Silver Cloud

In 1983 the obi on this record said, in large type: "This is Kitaro's burning message to the twenty-first century!!" The small type beside it starts by counting. "Four years on from Oasis." In those four years the Silk Road soundtracks had come out volume after volume and made his name across Japan. The obi does not count them. It counts from Oasis.

What it was getting at is on the back. The back of Oasis listed five instruments: Korg, Roland and Yamaha synthesizers, an acoustic guitar, percussion. The back of this one lists sixteen, and the only name above the list is Kitaro's.

Where it sits in the history of music

Kitaro's road is in Kitaro, where to start. The guide puts this record third. It is the peak of his Japanese years, and by this point you can hear how his pulse differs from Berlin's.

In between, briefly: The Silk Road made his name in 1980. For the NHK programme that saw in 1981, Yuku Toshi Kuru Toshi, he played a piece called "1 January 1981" from Nagano Prefecture, where he was living. In 1982 he scored the Toei animation Queen Millennia and made his first national tour, thirty cities. This record comes next.

Where it was made and who put it out had both changed. Oasis was recorded in the Kamakura workroom and released by Canyon. The back of this one reads "Kitaro Nagano Yasaka Atelier." Yasaka was a village in the north-west of Nagano Prefecture, folded into the city of Omachi in 2006. The label is Sound Design Records; the back of Oasis had already named Sound Design as the publisher of his music. The producer's name is the same on both.

One line in that list is worth stopping on. The Yamaha DX7 came out in 1983. The new machine of the year is already here. Next to it sits the Minimoog, and next to that a sitar, a santoor and a harp. Four years earlier he had filled a record with three makers' synthesizers, a guitar and some percussion. This time he brought everything within reach into the room.

Tracklist

Timings follow the 1984 Japanese CD. The 1983 LP differs by a few seconds here and there.

Three pieces, as they go

"Earth Born" (6:44). The opener. Its Japanese title, 「地球創成」, means the making of the earth. The record starts here, not with the title piece. Play the first piece of Oasis, "Rising Sun," and then this one straight after. Both run just over six and a half minutes and both set the stride of their records. What four years and a list grown from five instruments to sixteen changed is easiest to hear with the two side by side.

"Flying Cloud" (4:35). Second in line, the title piece, and the one the guide picked. Its Japanese title is the album's, 「飛雲」. As the guide says, what you hear here is less a method than a person. When it ends, try humming the melody once. If it comes out of you after four and a half minutes, you have heard what this record was for.

"Straight a Way to Orion" (7:26). The closer, and the longest. The Japanese title is simply 「オリオン」. Compare lengths here. The longest piece on Oasis ran just over eight minutes; here it is seven and a half, and most of the rest sit around five. Play the two longest pieces back to back and listen to how his way of spending a long stretch of time moved over four years.

The rest of the record

"Noah's Ark" (2:28) is the shortest thing here. It was the theme of a commercial for Sakura colour film, and the obi gives that fact a box of its own. It came out as a single the same year. A two-and-a-half-minute piece ended up as the record's calling card.

Read the other titles side by side. The English and the Japanese say different things. "Never Let You Go" is 「自由への旅立ち」 in Japanese, setting out for freedom. "Dreams Like Yesterday" is 「夢追い」, chasing a dream. "Panorama" is 「絵巻」, a picture scroll. "Return to Russia" is 「ロシアへの想い」, thoughts towards Russia. Go by the English alone and you miss half of it.

How to listen

• After Oasis. The guide's order, kept. The four years show when you hear the two records one after the other.
• In daylight. As the guide puts it, if Schulze is night, Kitaro is day.
• A side at a time. Side one is about twenty-two minutes, side two about twenty. Don't break a side.
• With the back of the sleeve open. Count how many of the sixteen you can pick out by ear. You won't get them all. That is how much one man piled up.

What happened next

The Japanese CD followed in March 1984. That year he became the first Japanese musician to play in Taiwan and China. In 1985 Geffen in the United States reissued six of his earlier albums, and this was one of the six. The next year came a worldwide deal with Geffen, and his stage moved to America. The guide's fourth record, Kojiki, sits at the far end of that move.

The one track to send a friend

Send "Flying Cloud". Say in advance that it runs four and a half minutes. Then add one line. The back of this record lists sixteen instruments, and the only name above them is Kitaro's. A sitar, a harp and a synthesizer that had just come out that year, all played by one man in a workroom in Nagano.

Where to get it

The Japanese Sound Design LP is the face of this record. Find one with its obi still on and you can see the commercial for yourself. The European Polydor LP from the same year has the same cover. On CD there is the 1984 Japanese edition and the 1985 Geffen.

AmazonKitaro Silver Cloud on CD and vinyl.DiscogsEvery pressing of Silver Cloud, from Sound Design 1342-17 in 1983.

Cloud drifts across a black sky, and under it a long-haired man bows his head. Four years earlier, someone else's hands were in that place.