Tomita - Pictures At An Exhibition (CD 1991)

Isao Tomita, I first ecountered way back around 1988 -89 when I heard "bermuda Triangle" which was another classical covered album. I was at the time into artists like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Jean Michelle Jarre - who are all brilliant composers in their own right and use synthesized music as their orchestral pallettes. Tomita was different he utilised popular orchestral classical music and painted it with his own unique brand of electronica and when I first heard his take on these classics I was hooked. Exhibition still has this unique amazing instrumental synthesized sound which adds nuance to the original orchestral arrangements.

As a lover of electronic music and a student of its innovations over the decades. It is remarkable how fresh and seamless Isao Tomita has created this piece. Recognisable as Holst, of course, it is nevertheless for Tomita's fans. This was created in a pre-microprocessor era and it is as fresh as it was the day it was released. It has the flavour of the Apollo mission to it and his experiments with key changes are interesting to the trained ear. The sounds are sumptuous.

A delight.

Martin

Utter bliss, an occult gem that all lovers of electronic alchemy should expirence. I first discovered tomita in the early 80's on stereo vinyl so to have it remastered in 5.1on CD is great. It's not as rich and warm as I remember but you call real hear the synth layers.

I KNEW THE CLASSIC MUSIC REINTERPRETED BY ISAO TOMITA A LONG TIME AGO : IN 1973 , WHEN I PURCHASED THE VINYL VERSION OF DEBUSSY'S PIANO OPERAS , TOGETHER WITH TWO LPs OF BACH COMPOSITIONS PLAYED BY WENDY CARLOS . IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS I BOUGHT SOME OTHERS TOMITA'S INTERPRETATION OF CLASSICAL COMPOSITIONS . DURING THE LAST DECADE I FOUND THAT PRODUCTION IN THE CD VERSION : THE ONLY ONE UNAVAILABLE IN MY PREFERRED MUSIC STORE WAS PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION BY MUSSORGSKY . OBVIOUSLY IN MY CD COLLECTION ONE CAN ALSO FIND THE E.L.P. VERSION , BUT ISAO TOMITA'S READING OF THIS COMPOSITION , IN MY OPINION , IS CLOSER TO THE ORIGINAL ONE , WITH THE ONLY DIFFERENCE THAT THE INSTRUMENTS ARE EMULATED BY A SYNTHESIZER . AS A CONSEQUENCE , EVERYBODY CAN UNDERSTAND THAT I LOVE THE SOUND OF THE ANALOGIC MONOPHONIC SYNTH BY BOB MOOG : THE FOLLOWING GENERATIONS OF SYNTH , BY ALL THE BRANDS , HAVE A SOUND REALLY POOR COMPARED TO THE EARLY SEVENTIES ELECTRONIC ORGANS ... IN FACT ONE CAN FIND A LOT OF EMULATORS OF THE MOOG , OF THE ARP OR OF THE OBERHEIM SYNTHS , BUT NOBODY LOOKS FOR THE SOUND OF THE EARLY POLYPHONIC ONES . FINALLY , I WAS HAPPY TO FIND THIS CD : A VERY GOOD EXAMPLE OF WHAT A SINGLE MUSICIAN CAN DO WITH THE TECHNOLOGY AND WITH HIS GENIUS .

Tomita version of "Pictures" follows the classical orchestra version closely while adding the electronic fun you come to expect from Tomita. I purchased the cd as a direct replacment for my old vinyl copy that I have been unable to play for years.