A Down Beat review said that " Silk Road is seductive and intoxicating, forming a musical veil with the translucency of Japanese rice paper" but criticized compositional weaknesses. Perhaps Kitaro's best-known and most representative work is contained in the Silk Road albums which were drawn from the soundtrack music for a long-running Japanese television series. However, among the romantic cosmic feelings that Kitaro evokes is a sense of deja vu. His Asian melodies bolstered by thickly layered harmonies, are tinged with melancholy. Kitaro bends synthesizer technology in strangely delicate ways, obtaining a nuance of expression that few can match. A 1987 Audio review of the album Tenku stated: "Now, more than a dozen albums later, Kitaro is still doing it. Relaxing music with a spiritual flair is what many listeners turn to New Age music for, but there is a danger if the artist does not evidence some level of progression. He signed to the Domo label in the mid-1990s. Kitaro signed with Geffen Records in 1986, which gave him the American exposure he needed. Kitaro's albums, originally only available as expensive Japanese imports, were released on the German Kuckuck label and in the United States on Gramavision during the 1980s. Other times, it sounds like music from terra firma, an electronic flute singing to the cascading waves of the ocean. USA Today reported that the bank recreated what Kitaro calls "impressionistic music" or "sound pictures." At times his show, like his records, is cosmic, almost like a science fiction soundtrack, with high-decibel sparkling tones. The touring band consisted of seven musicians, with Kitaro matching his banks of synthesizers against two other keyboardists and a guitarist, violinist, drummer, and percussionist. His first American tour, which began in the fall of 1987, attracted listeners of all ages and lifestyles. Ten years and about a dozen albums later, the United States was ready for Kitaro. In 1977 he released his first solo album, Ten Kai-Astral Trip. I wonder 'Whose song is this?' I write my songs, but they are not my songs." I don't read or write music, but my fingers move. "It is from heaven, going through my body and out my fingers through composing. "This music is not from my mind," he told Rolling Stone. He gives credit for his creations to a power beyond himself. Although he took on the trappings of conversion, he claims that his main purpose was to learn chanting and music for meditation. In the mid-1970s Kitaro lived at the ashram of free-love guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. When the time came for me to go solo, it wasn't a dramatic change or departure, but rather a natural progression of the expression of the deep inner self." "I feel that the music pursued was more inwardly directed," Kitaro told Down Beat. German synthesizer wizard Klaus Schulze produced two albums by the group: Nipponjin and Parallel World. His introduction to the synthesizer came in 1970 when he worked with the Far East Family Band. His given name is Masanori Takahashi, but he took the stage name Kitaro, which means "man of joy and love." His first instrument was acoustic guitar, and he lists the Beatles and British progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd and King Crimson among his influences. I looked for guile and found utter guilessness." Kitaro has a childlike demeanor that is disarming. But as Diliberto expresses it: "The problem is, he is innocent. I think it is the same thing for humans." No innocent humility here. After one week, the flower in front of my music is bending towards the speaker, the other one is dead. On one side came loud music, on the other side came my music. I took two speakers and in front of each I placed a flower. As he told John Diliberto in Down Beat: "The sound has a power for humans, for nature. But he embraces the philosophy that this style of music reaches to our hearts, that it can uplift us to a spiritual peace, and that music can heal. Is it enhanced elevator music or the harkening sound of the New Age? The category New Age came along after 1977, when Kitaro began releasing his long list of successful solo albums. Surrounded by banks of synthesizer keyboards, Kitaro eases out a seamless thread of flowing, melodic sounds. Olympic Blvd., Suite 270, Los Angeles, CA 90064, website. Addresses: Record company-Domo Records, 11340 W. Born Masanori Takahashi on February 4, 1953, in Toyohashi, Japan.