Inventive and prolific Japanese electronic musician, composer, and arranger; co-founder of the vastly influential Yellow Magic Orchestra. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra and an Academy Award-winning composer for his work on the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, synth pop innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto is among the most groundbreaking artists to have emerged since the late '70s. The driving force behind "Neo Geo," a cutting-edge fusion of Asian and Western classical music with other global textures and rhythms, he has been equally adept in electronic and acoustic settings, whether recording in solitude or in tandem, with decades of steady activity. His discography is immense and varied, including solo piano works, proto-techno, experimental ambient, and glitch.
Aki Takahashi made her public debut shortly after graduating from the Tokyo University of Arts with a masters degree in 1970. While acknowledged for her classical musicianship, her enthusiasm and acclaim as a new music interpreter have attracted the attention of many composers. Cage, Feldman, Takemitsu, Yun, Oliveros, Ruders, Satoh, Lucier and Garland, to name a few, have all created works for her.
Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) is one of the most popular and iconic of Korean films of the 2000s. A sensational and provocative piece of Asian extreme cinema, the film also has a superb score by Jo Yeong-wook, a regular composer for a number of Park’s works. Jo’s original score is rather eclectic in style - a mix of classical waltzes and modern electronica. Several tracks such as ‘Out of the Past’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, and ‘Frantic’ are inspired by the minimalist music of Philip Glass. There’s an unsettling quality to the music, particularly when it is haunted by the listener’s memory of the picture. Those who haven’t seen the film are likely to appreciate most of the tracks on offer here - the album is highly listenable and any fan of movie scores will dig this.
Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) is one of the most popular and iconic of Korean films of the 2000s. A sensational and provocative piece of Asian extreme cinema, the film also has a superb score by Jo Yeong-wook, a regular composer for a number of Park’s works. Jo’s original score is rather eclectic in style - a mix of classical waltzes and modern electronica. Several tracks such as ‘Out of the Past’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, and ‘Frantic’ are inspired by the minimalist music of Philip Glass. There’s an unsettling quality to the music, particularly when it is haunted by the listener’s memory of the picture. Those who haven’t seen the film are likely to appreciate most of the tracks on offer here - the album is highly listenable and any fan of movie scores will dig this.
During the mid-'70s, Germany's Kraftwerk established the sonic blueprint followed by an extraordinary number of artists in the decades to come. From the British new romantic movement to hip-hop to techno, the group's self-described "robot pop" – hypnotically minimal, obliquely rhythmic music performed solely via electronic means – resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late- 20th century, and as pioneers of the electronic music form, their enduring influence cannot be overstated…
Spurred on by Robert Fripp's innovative guitar work, arguably the definitive exponents of British progressive rock.
If there is one group that embodies progressive rock, it is King Crimson. Led by guitar/Mellotron virtuoso Robert Fripp, during its first five years of existence the band stretched both the language and structure of rock into realms of jazz and classical music, all the while avoiding pop and psychedelic sensibilities. The absence of mainstream compromises and the lack of an overt sense of humor ultimately doomed the group to nothing more than a large cult following, but made their albums among the most enduring and respectable of the prog rock era.
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is a British musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. He is regarded as one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists of all time. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards, percussion, and vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.
Return to the Centre of the Earth is a studio album by the English keyboardist Rick Wakeman, released on 15 March 1999 on EMI Classics. The album is a sequel to his 1974 concept album Journey to the Centre of the Earth, itself based on the same-titled science fiction novel by Jules Verne. Wakeman wrote a new story of three unnamed travellers who attempt to follow the original journey two hundred years later, including the music which features guest performances from Ozzy Osbourne, Bonnie Tyler, Tony Mitchell, Trevor Rabin, Justin Hayward, and Katrina Leskanich. The story is narrated by Patrick Stewart. Upon release, the album reached number 34 on the UK Albums Chart.