Kojiki

This album, Kojiki, marked my very first exposure to the music of Kitaro. Until about the early 1990s, I had been blissfully unaware of this Japanese but one day while visiting a friend, Sunny Kao, he unleashed the laserdisc version of this album on me. Kojiki, by the way, is the mythical tale of the creation of Japan and the birth of its people. 

Literally, I was floored. Seldom had I ever been so impressed by the music of New Age artistes. I remember that the only other time I really got caught up with this genre of music was listening to Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. And now, Kitaro was stirring the same familiar feeling of wide expanse within me. So there I was, sitting in my friend's living room, staring at his television set, watching Kitaro dashing from one instrument to another, and basically enjoying the richness of the music. Drums, strings, keyboards and all sorts of synthesised sounds immersed me.

Today, I put the vinyl version of this album on the turntable. It has been a long, long while since I had listened to it. I sank into the chair, closed my eyes and allowed the music to flow all over me. I was reliving the past and it brought back all those memories of life in the 1990s.

Side One: Hajimari, Sozo, Koi, Orochi
Side Two: Nageki, Matsuri, Reimei