Isao Tomita (b. 1932) is one of the most important pioneers in the history of electronic music. He started using a Moog III Modular Synthesizer in the late '60s. Like Walter Carlos, with his famous Switched on Bach series, Tomita was interested in performing classical music scores with this new generation of musical instruments, providing the musician with an infinite range of sounds and climates. Snowflakes are dancing was his first record in 1974: Debussy was among the classical composers reinvented through synthesizers. Tomita then reinterpreted pieces by Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Mahler and Holst, among others.
Back to the Earth is a live album recorded during a spectacular concert in New York City, on September 13, 1986, in and above the Hudson River and in the entire area of lower Manhattan, in commemoration of the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. Musicians from the United States, Soviet Union, China and Japan were brought together and performed with Tomita for a 100,000 audience.
Today, this live recording sounds as innovative and spectacular as in 1988: the sound quality, the mixing of symphonic orchestra, human choirs, Japanese and Chinese instruments is impressive. The expressiveness and spatialization of this music is amazing, as well as its overall feeling and mood.
During the concert, Tomita played some of his favorite tracks written by composers such as J.S. Bach, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, C. Debussy, R. Wagner, A. Dvorak and Stravinsky, among others. Tomita's arrangements are superb and inspired...
On September 1984, Isao Tomita presented a live, outdoor concert on the shore of the Danube river in Linz, Austria, for an audience of 80.000 people. Through his interpretations of classical music, Tomita was attempting to describe the 15-Billion years history of the universe. He employed 13 channels of sound, including one from a helicopter 1500 feet above the river, multichannels sound systems on either side of the river, and on a ship that also carried musicians and a chorus of 100 Austrian singers. 
