Kitaro (Japan)

Astral Voyage (1978), From the Full Moon Story (1979), Oasis (1979), Silk Road (1980), Silk Road II (1980), In Person (1980), Silk Road Suite (1980) (with London Symphony Orchestra), Ki (1981), Silk Road III (1981), Millennia (1982) (soundtrack), India (1983), Silver Cloud (1984), Asia (1984), Toward the West (1985), Tenku (1986), Light of the Spirit (1987), Ten Years (1988), Kojiki (1990), Live In America (1991), Dream (1992), Heaven & Earth (1993) (soundtrack), Mandala (1994), An Enchanted Evening (1995), Peace On Earth (1996), Gaia-Onbashira (1998), Thinking of You (1999), Ancient (2000), The Soong Sisters (2002) (soundtrack), Asian Cafe (2002)

Famous New Age musician. During the seventies he was member of Far East Family Band and during the production of several albums Kitaro learned a lot from Klaus Schulze (who was the producer) about utilising synthesizers in music. After he left the group, he started writing melodic music using various synths. Some people call his early solo music "Electronic New Age". This description is not far from the truth. Kitaro found some sounds on his synths which he liked and played with these sounds over and over, thus, his early albums all sound the same. Still, it's nice music to hear and I would recommend the following: Astral Voyage, From the Full Moon Story, Oasis, Silk Road and Silver Cloud, the latter being a bit different from the rest. If you like these albums, you may check out some other albums by him as well. His more recent New Age works are nice, as far as New Age music is concerned, but unfortunately, it's just that: New Age, albeit the one that is very nicely done. As for me, I haven't heard his latest works, because after hearing Gaia-Onbashira I lost my interest completely.