Biography
A trailblazing percussionist and composer, Stomu Yamashta earned recognition for fusing jazz-rock, classical forms, and traditional Japanese percussion in distinctive ways. After beginning his career in Japan during the 1960s, he attracted international notice through releases such as 1972's Floating Music and 1974's One by One, along with projects involving his Go ensemble alongside Steve Winwood, Klaus Schulze, and additional musicians. He established the progressive Red Buddha Theatre company and composed scores for films directed by Akira Kurosawa, Nicolas Roeg, and Robert Altman. Inventor of the stone percussion instrument known as the Sanukit, Yamashta later explored ambient, environment-inspired music on albums including 1985's Sea & Sky, the Solar Dream series, and 2001's Listen to the Future, Vol. 1. He joined forces with Ragnhildur Gísladóttir and Sjón on 2006's Bergmál and issued the atmospheric Purple in 2017.
Born Tsutomu Yamashita in Kyoto, Japan, in 1947, Yamashta was raised in a musical household headed by his father, director of the Kyoto Asahi Philharmonic. A prodigy, he began piano studies at age five and chose percussion as his primary instrument by age nine. He entered the Kyoto Academy of Music in 1960 and soon performed professionally with both the Osaka Philharmonic and the Kyoto Asahi Philharmonic. Filmmakers took notice as well; Akira Kurosawa engaged him for the soundtrack of the 1961 film Yojimbo, and he also appeared on Akira Ifukube's score for the 1963 film Tale of Zatoichi. The next year he moved to New York City on a full scholarship to Juilliard, where jazz captured his interest, prompting a transfer to Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy and later enrollment at Berklee College of Music in Boston to complete his training. Throughout this period he performed under the name Stomu Yamashta with figures such as Hans Werner Henze, Thor Johnson, and Toru Takemitsu. In 1969 he gained wider visibility in a prominent concert with Seiji Ozawa and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
During the early 1970s Yamashta launched his Red Buddha Theatre company in Japan before relocating the ensemble to Europe, where he partnered with British composer and conductor Peter Maxwell Davies on numerous multimedia presentations in London and Paris. The group was featured on the 1971 album Red Buddha. Additional film contributions included work on Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth starring David Bowie, Peter Maxwell Davies' score for Ken Russell's The Devils, and John Williams' score for Robert Altman's Images. Around the same time he asserted himself as an ambitious instrumentalist through albums such as 1971's Floating Music, 1973's The Man from the East, and 1974's One by One, which merged jazz, classical, and fusion-rock elements with Japanese, Latin, and broader global traditions. He channeled this cross-cultural approach into the ensemble Stomu Yamashta's Go, which debuted with the 1976 album Go featuring Steve Winwood and Santana co-founder Michael Shrieve; a concert recording, Go Live from Paris, followed that year, succeeded by 1977's Go Too.
By the early 1980s Yamashta had returned to Japan to reassess his artistic path and developed the Sanukit, a hybrid piano-and-percussion stone instrument. Subsequent releases leaned toward ambient and new-age textures, among them the synth-driven 1985 album Sea & Sky, the three-volume Solar Dream project of the 1990s, and 1999's A Desire of Beauty and Wonder of Stone, Pt. 1. Although his output slowed during the 2000s, he stayed active with 2001's Listen to the Future, Vol. 1 and the 2006 collaboration Bergmál alongside Icelandic artists Ragnhildur Gísladóttir and Sjón, returning in 2017 with the expansive, classically inflected Purple.
Born Tsutomu Yamashita in Kyoto, Japan, in 1947, Yamashta was raised in a musical household headed by his father, director of the Kyoto Asahi Philharmonic. A prodigy, he began piano studies at age five and chose percussion as his primary instrument by age nine. He entered the Kyoto Academy of Music in 1960 and soon performed professionally with both the Osaka Philharmonic and the Kyoto Asahi Philharmonic. Filmmakers took notice as well; Akira Kurosawa engaged him for the soundtrack of the 1961 film Yojimbo, and he also appeared on Akira Ifukube's score for the 1963 film Tale of Zatoichi. The next year he moved to New York City on a full scholarship to Juilliard, where jazz captured his interest, prompting a transfer to Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy and later enrollment at Berklee College of Music in Boston to complete his training. Throughout this period he performed under the name Stomu Yamashta with figures such as Hans Werner Henze, Thor Johnson, and Toru Takemitsu. In 1969 he gained wider visibility in a prominent concert with Seiji Ozawa and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
During the early 1970s Yamashta launched his Red Buddha Theatre company in Japan before relocating the ensemble to Europe, where he partnered with British composer and conductor Peter Maxwell Davies on numerous multimedia presentations in London and Paris. The group was featured on the 1971 album Red Buddha. Additional film contributions included work on Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth starring David Bowie, Peter Maxwell Davies' score for Ken Russell's The Devils, and John Williams' score for Robert Altman's Images. Around the same time he asserted himself as an ambitious instrumentalist through albums such as 1971's Floating Music, 1973's The Man from the East, and 1974's One by One, which merged jazz, classical, and fusion-rock elements with Japanese, Latin, and broader global traditions. He channeled this cross-cultural approach into the ensemble Stomu Yamashta's Go, which debuted with the 1976 album Go featuring Steve Winwood and Santana co-founder Michael Shrieve; a concert recording, Go Live from Paris, followed that year, succeeded by 1977's Go Too.
By the early 1980s Yamashta had returned to Japan to reassess his artistic path and developed the Sanukit, a hybrid piano-and-percussion stone instrument. Subsequent releases leaned toward ambient and new-age textures, among them the synth-driven 1985 album Sea & Sky, the three-volume Solar Dream project of the 1990s, and 1999's A Desire of Beauty and Wonder of Stone, Pt. 1. Although his output slowed during the 2000s, he stayed active with 2001's Listen to the Future, Vol. 1 and the 2006 collaboration Bergmál alongside Icelandic artists Ragnhildur Gísladóttir and Sjón, returning in 2017 with the expansive, classically inflected Purple.
Albums
