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Kitaro was born
in 1953 as Masanori Takahashi in Toyohashi, Japan. In
Highschool he loved Soul and Rhythm & Blues. He learned
playing E-Guitar and performed with his band "Albatross" on
parties and in clubs. His biggest influence in this time was
Otis Redding. "Rhythm and blues has a kind of depth,
emotions how can I say it? The audience feels something like
same kind of emotions from my music. My music is not rhythm
and blues, but it feels like soul.".
His nickname
Kitaro was given to him by friends after the main character
from the japanese cartoon television series "Ge Ge Ge no
Kitaro".
In the early
'70s he changed completely to keyboards. He joined the band
"Far East Family Band" and toured with them around the
world. In Europe he met the german synthesizer musician and
Tangerine Dream-cofounder Klaus Schulze. Schulze produced
two albums for the band and expanded Kitaro's knowledge of
synthesizers.
A quotation from
Kitaro gives us his view on synthesizers: "With a
synthesizer I could create an ocean, a winter coastline, a
summer beach, a whole scene."
In 1976 Kitaro
left the "Far East Family Band" and made a long trip
throught asia, visiting countries like Laos, China and
Thailand. In India he lived for about 6 months in Poona at
the (at that time) famous ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Back in Japan
Kitaro started his solo career in 1977. The first two albums
Ten Kai and From the Full Moon Story became cult favorites
of fans of the nascent New Age movement. But it was his
famous Soundtrack for the NHK series "Silk Road" which
brought him the international attention.
He struck a
worldwide distribution arrangement with Geffen Records in
1986; in 1987 he collaborated with different musicians, e.g.
with Micky Hart (Grateful Dead) and Jon Andersen (Yes) and
his record sales soared to 10 million worldwide.
In 1994 he won
the Golden Globe Award for his soundtrack for Oliver Stones
movie "Heaven & Earth". He was also nominated several times
for a Grammy in the category New Age (which he won in 2001
for his album Thinking of You).
Kitaro is a
star, but he is very modest. "Nature inspires me. I am only
a messenger", he said. "To me, some songs are like clouds,
some are like water". Since 1983 his reverence for nature
leads Kitaro to annually give thanks to Mother Nature in a
special "concert" on Mount Fuji or near his house in
Colorado: on the day of August full moon he beats on the
Taiko drum from dusk to dawn. Frequently his hands become
bloodied, but he continues to pound.
From 1983 till
1990 he was married with his first wife Yuki (they have a
son, Ryunosuke, who lives in Japan). They separated because
Kitaro worked most time in the United States while she lived
and worked in Japan. In the middle of the 90ths Kitaro
married Keiko Matsubara, a musician who already played on
several of his albums. With her and her son Kitaro lived in
Ward, a little town outside Boulder/Colorado (USA) on a
180-acre spread in a big house with his own studio, called "Mochi
House". Latest information say that Kitaro and Keiko
recently moved to Occidental, a small town north of San
Francisco (North California). |
