Goro Ohmi - A forgotten Japanese legend
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Suggest New Bands and Artists
Forum Description: Suggest, create polls, and classify new bands you would like included on Prog Archives
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=134239
Printed Date: January 17 2025 at 15:52
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Goro Ohmi - A forgotten Japanese legend
Posted By: KorgC3
Subject: Goro Ohmi - A forgotten Japanese legend
Date Posted: January 17 2025 at 01:34
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A composer that fairly obscure in the west, but is considered to be an important synth pioneer and a somewhat influential composer in his local scene.  His career traces back to the 70s with a solo project called Minotaurus, that's most known for the collaboration with the band known as BACH REVOLUTION, producing a NJPW associated music with them. In the 80s by association with the novelist Kaoru Kurimoto he started composing concept albums associated with the long running high fantasy novel-series Guin Saga.This was quite possibly the longest musical project of his lasting until the late 90s. In the meanwhile he produced a number of soundtracks, mainly for TV shows like Silver Fang, Pygmalio as well as the live-action special effects show (Tokusatsu in Japan) Hikari Sentai Masukuman. At some point he was even contracted by Disney to compose an exclusive cover album called Disney Strings Fantasy 2. His best works in my opinion are still nonetheless associated with his Guin Saga concept albums, of which there are twelve, and they're all quite different. The early albums are mostly synth centric, somewhat reminiscent of classical music, JRPG soundtracks (before they were a thing), with some Jazz influence and occasional splashes of odd time signatures. There are occasional rock tracks, but they aren't as prominent in his early albums as in his latter ones, which became almost entirely band centric, drawing influences mainly from the likes of ELP and UK. Some albums, such as “Iris no Ishi,” took a more experimental approach, using odd synthesized sounds, taking the music in a more ambient direction, and incorporating ethnic motifs reminiscent of Indonesian, Tebetan, and Middle Eastern music. There is even a single fully operatic album called "Honoo no Gunzou". Another interesting feature of his Guin Saga albums is how Goro is creating "themes" and then references and adopts some of them throughout all of the albums, similarly to how it would've been done in a more traditional soundtrack for a game or a movie. His influence is most apparent on Japanese VGM composers, especially ones associated RPG's like Uematsu, Mitsuda and Shimamura. Given the obsession game directors like of Sakaguchi and Kitase had with Guin Saga, Amano's association with Guin Saga, and Uematsu's own latter involvement with it, It's most likely that Goro Ohmi was was in fact a no lesser influence on him than the likes of ELP and King Crimson. Goro Ohmi is the "missing link" between 70s prog rock and classically inspired synth soundtrack music. Some sources on the subject of Goro's early history: http://archive.org/details/history-of-japs-progressive-rock-1970-1990" rel="nofollow - History of Japanese Progressive Rock on Archive His listed catalogue on VGMDB: http://vgmdb.net/artist/10114" rel="nofollow - https://vgmdb.net/artist/10114 P.S. 1.It's also important to mention that most of his albums aren't available on Youtube or any other musical platforms. They're still available for physical purchase. Digital rips of these albums exist as-well, but I wont link them here. 2.I might've been somewhat vague on the subject, so to clarify the Guin Saga albums are concept album on which he had full creative control, and not "soundtracks" in a traditional sense. I could draw a parallel to the https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=9192" rel="nofollow - Harmagedon Story albums by NOVELA. Albums inspired/associated with fairly recent novels were quite a common trend in the Japanese music scene during that time. 3.I also noticed that BACH REVOLUTION isn't on progarchives either. A notable moment in their career was the collaboration with Hirasawa's Mandrake. Might be worth considering adding it as-well.
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Replies:
Posted By: Mirakaze
Date Posted: January 17 2025 at 13:20
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Thank you for the suggestion and for all the information! Which subgenre of prog do you think his music would fit in best? ------------- https://mirasnelder.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow - Freelance composer, accepting commissions | https://mirasnelder.bandcamp.com/album/altered-acuity" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp page |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: January 17 2025 at 13:31
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Progressive Electronic. Some of his Synth New Age characteristics might be likened to fellow Nihon-jin Kitaro. He has no shortage of music on youtube by the way. here is his rateyourmusic page: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/%E6%B7%A1%E6%B5%B7%E6%82%9F%E9%83%8E" rel="nofollow - https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/%E6%B7%A1%E6%B5%B7%E6%82%9F%E9%83%8E |