaits.

8 Grieg "Solveig's Song": The song of the maiden Solveig, who waits for her lover's return while spinning thread in a Norwegian mountain hut. In the original song, the melody is sung without lyrics from the middle, but Tomita's version has a shocking modulation here as well.

(9) "Hora Staccato": This piece, which uses electronic sounds and gives a feeling of the "light music" of the 1960s, is said to have been programmed entirely using a microcomputer using the numeric keypad on the keyboard.



10 "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" This beautiful piece of music is unique to Debussy's work by the author of the masterpiece "Moonlight".

"A synthesizer version of Mussorgsky's work, following on from One Night on Bald Mountain. The music is different, but in the Tomita version, noise like the tuning sound of a radio flies in the background, and it seems as if you have escaped from a different space.

In this way, the group of works included in this collection are from the middle period of the synthesizer artist Isao Tomita's career. Looking back on those days, he says: “The electronic sound albums that I have produced are by no means a final destination, and compared to traditional instruments, they are still new and unknown. We have pursued possibilities while having fun through trial and error, but we are still in the middle of the process of pursuing those possibilities, and young people who are aiming for the future will establish new music. I am hopeful.

Not just young people. As you can see from his recent performances with Hatsune Miku, he himself is experimenting with new ways of creating characters based on tones and voices, and is becoming more and more enthusiastic.

Following this work, Isao Tomita is currently working on his next work. The title is "SPACE FANTASY 2". Same as this work Isao Tomita's past street

In addition to recording the surround version of the best synthesizer works, he also recorded the monaural tape "Symphonic Poetry for Children: River Train Night" (1972 TBS Britannica), which he made on a MOOG synthesizer for the first time (1972). (Recorded on the 2nd B-side of the 2-disc picture LP album "Ongakutte Tanoshiina" attached to the publication "Kodomo") and a new work dedicated to Kenji Miyazawa. The release date is undecided, but let's wait with anticipation.



About the bonus track The appeal of Tomita's version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

For long-time fans, another highlight of this album is the bonus track "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and other works. These tracks are from the mid-1980s, when Tomita was active around the world at the huge event "Soundcloud", and were requested by RCA to add new synthesizer music to Disney's "Fantasia". This is the sound source for the project I was working on. Although the project unfortunately came to a standstill, these tracks reveal the unique ar

Above all, what makes these tracks different from the conventional Tomita sound is that it is through video works. Until now, Isao Tomita's synthesizer

Most of Zer's works created a dramatic sound world by adding Isao Tomita's synthesizer arrangement to the aural structure of the original. On the other hand, in these tracks, the original song is first visualized by “Fantasia”, and Isao Tomita is further inspired by the visualized animation.

Then, in what specific ways does it differ from conventional synthesizer works? In order to think about it, we must first understand how Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowski created Fantasia.

Under the current common sense of TV animation in Japan, music is often created independently of animation images, with the exception of special songs such as theme songs. In most cases, there is a ``bank system'' in which music that expresses the emotion and atmosphere that flows in several scenes is created in advance and is entrusted to the director. The music selector cuts and pastes the music according to the scene, but recently, there are also cases where the unmixed track is handed over and the sound staff mixes the instruments to match the video. Of course, the same music is often used repeatedly in different scenes. In other words, music is nothing more than a production material.

However, in American theatrical animation, including Disney, basically the time structure of the music and images is in perfect agreement. This is because when the director comes up with the storyboard, he decides what kind of lines to include and what kind of music would be appropriate.

This is because it is the “Presco” method, in which the music and video are specified and recorded. Since the drawing and animation work is done according to the time structure of the recorded music, the movements depicted naturally follow the lines and music recorded in advance. The order is completely different from the Japanese "a" "Freco" method, in which voice actors insert lines according to the drawings and videos. By the way, in the case of Jungle Emperor, for which Isao Tomita was in charge of the music, although “Presco” was partly tried, the composition timing was measured based on black and white rush film in many scenes. rice field

In the case of “Fantasia,” it was “Presco.” First, after Walt's side decided to use The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Stokowski and 85 musicians recorded in January 1938, prior to drawing. Although it was re-recorded later, it was released in November 1940 as "Fantasia" with video. Production continued for almost three years after the first recording.

By the way, the recording and screening method of "Fantasia" has a background that leads to Tomita Sound. At a time when it was common practice to record on a monaural track, Stokowski experimented with recording on six separate tracks from the first recording. In order to take advantage of the characteristics of this multi-track recording and give the audience a sense of presence just like a live performance, Disney came up with the idea of ??creating a playback system called “Fantasound” that overturned conventional wisdom. fantasy sound

There have been several versions of the system as improvements have been made one after another, but basically, one speaker is placed in the center of the front, and speakers are placed on both sides and behind it to surround the audience and improve the acoustics. The goal was to make you feel like you were in the space. Simply put, it is an invention that leads to later stereo and surround systems. By the way, Tomita was shocked when he saw this work released in Japan after the war, and after that he became very particular about the playback of multi-track recordings that went beyond stereo.

In order to specifically consider how this kind of production process influenced music, let's take Paul Dukas's "Magical 'The Magician's Disciple'" on track 1 as an example.

Was the Fantasia version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" drawn faithfully to the image of the original song? It is not. The first change is the interpretation of the motif of the original song. For example, the melody and chords presented at the beginning of this piece that slowly descends in the original piece's violin ensemble are the "water theme," and are played every time the piece is full of water and raging. However, in the animation, water does not appear in this part, and it is treated as accompaniment music for a mysterious scene in which the wizard's teacher creates butterflies out of smoke. Next, the clarinet slowly ascends and plays the “Broom Theme.” Originally, it would have been nice if a broom appeared in the video here, but in reality, instead of a broom, a water bucket was being held. Mickey Maw

Appears according to this theme. The theme of the disciple is the contrast between the busy phrases that follow and the slow phrases that follow.

