Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Vol. 3

, Kitaro

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 25, 2007)
• Original Release Date: September 25, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Domo Records
• ASIN: B000UJ48W2
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #133,625 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

• This is item 3 in The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Kitaro picks up the path of his sacred journey through Shikoku, an island that has 88 temples, each with its own distinct temple bells. The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Volume 3, is the latest in a projected multi-disc series in which the Japanese keyboardist has been recording those bells and working them into the matrix of his music. Taking its name from Kukai, a Japanese monk and founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism in the 9th century, the series follows a path that gets more languid with each album. The synthesist has jettisoned most of the sappy strings that marred his previous journeys, opting for floating, ambient spaces centered around organic sounds. "Crystal Winds" might be the most carefully formed, albeit rhythm-free and melodically amorphous track Kitaro has composed in years. It builds from a floating array of Native American flute, zithers, Balinese gamelan, temple bells, and harmonic singing merging into filter-swept synthesizer before a brief santoor melody is teased out of it. It's not long before Kitaro tosses in electric-guitar leads on the grandiose sweep of "After the Rain," replete with his patented whooping Korg lead lines. If he'd left out the sampled choirs and strings, it might've risen above generic easy-listening new age, which is still preferable to "Winds Blow over the Hill," a thinly veiled lift from his own Silk Road that makes it sound like a score for a sanatorium. But Kitaro redeems himself with the last two tracks, a hypnotic jam with some uncharacteristically raving guitar over a sequencer ostinato called "Voice in Blue," and "Circle Dance," a ritualistic piece for bells, flute, and what sounds like metal mixing bowls. I kept looking into the kitchen to see if my wife was making something, but I liked the way it added three-dimensionality to the piece. With The Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Volume 3, Kitaro gives us hope that the trek might be worth continuing. --John Diliberto

Product Description

Kitaro was born into a Japanese Shinto family in 1953 and took his first tentative musical steps playing guitar in a high school band; during the next four decades of his career, Kitaro's pioneering use of synthesizers, exotic plucked and percussion instruments helped sell over twenty million albums. Today, at this turning point in the world's history when a longing for peace and political change occupies the thoughts of countless people, Kitaro's musical message could not be more topical - or more relevant. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Step in Kitaro's Musical Pilgrimage, October 27, 2007

By	Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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Sometimes Kitaro's music is sublime and sometimes it's sappy, but it always manages to be movingly and yet enjoyably spiritual somehow. Still, this album, volume three of an ongoing series inspired by his pilgrimage along the Shikoku 88 Temple Henro Route (in this case, temples 24 through 31), manages something a bit unusual for him. While unmistakably Kitaro music through and through, it seems somewhat more serene, subdued, and subtle for him, as if his sound is maturing with age. And that while still continuing the mood and tone of the prior two installments of "Sacred Journey of Kukai"--again nicely mixing in the actual reverberations of each temple's bells into the music, only this time far more organically and unobtrusively, blending it seamlessly into the soundscapes of his instrumentation. Towards the middle of the album he resorts to a few of his stereotypically saccharine whooping swoops (especially with tracks four and five, mainly) but the rest is strangely ambient in a satisfyingly sophisticated manner, with track seven achieving an especially eerie intensity and eight a compellingly alien atmosphere. A bit experimental but not inaccessible. Once again Kitaro has created music that is incredibly representative of the New Age genre at its best while expanding that genre's yet untapped potential.

5.0 out of 5 stars blend of calm and more upbeat sounds on one CD, September 15, 2008

By	World Traveler (San Clemente, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Using flutes and synthesizers, there is a journey that the listener goes on. Including his use of the electric guitar Kitaro sends one on a space flight.
The track entitled 'Circle Dance' has strong sounds and is not as relaxing as I prefer for massage, but for suspended conciousness, i.e. "to zone out" and to perform yoga it is perfect.
Some tracks are more staccato or dramatic than others. There is a mix of mellow tracks blended in, that offer sedating melodies.
The whole CD seems like it could be a great soundtrack for a future movie.
Overall a great CD

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New spectrum of sound, October 5, 2007

By	Ivonne I. Quirindoongo (Curacao, AN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With this album Kitaro once more demostrates that he is the master of spiritual music. He opens a whole new spectrum of sound for his listeners.