AQi Fzono
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese composer, synthesizer
musician and electronic music
artist. The translunary and hybrid sound of his synthesizer/electronic music that fuses trance
, techno
, ambient
, progressive rock
and classical music, and his spacey and vast-scaled instrumental electronic music album series that project a visual atmosphere has an international following. He is also known as an innovator of groundbreaking musical methodologies "Synthesizer Symphony" that links "Symphobient", "Symphonic techno
", and "Sci-fi music". Also known as one of the pioneering few of trance music
in Asia
.
and grown in Yokohama
, Japan
.He Started learning piano at the age of four and began composing at six. Fzono later studied Western Classical music (harmony
, counterpoint
, orchestration
) and Eastern traditional music under composers Toshiro Mayuzumi
and Toru Takemitsu
.At the age of eleven, Fzono became interested in Synthesizers and started creating Electronic Music
and Musique Concrete
works. In 1985, at the age of sixteen, Fzono organized Etherophonic Orchestra, which is regarded as the first symphonic ensemble totally by electronic musical instruments in the Orient
. He composed some Contemporary Classical music and avant-garde tunes for this ensemble, and held concerts in some places and conducted by himself.
Around the same time, he started playing in a Psychedelic rock
band Midara Gokoro (means ”Lecherous-minded” in old Japanese).
In 1987 – 1991 Fzono stayed in Europe
(mainly in West Germany
) and studied under composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
and Mauricio Kagel
. Later Fzono learned History of Art, Aesthetics
, Philosophy and Mysticism
in Cologne
, Munich
and Berlin
. Later he learned Zen
in Japan
.
, he formed an Trance music
Unit Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
with various musicians and performers, and held a series of live performances titled Multimedia Visionquest that featured Trance music
and ethnic music, video drug, dancers, open fire etc. in New York
. After releasing the two albums “Mars Botanical Garden” (1988) and “Unexplored Region” (1994). (These USA albums were released under the name "Aurora Heads", however some parts of Europe and Asia, they were released under the original name "Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
".)
In the Summer of 1988, he and the members of Midara Gokoro went to London
and encountered an Acid House
movement called Second Summer of Love
, and changed the band name to Far East Acid House Quartet, making a fresh start. They played mainly in the underground scenes and were regarded as one of the first Rave
bands in Asia. AQi Fzono played synthesizers, keyboards, Theremin
etc. Fzono was the leader of the band at the beginning, and became known as a rare pioneer of Acid House
, psychedelic trance
, Goa Trance
and Rave party in Japan. In 1997, the band broke up due to the unfortunate deaths of the two members, Kaworu Ichikawa and Elisa Tajima.
island, and released it from Nerve Nets Records in New York. In 1990, his second album Echoes was released. This album with an underlying theme of expressing mystic aura of the woods as if peering through a microscope has translunary and visual sound created with analog synthesizers and vintage keyboards over classical orchestration
. This sound was named “Symphobient” (short for Symphonic Ambient
. One theory holds that it is a short for Psychic and psychedelic
Symphonic-poem Ambient). Also, this is the first album to carry a subtitle “Synthesizer Symphony”. The term Synthesizer Symphony was created by AQi Fzono, and was used as a subtitle for his solo album series. In Ruins released in 1993, a day of one nameless young hippie was portrayed with day suite-style dreaming music. In Cathedral released in 1995, the transcendental hallucinatory images were portrayed musically by cross-fertilizing the elements of Classical music (mainly Church music
and Gregorian chants) and Techno
/Psychedelic Trance
(Goa Trance
) with a touch of Eastern ancient-time music feel. Echoes, Ruins and Cathedral are called the Symphobient Trilogy. The signature sound of Symphobient is generated by fusing many different types of music including Dark ambient
, House
, Space Rock
, Psychedelic Trance
, Trip hop
, Atmospheric New Age
, Musique Concrete
, Western Classical music, and Eastern ancient-time music, creating the psychedelic
visual sensations. The term Symphobient is more than just an amalgamation of “symphonic” and “ambient”.
, Rock
, Ambient, and Church music
using the Classical music orchestration
techniques. The incomparable arrangement of the music and the graphically appealing sound that can be called “Electronica
Symphonic poem
” has been named as Symphonic Techno
, and was well-received by not only Techno
/Dance music
listeners but also Progressive rock
and Classical music listeners.
The term “Symphonic Techno
” is said to have been created originally to indicate the one and only sound of this album. Also, later in the same year of the release of Cosmology, he defined his unique music style as “Sci-fi music”. “Cosmology” is a world’s first album that “Syntheremin
” (Theremin
with the functions of synthesizer
– invented by AQi Fzono) was featured.
