I'm a happy camper!

Hello to fellow Tomita fans.

I got home last night and these had arrived -



I have been looking around for these titles on CD for years, but it was not until I first visited this board last week that I realised that BMG were doing rereleases. A search on Amazon Uk showed that there were some limited titles being imported at the end of the year....but at about £24 each!

After reading ndkent reviews, I decided to order from Amazon Japan where they work out about £11 each and the service has been just great.

If anyone is thinking of getting these, then just browse on over to amazon.co jp and do it.

I do like the mini LP sleave of these editions and I am glad that the remastering is true to the original releases (although the Kosmos surround edition I have is not bad).

I've got some good listening ahead of me now

 

Holy cow!!!!! I'm jealous!

Feel free to comment on the new discs after you've listened to them. Do you have a DVD-audio player to play the Planets disc? If not, you can listen to the Dolby Digital surround tracks on any DVD-Video player. Those tracks sound great as well.

Oh, and BTW - welcome to the forum....

 

What is that stuff? It looks a bit weird.

 

Well, I suppose it is a bit weird...yet at the same time, very cool.

 

Actually just a bit of an advisory, I have a region free player that will not play it at all, no menu no sound, same with a second older stand alone DVD player. I've never figured out why. But your computer should be able to handle it if it has a digital out or multichannel sound card.

I just ran a test out of curiosity and it didn't check for region, so I could play it on an American computer

As for the full DVD-A playback the latest deluxe WinDVD app or recent more deluxe creative labs hardware will play DVD-A on a PC. Nothing Mac I know of yet.

Also on that topic, note that that's the 2004 released 5.1 version of "Tale of Genji", not the 2000 stereo nor the seemingly better known 1999 live recording.

 

I spent the afternoon listening to the Clair de Lune, Pictures at an Exhibition, Firebird, Planets and Cosmos CDs. I must say I am impressed with the quality and find them 'clearer' than the Different Dimensions or Kosmos releases (so a good remastering process for once). There was a bit more noticable noise on the Firebird (especially Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), but nothing to really upset me.

I do like the packaging on these releases....ie the mini LP sleeves echoing the original releases.

Now maybe they could do a Sound Creature release to complete the set (wishful thinking!)

I also played the "Tale of Genji" DVD this even.....very nice. My four year old Sony DVD player had no problem with it, and even DVD Player on Mac OSX (10.3.6) played it. I'll probably try and get the CD release too (which I currently can't seem to find on amazon.co.jp).

p.s. I was at the 1999 performance of Genji in London and this is the first time I've heard it since. Very relaxing and brought back good memories of that concert.

 

Now that would be great!

Really? Was that an indoor concert? Were any synths used at all, or was it all orchestral?

 

"Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" was done as a demo before Tomita recorded "Snowflakes", so it's his oldest classical Moog work that's been released. I don't know any more - like if he conbsidered it for the album, if it was just practice for him or if he played it to interest labels.

The other 2 Firebird pieces are well known Russian classics. "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" is very French and has come to almost symbolize so called Impressionistic music though he had Russian connections before and after the Prelude. As a young man he spent summers hired to play and teach Tchaikovsky's famed patron Mme von Meck's children. The piece was one of Debussy's earlier masterpieces and was originally background music for a dramatic reading of Symbolist verse though wound up being a stand alone orchestral piece. Then in 1912 (a few years after "Firebird"), about 2 decades after the premiere the still fresh sounding piece had a huge comback for Nijinsky and the Paris based Ballet Russe. It caused the big scandal of the season as the dance performance was both deemed a triumph and "obscene". (Then the next year, 1913 Stravinsky and the Ballet Russe topped that scandal with "The Rite of Spring" - by the way - Debussy and Stravinsky admired eachother's work and even performed together)

As for finding the albums you want on amazon.co.jp or somewhere else big and Japanese, searching on the catalog numbers usually works. Unfortunately my website has been down for a week and I don't know when it will come back (I guess I have to pull an archive out from backup myself to access it's info)

"Tale of the Genji" was remastered in early 2004 so that's the number you want (if you want either the DVD-A or regular CD). I just saw the regular remastered CD at the Tower Records in Manhattan. I'm sure the 2000 unremastered Denon label version (with the same cover art of the mask) is no longer orderable. Additionally the un-favored by Tomita live version on Pioneer is sold out though more copies seem to be floating around outside Japan.

 

I don't have Japanese, so I can't understand/use the Japanese Amazon site! I may try getting some of the CDs soon through the other amazons, but its a real deterrent to have to pay so much more money that way...
Why Tomita's CDs aren't make more widely available is a mystery.

 

Japanese CDs need to be marked up obscenely to make a profit for the effort - Japanese wholesalers don't wheel, deal, take returns etc. in the same ways that domestic distributers deal with retailers and labels - and then they just don't sell enough because they are so marked up in price so retailers aren't excited - certainly the few collectors who buy a lot have all figured out a better way to get their CDs - so it's not sustainable. You know, only someone dumb would buy a whole lot of marked up releases, you just have a few people occasionally buying them because ordering is harder or they don't know where to go.

I guess as for Tomita, he really needs someone at a record company who appreciates him.


The other Amazons tend to tack on about anywhere from US$10 to $20 or more per disc above what they cost in Japan. I've found Amazon.co.jp's english ordering not that bad and I usually type in the catalog number to find the right page on their website

But I can see how Amazon Japan might be confusing and worrysome - so why not use www.cdjapan.co.jp - they are perfectly reliable, all in English, and usually have what Amazon has.


Or if you want to communicate in english via e-mail and/or use Paypal there's always
http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/ohkura/

or for even more opinions read
http://www.artskool.biz/jem/where.html

 

Thanks again! CDJapan sounds like a good bet.