the project

Stomu Yamashta's music is a skillful integration of environmental sound effects such as cosmic wind, water drops, and bird chirps with a variety of instrumental tones. On Sea & Sky, his talents are showcased at their best. Composed entirely by Yamashta, Sea & Sky is performed primarily on synthesizers and percussion, creating a dramatic recording that makes one think of an expansive, beautiful world that is there to be discovered in all its exciting glory. On Sea & Sky, "electronic and real orchestra fade in and out, blur into one, separate, and work together to create an aural allegory about the birth of life and the growth of knowledge" - Keyboard magazine. Yamashta's performance, along with those of Takashi Kokubo and Sen Izumi, is delightfully breathtaking.

the artist

Stomu Yamashta is truly a master musician, performing and composing in many different genres. An adept percussionist as well as a fine keyboard player, Yamashta has played his own music but is also sought after by leading contemporary composers such as Toru Takemitsu and Peter Maxwell Davies to perform their works. He has written everything from ballets, film scores, and multimedia chamber works, to avant-garde rock music. As a member of Go, he collaborated with British musicians Steve Winwood and Michael Shrieve as well as German synthesist Klaus Schulze. Although he is primarily known as a percussionist, studying jazz drumming at Boston's Berklee School of Jazz, he has also made a reputation for himself as a composer of electronic works. After retiring briefly to a Buddhist temple in his native Kyoto in 1980, Yamashta released a number of recordings that used synthesizers, taped sounds, orchestral instruments, and percussion.

discography

tracklist