Tomita FAQ

[Cloud]

Who is Tomita?

Isao Tomita is a Japanese synthesizer musician who achieved fame in the 1970s with his electronic music versions of classical pieces. You can find out more about Tomita at www.isaotomita.net - the Sound Creature site maintained by John Breslin (Cloud) and Ben Ward - or you can just read his biography for an overview.

Where can I get "Bermuda Triangle", "Dawn Chorus", "Daphne et Chloe" etc.?

These albums are quite hard to get outside Japan, but I'd recommend you try Music Express (where I got Bermuda), CD Banzai!, or Mundo for those hard-to-get releases. Other music suppliers are listed on the links page.

Can I contact Tomita-san via e-mail?

I don't think so.

What does the TARBEL message on the "Bermuda Triangle" album decode to?

The answer can be found on the Bermuda Triangle page, under "A Coded Message".

I have been collecting the albums in Tomita's recent Dolby Surround series, but I noticed that there is no album corresponding to the letter A in the TOMITA name. Am I missing one?

There was no sixth album in this series, which is strange since the letters on the edges of the CDs seem to have been put there to form the word TOMITA. For more details on this series, check out the Dolby Surround section.

[ndkent]

It's worth noting that Tomita was an established composer of film & TV soundtracks and orchestral works since the 1950s. In 1969 he heard the album "Switched on Bach" and realized the synthesizer's potential to create new tone colors and set about buying one and learning it within the next few years. He realized his own synthesizer arrangements of Debussy and apparently after Japanese record labels proved uninterested he received enthusiasm from RCA (later to become BMG) in the United States. I bring this up because I don't think it's commonly known that most (but not all) of his Classical albums were made as part of an American recording deal. This also is the explanation why there are far fewer Classical Synthesizer albums after the mid 80s when U.S. RCA stopped commissioning his Classical Synthesizer albums.


Regarding the "Tomita in Surround" CD cover - I've seen at least 4 sealed copies of "Pictures at an Exhibition" with the booklet inserted reversed so as to have "Tomita in Surround" as the cover. I'm sure this is what reports are about. There must have been a booklet inserting mistake made on one of the pressings as I've seen it enough times in shops. Every CD with a "Tomita in Surround" cover I've seen has been a "Pictures at an Exhibition" CD judging from the back of the case.


Also on the FAQ I should point out that I'd say amazon.co.jp is one of the better places to order albums with the only dowside that the descriptions are all in Japanese. If it weren't for them I'd not have found rare tracks on compilation albums like "Tea and Soft Rock" which contains an Expo '70 Toshiba Pavillion track or the Rampo Soundtracks album with the score to "Black Lizard" (which contains some very distinctive acoustic Bach arrangements by Tomita + original music).

[blackpoolmatt]

i really need to contact tomita the guy has been one of my gods since childhood . he is the originator of synth music and only he the father of it and jean michelle jarre have used the medium properly . for some obscure reason i need his autograph and believe me this doesnt happen but i do. but thank you for this potential gateway into japan i am sure i shall meet a lot of interesting people through it and get to talk to a respectfull culture at last so thanks for the oppertunity sincerely yours matt

[vincentjacque]

Originally Posted by Cloud

Where can I get "Bermuda Triangle", "Dawn Chorus", "Daphnis et Chloe" etc.?

These albums are quite hard to get outside Japan, but I'd recommend you try Music Express (where I got Bermuda), CD Banzai!, or Mundo for those hard-to-get releases. Other music suppliers are listed on the links page.

About the "Bermuda Triangle" : 1° Is it Tomita-San speaking in the piece called "Vocoder" ? 2° What does he say ? And finally, what does "Dororo" mean ?