Search - Stomu Yamashta :: Sea & Sky

One of his better outings

L. S. Slaughter | Chapel Hill, NC | 03/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I discovered Stomu Yamashta in Nic Roeg's film "The Man Who Fell to Earth" in which the stellar 'Wind Words' is featured repeatedly (the love scene, notably). This CD, Sea and Sky, appears to be the only thing by Stomu that is in print on CD, which is a travesty on behalf of Island Records (wouldn't be their first gaffe, either).SEA AND SKY is much like IROHA and IROHA-KA, two follow up pieces from the early 80s that worked symphonically. This builds slow, and morphs into a lovely resolution. Stomu employs synth sounds and percussion remains his forte, although he uses it sparingly on this LP, as well as on IROHA and IROHA-KA. This is a cut WAY above most so-called new age music, Stomu was dabbling in Zen melodies way before any other pop artist put on the new-age drag to sell records in a niche. Stomu did some more space-pop CDs with Stevie Winwood and a crowd of rock and jazz players on Arista in 1976 and 1977, GO and GO TOO, both of which had brilliant moments. I gather the bean counters have eliminated those from the reissue roster, too (gotta keep Whitney in cash, I s'pose - to hell with art).Stomu also did the great soundtrack to Paul Mazursky's wildly uneven film of 1982 called TEMPEST on Casablanca records, which included a shorter version of "Wind Words" and "Nature". If you can find a used vinyl copy of that, then snap it up.FREEDOM IS FRIGHTENING remains his best disc to my ears, as it includes the paralyzingly gorgeous "Wind Words"."

Wishing for Wind Words

RioVistaCA | Rio Vista, CA, USA | 09/20/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like a previous reviewer I was entranced by the beautiful simplicity of "Wind Words" on the "Freedom is Frightening" album. I still have it on vinyl, but would really like to hear it on a CD or DVD-Audio. I remember the patterns that it [the last track on the disk] threw in the light as the disk span. Happy Days. :-)I found these reviews after hearing it again on "The Man Who Fell To Earth". It's still marvellous after all these years. "Sea & Sky" was inspired and well worth adding to a collection. Let's hope they'll release "Freedom is Frightening" on a digital medium.Leon"

Soul music

Julian Boyce | Singapore, - Singapore | 04/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Guess what, Stomu Yamashta was into new age before anyone had even heard of new age (except Paul Horn and Steve Hillage, perhaps). If you have only heard this Yamashta album you are in for a real treat. May I suggest you check out Live in Paris first. It has numerous guest musicians including the best guitar solo EVER (Crossing the Line with Al Dimeola). I just wish his work could still be found in good music stores where everyone could just 'stumble' across it; and not only 'intellectually discovered' on the internet. Just think of all those billions of people out there, who yearn for 'oceans of energy' in their music and who would fall in love with Stomu's food for the soul...if only they knew of him! So whoever you are and whoever you know, stop those people by your cd player, turn on Stomu and: Play him, Play him, Play him!"