Synth Qua Non

Tomita - Arabesque No. 2

We'll finish off the long March with a 50th anniversary special.

This one seems to always circulate from a speed-corrected cassette of the FM broadcast, but for whatever reason it took me all of 13 seconds flat to find the Quadraphonic BBC pre-FM LPs on Soulseek.

Back when synthesizers were new and impossibly futuristic gear, and wild beasts roamed an Earth covered in plankton, today's superstar was one of the first to make a career out of manipulating their twiddly little knobs, and to make their sounds the basis for his entire musical output.

His music seems almost quaint or primitive now, but when he was in his heyday he was among the vanguard, at the cutting edge of what was then unprecedented technology.

His name was Isao Tomita, but like a lot of stars he went by just the single name Tomita.

Born in 1932, he began really hitting the public consciousness in the 1960s, as the composer of many of Japan's TV soundtracks.

When the first modular synths hit in 1968/69, he began to move into using them exclusively, focusing just as much on the sound design aspects as the composition capabilities of the new equipment then applecarting everyone's musical expectations.

As the 1970s progressed he became globally renowned for a kind of Classically tinged Space music, performing across the world to adoring audiences and pushing the then-nascent world of sound synthesis forward into what became modern Electronic music.

If you need an hour introduction to the universe of Tomita, this show -- which I've deliciously downmixed from the Quad LPs to a nice, wide stereo field -- is as appropriate as any you might come across.

Tomita

Hammersmith Odeon

London, UK

3.26.1976

01 BBC introduction by Brian Matthew

02 Dawn (Children's Corner No. 4)(from Daphnis and Chloe)

03 Snowflakes Are Dancing

04 Clair de Lune

05 Synthesiser Sounds demonstration

06 Arabesque No. 2

07 Firebird Suite

08 Passepied

Total time: 54:45

Isao Tomita - synthesizers & keyboards

Michael Reeves - piano on Firebird Suite

sourced from Ben Ward's 24/88 capture of a quadraphonic BBC transcription LP

converted to 16/44 stereo CD Audio, edited, tracked & remastered by EN, March 2026
297 MB FLAC/direct link

That's the path we Marched, hope you enjoyed it. I'm already trying to suss out April, which might begin with a seminal Centennial.

In the meantime, paste your stereophonic ears to this formerly Quadraphonic excursion into the Tomitaverse, precisely 50 years to the day it happened!--J.

4.22.1932 - 5.5.2016