Takashi Asahina Beethove

Along with Wit's Naxos recording, this is one of the best versions of Messiaen's phantasmagoric Turangalîla-Symphonie available, and it's very different: swifter, more obviously virtuosic in concept, perhaps a touch less warm in consequence, and engineered with greater “in your face” immediacy. The playing of the Concertgebouw, always a wonderful Messiaen orchestra, is stunning throughout. Chailly revels in the music's weirdness. The Ondes Martinot, for example, is particularly well captured. It's interesting how earlier performances tended to minimize its presence, perhaps for fear that is would sound silly, which of course it does, redeemed by the composer's utter seriousness and obliviousness to anything that smacks of humor. In any case, it's not all noise and bluster. The Garden of Love's Sleep is gorgeous, hypnotic, but happily still flowing, while the three Turangalîla rhythmic studies have remarkable clarity. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the solo piano part magnificently, really as well as anyone else ever has.

The Japanese approach to sound is all encompassing - fictional characters, brands, ideas, even inanimate objects like printers and whiskey have their own theme tunes and original music created specifically for them. This is referred to as an "image album", an audio impression designed to give a multi-sensory experience.
In 1987, Japanese composer and environmental sound designer Takashi Kokubo was enlisted to create the music for a new line of high-end air Sanyo air-conditioners. Though his name might be unfamiliar, alongside his anime soundtracks and avant-garde projects, Kokubo has also crafted music that has impacted virtually all of Japan, from national mobile phone earthquake alerts to contactless card payment jingles.