Yoshitaka Azuma ‘Far From Asia’
April 30, 2008 by continuo
01 Toki (26:58)
02 Muratake (16:19)
03 Far From Asia (10:26)
Total time: 53:42
LP released 1982 on Nippon Columbia Ltd.
Long electronic soundscapes by Yoshitaka Azuma, who was to become one of the foremost video games incidental music composer in the 1990s and is famous today for his contribution to Panzer Dragoon Ein (see video below). His first LPs were influenced by european prog and kraut rock. 1982’s ‘Far From Asia’ uses electronic sounds familiar from Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze albums, though with a tenseness and uneasy feeling unique to Azuma. The genre is definitely german ambient but the style is very personal and unusual, anti-relaxing new-age, sort of. The first track ‘Toki’ is build on unsettling minimal electronic loops using mostly basic sounds – presets, so to speak. Music is sparse overall, with a few tutti moments were the music gets really loud. Sounds are half sci-fi movie style, half relaxation music, with truckloads of reverb throughout. Track #2 is a welcome follow-up, being an almost straight new-age number with beautiful melodies. The title track almost sound like film music, the major thirds reminiscent of Joe Hisaichi for instance, just a bit more weird. Very strange LP, anyway.
Discography
- Moon Light Of Asia (1981)
- Asian Wind (1981)
- Far From Asia (1982)
- Mysterious Asian Roads (1983)
- Azuma (1987)
- NHK (1989)
- + music for video games Panzer Dragoon Ein, Tokyo Dungeon, Virus
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