Sunday, 3 November 2019

TV, Film and Performance


Tomita’s work was used extensively in television and film, his Arabesque No1 was used for the astronomy series Jack Horkheimer-Star Gazer in the US and the intro and outro on the Spanish children’s TV show Planeta Imaginairo (Imaginary Planet). His Reverie was used at the opening and closing credits on the Japanese TV Fuji Television transitions. Other works were used on the Zatoichi TV series and films and also the Oshi Samurai, (mute Samurai,) TV series. Also, the Toho science fiction disaster film in 1999. In 2001 he worked with Disney for the background atmospheric music for the Aqua Sphere in the Tokyo Disney Sea Theme Park. Tomita composed for the 2002 synthesizer score for the film Twilight Samurai which featured acoustic soloists. His version of Debussy’s Clair De Lune was used in the film Oceans 13 in 2007. Tomita performed in Tokyo directing the Japan Philharmonic which featured the digital singing Avatar Hatsuni Miku created by Crypton Future Media in 2012. In 2015, tracks from Tomita’s Snowflakes are Dancing album were used in the US film Heaven Knows What. Tomita performed various concerts over the years including his Soundcloud concerts, with speakers surrounding the audience in the Cloud of Sound. Tomita speaks in an interview about live concerts-

There are many places I would like to hold a concert, including as you mentioned the Grand Canyon or the Moon, but if there's no air on the Moon, how would the sound travel! So I have been researching how it would be possible to hold a concert over the Internet or a digital line, because until now, for what is called a "Sound Cloud" concert, I had to organise a huge area covered in sound or music, containing say an audience of 40,000. This is a small space, in which people can enjoy the concert together with an invisible cover of audio / sounds from the helicopter's speaker and also from the speakers in a circle around the audience. But still I am looking to find out what can be done over a digital line, like Ryuichi Sakamoto tried something, with the person in one place, and using digital circuits, there was an unmanned piano performing in a different place. But while an audience can listen to such a concert, this is just a mere showing of the technology. The audience should interpret the content of a concert or else it just becomes a showcase. So still I am wondering, what can be done? I really like the idea of music over a network, a web site, or digital lines. If I can sort out all the questions I have, then a big concert might even be possible from the moon! Then, all the audience on the Earth could enjoy the sound from other planets or else from the other side of the Earth, but still I am not sure how to realise this technically.” (Tomita)[1]



[1] Isoa Tomita.net, Interviews, accessed on 25/10/2019

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Introduction

Isao Tomita (with his Moog), in his studio, Tokyo 1976. (Associated Press). Introduction Here we will look...