Biography

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 late '60s and early '70s such as Camel and Soft Machine. Dominated by keyboards, the band's jazz fusion occasionally gives way to music 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 later releases. Changing their name to Ain Soph in 1980, Fujikawa left the band and the group found a new keyboard player in Masey Hattori. Their first album, A Story of Mysterious Forest (1980), brought about comparisons to the jazz fusion of Mahavishnu Orchestra. When Hattori left to form the fusion band 99.99, it brought about 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 tribute 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, found the band moving more towards straightforward jazz than on previous records. ~ Geoff Orens, Rovi