After a five year interval, he released an epic album Chronicle (2003). The theme of this majestic album was to express the eternal time of the world history from the Creation to the present day. This symphonic poem
-like album featured the wide range of sound elements including orchestra
, choir
, soprano
solo, traditional musical instruments of Japan
and China
. He has acquired the copyright of his past albums (most of them are currently out of print) originally released from Nerve Nets Records, and has begun making the digital remaster of those albums from the original multi-track tapes. The first of the remaster series Cosmology, one of his most popular solo albums, was released in 2006.
In 2007, Celebrating 20 years of making music, AQi Fzono released his first Best Hit / Club Remix album Trance-Rave Cosmology (AQi Fzono with Trance-Rave Daughters). Including the selected and signature tunes from AQi Fzono’s previous solo albums, “Far East Acid House Quartet” and “Aurora Heads” (Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
), this album showcases AQi Fzono’s club hits. Space DJ Ryo (ex-Far East Acid House Quartet), DJ Spiral Groove, Hypnotic Twin and other guest remixers have shaped those 13 tunes into the brand new club remixes. Also included is an original new tune “Japanese Zippie Youth” featuring hard Breakbeats.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese composer, synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
musician and electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
artist. The translunary and hybrid sound of his synthesizer/electronic music that fuses trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and classical music, and his spacey and vast-scaled instrumental electronic music album series that project a visual atmosphere has an international following. He is also known as an innovator of groundbreaking musical methodologies "Synthesizer Symphony" that links "Symphobient", "Symphonic techno
Symphonic Techno
Symphonic techno represents the integrated, non-genre, and progressive instrumental electronic music that interfuses the different elements of electronic dance music such as techno, ambient, drum’n’bass with progressive rock, neo-classical music using the classical orchestration techniques.This...
", and "Sci-fi music". Also known as one of the pioneering few of trance music
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
Formative years
Fzono was born in 1969 in KyotoKyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
and grown in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.He Started learning piano at the age of four and began composing at six. Fzono later studied Western Classical music (harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
) and Eastern traditional music under composers Toshiro Mayuzumi
Toshiro Mayuzumi
Toshiro Mayuzumi was a Japanese composer.-Biography:...
and Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
.At the age of eleven, Fzono became interested in Synthesizers and started creating Electronic Music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and Musique Concrete
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
works. In 1985, at the age of sixteen, Fzono organized Etherophonic Orchestra, which is regarded as the first symphonic ensemble totally by electronic musical instruments in the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
. He composed some Contemporary Classical music and avant-garde tunes for this ensemble, and held concerts in some places and conducted by himself.
Around the same time, he started playing in a Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band Midara Gokoro (means ”Lecherous-minded” in old Japanese).
In 1987 – 1991 Fzono stayed in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
(mainly in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
) and studied under composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
. Later Fzono learned History of Art, Aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, Philosophy and Mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Later he learned Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Early works and band activities
In 1989 when Fzono stayed in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, he formed an Trance music
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
Unit Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
with various musicians and performers, and held a series of live performances titled Multimedia Visionquest that featured Trance music
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
and ethnic music, video drug, dancers, open fire etc. in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. After releasing the two albums “Mars Botanical Garden” (1988) and “Unexplored Region” (1994). (These USA albums were released under the name "Aurora Heads", however some parts of Europe and Asia, they were released under the original name "Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
".)
In the Summer of 1988, he and the members of Midara Gokoro went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and encountered an Acid House
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
movement called Second Summer of Love
Second Summer of Love
The Second Summer of Love is a name given to the period in 1988-89 in Britain, during the rise of acid house music and the euphoric explosion of unlicensed MDMA -fuelled rave parties...
, and changed the band name to Far East Acid House Quartet, making a fresh start. They played mainly in the underground scenes and were regarded as one of the first Rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
bands in Asia. AQi Fzono played synthesizers, keyboards, Theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
etc. Fzono was the leader of the band at the beginning, and became known as a rare pioneer of Acid House
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
, psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance. The genre offers variety...
, Goa Trance
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
and Rave party in Japan. In 1997, the band broke up due to the unfortunate deaths of the two members, Kaworu Ichikawa and Elisa Tajima.
