Kitaro - In Person Digital (1980) German Reissue

I am not intimately familiar with the breadth of KITARO's work as part of FAR EAST FAMILY BAND in the 1970s or as a solo/collaborative artist since, but he occupies one of those inextirpable corridors of my memory thanks to this album. On some releases its full title is "In Person Digital", and so it was presented in its entirety on a French language radio station in Quebec City on a lonely summer evening in 1982. I must have known it would be special because I recorded it all on cassette, eventually buying the LP. It might have mesmerized me more then than it would the modern listener today, but it might just be a work of widespread emotional resonance, an impassioned breakthrough for a release so dominated by electronica.

"Prologue" could be lifted from the intro to any number of earlier TANGERINE DREAM albums, an amorphous brew that passes barely filtered into "Eternal Spring". It is only halfway through this track that we realize the artists will actually play distinguishable notes, and very distinguished they are. One hypnotic sequence on a synth that sounds like a keyboard is overlaid by a counter melody on another synth. A far eastern flair is discerned but not forcibly so. As the exercise fades out, in fades "Westbound", certainly the most powerful piece here if not in the entire Kitaro discography. It too has a Tangerine Dream-esque feel with rhythmic keyboards and real percussion volleying back and forth, losing themselves in each others' auras, while exquisite violin contributions by Yasuo Kojima could induce goosebumps on a duck. As an aside, one of the Kitaro "Silk Road" albums contains a piece with the same title that sounds nothing like it. The laconic melody of "Silver Moon" is sometimes called "Silk Road" on other Kitaro releases. I'm really not trying to confuse you! It's also one track that uses mellotron, of the choral variety. "Peace" again accentuates violin with an appealing musical box accompaniment that craftily re-imagines some of the themes of "Westbound".

On the original LP, side 2 began in much the way of side 1, with an extended atmospheric piece. However, it more closely resembles some of MIKE OLDFIELD's work on "Incantations" than what came before. By this point it's quite clear that KITARO is a master of many trades, among them compilation and editing. When the mist clears and "Morning Prayer" emerges, its impact is not quite as arresting as on side 1, but just as well executed. "Tienshan" is similar but superior, with the lead synths sounding more like moogs, raspy and bubbly. At the end of the interlude-like "Four Changes", we hear birdsong, which fades into the opening acoustic guitar chords of the epic "Magical Sand Dancing". Taking his cue from the earlier electronic wizards, the integration of acoustic guitar augments the already ponderous mood with another dimension in reflection. while the weeping synths are reminiscent of TOMITA himself.

Without a whisper of audience sound, "In Person Digital" is KITARO's private concert to fans, to each and every one in their living room, dorm room, dedicated home theatres, yoga studio, or monasteries. I utilize the religious reference to imply levels of spirituality I can't fathom but know are there. Indeed, if Kitaro is the master of anything, and I think he is, it is of parlaying electronica into spiritual vision with authenticity. Your attendance is recommended.

Review by kenethlevine, ProgArchives.com

I, as of this writing, only have three Kitaro albums, Ki, My Best, and this one, In Person. In Person was performed in September, 1980 in Tokyo and it comes to proves that Kitaro was just as capable live as he was in the studio. Many of the songs from The Silk Road and Oasis are unsurprisingliy performed. He had some other guys help him out on keyboards, guitar, violin, and drums, and perhaps the most noteworthy guy is none other than Ryo Okumoto. This guy would later find fame in the 1990s with the American prog rock band Spock's Beard, a band (along with Sweden's Anglagard) responsible for giving the sagging prog rock scene a boost in the '90s. He appeared on all the Spock's Beard albums aside from their debut, The Light. But while his keyboarding on Spock's Beard was much more in the style of Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman or Tony Banks, on this album, he pretty much sticks to Kitaro's style, making it really difficult to determine which keyboards were Kitaro's, and which were Okumoto's, mainly additional musicians were here because Kitaro often overdubbed his instruments in the studio and would be next to impossible to duplicate what he did in the studio live if it weren't the help of additional musicians (much like Jean Michel Jarre needing the help of Dominique Perrier and others when he performed live).

Perhaps the biggest surprise in regards to Kitaro was he still had the sense to use Mellotron in the early 1980s when other electronic and prog rock artists (like Tangerine Dream, The Moody Blues, Genesis) had pretty much given up on the tron by the end of the '70s.

Also to let you know In Person Digital, although a live album, did not feature any audience cheers between cuts, I have no idea if they were edited out, but I am willing to believe so (Tim Blake, ex-Gong member, also recorded an album of electronic music live called Crystal Machine and it too had the audience cheers removed).

Although I am not a fan of New Age, tending to go for the more progressive end of electronic music (like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Jean Michel Jarre), Kitaro at least did an excellent job at New Age and this album is pack with some really pleasant music, and if you enjoy Kitaro make sure you get a copy of this album.

Review by Benjamin Miler, Amazon.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 2. April 2009, 12:02

Kitaro / In Person Digital

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22NP20 Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 102
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 9:55.30 | 0 | 44654
2 | 9:55.30 | 3:57.20 | 44655 | 62449
3 | 13:52.50 | 3:45.50 | 62450 | 79374
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8 | 28:56.00 | 4:22.60 | 130200 | 149909
9 | 33:18.60 | 3:16.35 | 149910 | 164644
10 | 36:35.20 | 9:29.27 | 164645 | 207346


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Track 8

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Track 10

Filename J:\Torrent\Out\New Age\Lossless\Kitaro\Kitaro - In Person Digital\10 - Magical sand dancing .wav

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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

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End of status report

[CUETools log; Date: 23.01.2019 2:49:38; Version: 2.1.4]
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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2019-01-22 22:18:24

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Kitaro / In Person Digital
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -4.21 dB -23.68 dB 9:55 01-Prologue
DR13 -0.58 dB -16.51 dB 3:57 02-Eternal spring
DR10 -9.84 dB -24.76 dB 3:46 03-Westbound
DR12 -6.72 dB -25.37 dB 3:13 04-Silver moon
DR13 -31.11 dB -50.47 dB 0:45 05-Peace
DR11 -7.84 dB -23.13 dB 4:05 06-Bell tower
DR11 -9.20 dB -22.67 dB 3:15 07-Morning Prayer
DR11 -4.30 dB -17.79 dB 4:23 08-Tienshan
DR12 -7.22 dB -22.28 dB 3:16 09-Four changes
DR12 -0.29 dB -16.92 dB 9:29 10-Magical sand dancing
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 761 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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