Artist: Ain Soph
Genre(s):
Rock
Experimental
Rock: Gothic
Discography:
October
Year: 2002
Tracks: 7
III: Ritual CD2
Year: 1999
Tracks: 1
III: Crucifuge CD1
Year: 1999
Tracks: 1
Kshatriya
Year: 1993
Tracks: 5
Aurora
Year: 1992
Tracks: 14
The all-instrumental Ain Soph formed in the late '70s in Japan and was influenced by the jazz-rock fusion of Canterbury bands of the recent '60s and other '70s such as Camel and Soft Machine. Dominated by keyboards, the band's idle words nuclear fusion reaction on occasion gives way to medicine more in the progressive rock vein with more orchestrated and spacier sections. Calling themselves Tenchi Sozo, Yozok Yamamoto (guitars), Kikuo Fujikawa (keyboards), Masahiko Torigaki (bass), and Hiroshi Natori (drums) recorded one of their 1978 concerts as a demo tape. Released in 1991 as the Ain Soph album Ride on a Camel, it shows a stronger influence by Camel than on afterward releases. Changing their call to Ain Soph in 1980, Fujikawa left the stripe and the grouping found a new keyboard musician in Masey Hattori. Their first record album, A Story of Mysterious Forest (1980), brought around comparisons to the jazz fusion of Mahavishnu Orchestra. When Hattori left to pattern the fusion stria 99.99, it brought well-nigh an end to activity on the Ain Soph front until 1986, when Fujikawa rejoined the band with Bellaphon drummer Taiqui Tomiie. Hat and Field was released in 1987 and was a testimonial of sorts to the Canterbury band Hatfield and the North. 1991's Marine Menagerie featured studio versions of some of the material from Ride on a Camel with some new tracks. Fire From Nine, released in 1993, set up the stripe moving more towards square jazz than on old records.