Solo career – Symphobient Trilogy
In parallel with those band activities and the series of sound experimentations, he began creating his solo works. In 1988, he recorded his first solo album Phosphorescence (under the name of Siamese Twin, out of print) while he was staying in IbizaIbiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
island, and released it from Nerve Nets Records in New York. In 1990, his second album Echoes was released. This album with an underlying theme of expressing mystic aura of the woods as if peering through a microscope has translunary and visual sound created with analog synthesizers and vintage keyboards over classical orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
. This sound was named “Symphobient” (short for Symphonic Ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
. One theory holds that it is a short for Psychic and psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
Symphonic-poem Ambient). Also, this is the first album to carry a subtitle “Synthesizer Symphony”. The term Synthesizer Symphony was created by AQi Fzono, and was used as a subtitle for his solo album series. In Ruins released in 1993, a day of one nameless young hippie was portrayed with day suite-style dreaming music. In Cathedral released in 1995, the transcendental hallucinatory images were portrayed musically by cross-fertilizing the elements of Classical music (mainly Church music
Church music
Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. This article covers music in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For sacred music outside this...
and Gregorian chants) and Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
/Psychedelic Trance
Psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance. The genre offers variety...
(Goa Trance
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
) with a touch of Eastern ancient-time music feel. Echoes, Ruins and Cathedral are called the Symphobient Trilogy. The signature sound of Symphobient is generated by fusing many different types of music including Dark ambient
Dark ambient
Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology...
, House
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, Space Rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
, Psychedelic Trance
Psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance. The genre offers variety...
, Trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
, Atmospheric New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
, Musique Concrete
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, Western Classical music, and Eastern ancient-time music, creating the psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
visual sensations. The term Symphobient is more than just an amalgamation of “symphonic” and “ambient”.
Creation of Symphonic Techno: Transcendence of Time and Space
In his last album of the 20th century Cosmology (1998), he tackled the monumental theme of “transcending time and space” by uniting TechnoTechno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, Rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, Ambient, and Church music
Church music
Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. This article covers music in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For sacred music outside this...
using the Classical music orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
techniques. The incomparable arrangement of the music and the graphically appealing sound that can be called “Electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
Symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
” has been named as Symphonic Techno
Symphonic Techno
Symphonic techno represents the integrated, non-genre, and progressive instrumental electronic music that interfuses the different elements of electronic dance music such as techno, ambient, drum’n’bass with progressive rock, neo-classical music using the classical orchestration techniques.This...
, and was well-received by not only Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
/Dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
listeners but also Progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and Classical music listeners.
The term “Symphonic Techno
Symphonic Techno
Symphonic techno represents the integrated, non-genre, and progressive instrumental electronic music that interfuses the different elements of electronic dance music such as techno, ambient, drum’n’bass with progressive rock, neo-classical music using the classical orchestration techniques.This...
” is said to have been created originally to indicate the one and only sound of this album. Also, later in the same year of the release of Cosmology, he defined his unique music style as “Sci-fi music”. “Cosmology” is a world’s first album that “Syntheremin
Syntheremin
Syntheremin is a portmanteau of “Synthesizer” and “Theremin”, and an original musical instrument that a Japanese composer AQi Fzono conceived and invented with the cooperation of a Japanese engineer Michio Kurahashi in 1995...
” (Theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
with the functions of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
– invented by AQi Fzono) was featured.
After a five year interval, he released an epic album Chronicle (2003). The theme of this majestic album was to express the eternal time of the world history from the Creation to the present day. This symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
-like album featured the wide range of sound elements including orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
solo, traditional musical instruments of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. He has acquired the copyright of his past albums (most of them are currently out of print) originally released from Nerve Nets Records, and has begun making the digital remaster of those albums from the original multi-track tapes. The first of the remaster series Cosmology, one of his most popular solo albums, was released in 2006.
In 2007, Celebrating 20 years of making music, AQi Fzono released his first Best Hit / Club Remix album Trance-Rave Cosmology (AQi Fzono with Trance-Rave Daughters). Including the selected and signature tunes from AQi Fzono’s previous solo albums, “Far East Acid House Quartet” and “Aurora Heads” (Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory
Psychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
), this album showcases AQi Fzono’s club hits. Space DJ Ryo (ex-Far East Acid House Quartet), DJ Spiral Groove, Hypnotic Twin and other guest remixers have shaped those 13 tunes into the brand new club remixes. Also included is an original new tune “Japanese Zippie Youth” featuring hard Breakbeats.
Inventions
AQi Fzono has devised and invented several new terms, concepts, genres, as well as original musical instruments in order to describe his one and only music style and his new compositional methodologies. Those include as follows:- Synthesizer Symphony (he originally called it “Electronic Acid Symphony”)
- Symphonic TechnoSymphonic TechnoSymphonic techno represents the integrated, non-genre, and progressive instrumental electronic music that interfuses the different elements of electronic dance music such as techno, ambient, drum’n’bass with progressive rock, neo-classical music using the classical orchestration techniques.This...
