The Bermuda Triangle - Isao Tomita

 

The Harp Of The Ancient People With Songs Of Venus And Space Children

The Visionary Flight To The 1448 Nebular Group Of The Bootes

The Bermuda Triangle

A Musical Fantasy Of Science Fiction

Art Direction: J. J. Stelmach

Cover Illustration: Don Punchatz

RCA Records Red Seal ARL1-2885 STEREO

1979

From the inside (gatefold) cover: All of Tomita's albums are sonic encounters – composers' musical inventions transcribed into sound colors incapable of being generated by conventional instruments. Yes, Tomita imitates with his electronic devices, but with the infinity of resources at his command he can blend into the musical fabric glittering threads of such sounds of nature as humans whistling, the wind rustling, insects humming, waterfalls, rain-from the whisper of a dragonfly's wing to the violent sounds of worlds torn asunder. Projecting such sounds into the musical world of great composers brings our perception into closer touch with their imagery.

And now Tomita has created THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. have no doubt that this is one of his greatest works.

Tomita weaves his own sonic inventions into excerpts of music by Prokofiev, Sibelius and John Williams to depict a science-fiction fantasy – a story at once plausible and imaginative, the details of which are largely elucidated in the mind when subjected to Tomita's sound. A storm rages in the ocean near Bermuda – the area of mysterious disappearances of many ships and aircraft, the dreaded Devil's Triangle. In the mist of the storm something approaches from the sky guided by an eerie signal from below the water. It is a craft from outer space – a UFO. The fantasy conjures up a giant pyramid built on the bottom of the sea by a super-civilized ancient people. They have contact with outer space and guide the UFO to the pyramid. The story unfolds through the moods of the music: Friendly encounter, exploration of the earth and sky, exchange of information, enjoyment of spatial cultures and finally revelation of the way to achieve a super dimension world. And we are left with sweet melody once more as the UFO departs into space-all of which we are drawn into and experience in our own fantasy, through the stimulus of sound.

Perhaps a new concept: Science Fiction in Sound. Through this can we overcome realistic daily life, our time and physical limitations and contact our fantasy-imagination? We can, and through that we can reach into limitless space, touch the super intellect, be any object or being and cast ourselves, all powerful, into the universe. – SAKYO KOMATSU Science-fiction author

For the past year I have struggled with a computer – a micro computer. I say "struggled" because a computer is beautifully precise, but I wanted to use it to produce musical results – in other words, as a musical instrument. How could this keyboard of only ten keys compare with that of a grand piano? But I came to realize that those ten keys could produce an almost limitless number of combinations, each of which is a signal that could determine a characteristic of sound: pitch, texture, attack time, duration, loudness. And the computer can be programmed to change any or all of these features with incredible speed.

The computer thus produces a sequence of signals that control the sound production of a synthesizer. It is something like millions of little hands rapidly changing all the synthesizer connections to produce a vast variety of sounds. My musical images must be coded by numbers to direct those hands to manipulate the synthesizer.

I build layers of sound by programming the computer. These are recorded one by one on separate tracks of a tape machine and finally all mixed together for the end result. I consider myself a sound animator, much the same as an animator of film cartoons.

I have used my computer in creating practically all the pieces contained in this album. It is made in Japan by Roland-Model MC-8 – and is perhaps the best in the world with regard to memory capacity and accuracy.

Although I cannot walk onto a stage and have the joy of struggling to perform my music before an audience. I struggle to select the right numbers on my computer to build a creative entity that displays my musical personality.

PYRAMID SOUND

This album is different from my others in that the master was recorded onto five tracks. Ideally, it should be heard through five speakers, four in the conventional rectangle and the fifth suspended above the center-thus a sonic pyramid. Although it is impossible to encode this onto a phonograph record, as much as possible of the five-channel effect has been incorporated into standard discs through the help of the engineering staff of Japan Victor.

A CODED MESSAGE

Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System. – ISAO TOMITA

SIDE A

A SPACE SHIP LANDS EMITTING SILVERY LIGHT (2:22) Tomita: The Arrival of a UFO

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES DESCEND (1:29) Prokofiev: "Romeo and Juliet" Suite No. 2- Montagues and Capulets"

A WORLD OF DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS (2:04) Sibelius: Valse triste

THE GIANT PYRAMID AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE (6:36) Prokofiev: Scythian Suite-The Adoration of Veles and Ala*

VENUS IN A SPACE UNIFORM SHINING IN FLUORESCENT LIGHT (5:15)
Williams: Close Encounters of the Third Kind+

SPACE CHILDREN IN THE UNDERGROUND KINGDOM CALLED AGHARTA (5:46)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5: Second Movement- Allegro marcato*

THE EARTH-A HOLLOW VESSEL (4:38) Tomita: Dororo

SIDE B

THE SONG OF VENUS (3:52)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1: First Movement- Andantino

DAWN OVER THE TRIANGLE AND MYSTERIOUS ELECTRIC WAVES (2:22)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6: First Movement-
Allegro moderato
Tomita: Computer Data Signals

THE DAZZLING CYLINDER THAT CRASHED IN TUNGUSKA, SIBERIA (7:28)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6: First Movement – Allegro moderato

THE HARP OF THE ANCIENT PEOPLE WITH SONGS OF VENUS AND SPACE CHILDREN (7:51)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1: Third Movement- Moderato; Allegro moderato

THE VISIONARY FLIGHT TO THE 1448 NEBULAR GROUP OF THE BOOTES (3:53)
Tomita: Departure of the UFO
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite: The Adoration of Veles and Ala* 

Yamamoto: Vocoder