Saturday 28 June 2014

Silk Road Theme (Kitarō 喜多郎, 1980)

This is not exactly prog rock, I know that, but there are meny reasons to put it here nonetheless. Firstly, this was a highly inspirational track for many prog bands and artists over there. Secondly, the Japanese Kitarō, soon after the huge success of the first O.S.T. album of the documentary series The Silk Road: The Rise And Fall Of Civilizations featuring this main theme, promoted a third way solution between new age music and progressive rock. He did it alone, with symphonic orchestras and also with rock musicians like Jon Anderson of Yes or MIckey Hart of Grateful Dead.

This was the first of two "Silk Road" O.S.T. albums.

Finally, this is one of the greatest "minimoog songs" I've ever listened to, featuring a sweet, Eastern melody, a brilliant arrangement and a dreamy mood not so far from prog bands such as Camel. In short, each time I come across this song, I reverently stop and I take a deep breath of pure spirit. That's why I'm proud to include Kitarō among the bunch of musicians gracing my little blog.

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