(or “Symphonic Acid”) - Symphobient
Instruments
Throughout his recording works AQi Fzono uses several unusual or custom instruments. Those include:- DoepferDoepferDoepfer Musikelektronik GmbH is a manufacturer of audio hardware based in Gräfelfing, Germany, founded by Dieter Döpfer.The product range covers analog modular systems, MIDI controller, MIDI hardware sequencers, MIDI-to-CV/Gate/Sync Interfaces, MIDI master keyboards and special MIDI...
Schaltwerk: 8-Tracks MIDI Pattern SequencerMusic sequencerThe music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
System from German Company DoepferDoepferDoepfer Musikelektronik GmbH is a manufacturer of audio hardware based in Gräfelfing, Germany, founded by Dieter Döpfer.The product range covers analog modular systems, MIDI controller, MIDI hardware sequencers, MIDI-to-CV/Gate/Sync Interfaces, MIDI master keyboards and special MIDI... - Customised Moog modular synthesizerMoog modular synthesizerMoog modular synthesizer refers to any of a number of monophonic analog modular synthesizers designed by the late electronic instrument pioneer Dr. Robert Moog and manufactured by R.A Moog Co...
System (used in most of his albums) - SynthereminSynthereminSyntheremin is a portmanteau of “Synthesizer” and “Theremin”, and an original musical instrument that a Japanese composer AQi Fzono conceived and invented with the cooperation of a Japanese engineer Michio Kurahashi in 1995...
: Custom made ThereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
conceived and invented by AQi Fzono (used in Cosmology. A portable version was used in a former CANCan (band)Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
member Damo SuzukiDamo Suzuki, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....
’s Japan tour in 2005) - Left-handed ThereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
(MoogMoog synthesizerMoog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
Etherwave Theremin: AQi Fzono Model 2005): custom-built by Moog MusicMoog MusicMoog Music is an American company based in Asheville, North Carolina which manufactures electronic musical instruments. The current Moog Music is the second company to trade under that name.-R.A. Moog Co. and the original Moog Music:...
for AQi Fzono. Body color is metallic blue. Used in live performances of Psychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
etc.
Nicknames
Below is the nicknames used for AQi Fzono:- ”The Minstrel of Diode” (especially in early years - “Symphobient” era)
- ”Symphonic TechnoSymphonic TechnoSymphonic techno represents the integrated, non-genre, and progressive instrumental electronic music that interfuses the different elements of electronic dance music such as techno, ambient, drum’n’bass with progressive rock, neo-classical music using the classical orchestration techniques.This...
Pioneer” - ”Godfather of Neo-hippie (or “Techno-hippie”) ” (especially in his native Japan)
- ”Techno Wagner”
Studio Albums
- Phosphorescence (1988)
- Echoes (1990)
- Ruins (1993)
- Cathedral (1995)
- Cosmology (1998)
- Chronicle (2003)
Club Remix Album
- A Guide To Cosmology (2000)
- Trance-Rave Cosmology (2007) by AQi Fzono with Trance-Rave Daughters
Bands and Units
- Psychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
(1987 -, later known as Aurora Heads mainly in the US, but Fzono unified the Unit name to Psychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research LaboratoryPsychedelic Plants Research Laboratory is a Trance / Electronic music Unit formed in 1987 by a Japanese composer AQi Fzono in Japan.PPRL is actually AQi Fzono's solo Electronic music unit specialized mainly for Goa, Psychedelic Trance and Psybient...
in 2008) - Far East Acid House Quartet (1988–1997)
Related People and Collaborative Artists
- Damo SuzukiDamo Suzuki, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....
(Ex-CanCan (band)Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
, Fzono joined Damo’s Japan tour in 2005) - Eric Ross (Thereminist and Composer)
- Madame Juju (Guitarist)
- Space DJ Ryo (Ex-member of Far East Acid House Quartet)
Personal life
- In 1992, he married a French-Japanese “RaveRaveRave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
” dancer Elisa Tajima (1966–1997, a former member of Far East Acid House Quartet ). They divorced in 1996.
External links
- FZONO.com: AQi Fzono Official Site
- AQi Fzono at Amazon page
- AQi Fzono: Visionary Music Encyclopedia (Databese / Fan Site in Japan)
- Illegal Rave: Far East Acid House Quartet, Otherwise the LSD Liberation Front - Fan Site In Japan
- Lavalamp Records Web Site
- Rave Scripture - AQi Fzono with Space DJ Ryo Far East Acid House Quartet, Otherwise the LSD Liberation Front (Almost in Japanese)