In addition to this, there are many new additions, such as a scene in which the disciple manipulates the stars in a dream, and a scene in which a large number of brooms proliferate (in the original, only one splits into two).

In other words, rather than rigidly following the motif of the original song, Disney's animators develop their own stories by freely imagining how the images develop according to the changes in the atmosphere of the original song. be.

Moreover, in the Fantasia version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," some bars were added that weren't in the Dukas version, and some were trimmed here and there. What they especially compile is the length of the motifs. As can be seen from the ``houki's ``theme'' (the Tomita version uses a funny tone reminiscent of `` Cake Walk'') played in a bouncing bass, much of the melody of this song is , is made up of three bars of triplet, and they cut the three-bar unit melody here and there. The result is an overall shorter song, but that's not the only effect. For example, in the second half, there is a scene in which the room floods due to the increased number of brooms, and a tense scene in which Mickey Mouse clinging to a magic book and brooms drawing water are alternately drawn.

In order to make this process go smoothly, the tempo fluctuates greatly, and Mickey's movements are drawn in a hurry as he scrolls through the calligraphy. In other words, editing and tempo adjustments are carried out with the production of the video in mind.

By the way, when referring to "The Magician's Apprentice in Fantasia", it is easy to imagine that a more complicated process would be required compared to the usual Tomita Sound arrangements. Ordinarily, once you have decided on a song to work on, you can obtain the score of the original song, and refer to it to assign the timbres at the desired tempo. However, in the Fantasia version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", bars are added and subtracted in detail here and there in the score, so first we have to find out where they are. Furthermore, the performance is not always performed at a fixed BPM, but rather at a free tempo depending on the scene, so it is necessary to identify changes in that tempo. Probably, in creating this group of tracks, a considerable amount of time must have been spent to synchronize with "Fantasia".

On the other hand, there are also creative effects due to the accompanying images. For example, when arranging the beginning of the piece, if you were to come up with the idea without visual images, you would probably associate the ``water theme'' with a water-like sound, and the ``broom theme'' with a timbre. However, Tomita's version of "The Sorcerer's Disciple" was created with animation in mind.

"Ma" has a sparkling high-pitched sustained sound and reverb, which is reminiscent of the teacher's magic, while "Hoki no Theme" has an impressive sound like water droplets falling in a wide space. It gives an image of the water in the water bucket that Mickey wears on his arms.

Above all, the unique part of Tomita's version is the variation of this theme in the middle part. Disney is this part, Mickey who fell asleep has an out-of-body experience. It depicts a scene in which the character rises through the air and manipulates the stars of the universe on top of a large rock towering over the ocean (of course, it is not in the original work). It is this image that Isao Tomita of "Uchuu Gensou" (Uchuu Gensou) would have greatly sympathized with. When a hard, low tone that had never been heard in the scene up to that point echoed, the sound with plenty of reverb and white noise increased in pitch, as if depicting Mickey's rise. There is no sound in the original song or the Fantasia version. And in the scene where the stars revolve, as if to express the coming and going of comets controlled by Mickey, sounds with portamento, which is not in the original song, intersect throughout the space.

In other words, Tomita's version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice incorporates not only the imagery of Dukas' original song, but also the imagery of Disney's images, resulting in a visual time structure not found in other works. It came to

In "Arabian Dance" and "Fantasia" from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker," for some reason, elegant goldfish are depicted swimming. The slow sounds of the viola and cello, accompanied by images, make you think of calm water. In Tomita's version, while paying attention to the movement of shimmering fish in the water, he created the tone with gentle timing so as not to interfere with the movement of the goldfish, rather than finely synchronizing it.

3. Tchaikovsky “Trepark” from “The Nutcracker” The video of “Fantasia” is an animation in which rows of colorful flowers alternate. On top of that, Tomita's version adds cheers and lively applause reminiscent of Russian Cossack dance, adding to the enjoyment.

? Beethoven 6th Symphony "Pastoral" 5th movement: The "Fantasia" version depicts the rural life of centaurs and angels. Interestingly, not only the inhabitants, but also celestial bodies and meteorological phenomena such as the sun and rainbows are depicted as gods in human form, namely Apollo and Iris. What is particularly impressive when listening to Tomita's version is the representation of Nyx, the god of the night, reminiscent of a saw performance. As soon as I realized that this timbre is not simply the darkening night, but the movement of a person covering the whole sky with the veil of night, I was struck by the feeling that the sound space was expanding. It can be said that this is an interesting example of how the clues of visual images influence the sense of music.

? "Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

waltz” and “Fantasia” from autumn to winter. Autumn fairies paint the leaves of trees and scatter them, freeze the surface of the lake, and glide and dance like a skater Zwartz. In Tomita's version, he assigns shining tones to the white fluff that falls to the ground. speak human language. Such a mysterious voice is like that of a fairy, or like a leaf that is animated by a fairy and soars down.

When Isao Tomita used to compose the music for Jungle Emperor and Knight of the Ribbon, he used the black and white rush film footage given to him by the director as a clue to create gorgeous soundtracks that perfectly matched the movements of the animation. I was producing music that unfolds. The works contained in this bonus track can be said to be unique to him, who has accumulated many years of experience producing music from images. This time, we recorded only the sound source, but if you have the chance, I would like you to watch it in combination with the video of "Fantasia". Even though the sound is completely different from the Fantasia version, you will be amazed at the accuracy of its synchronization.
 
Back
Top