Tomita's catalog is impressive. My favorites are his cover of Holst's The Planets and Kosmos, a potpourri of miscellaneous odds and ends. Pictures at an Exhibition shows some of his most inventive interpretations, and is especially interesting juxtaposed with the ELP version.

bitflipper

maximumpower
When I was young, my brother played Switched on Bach a lot for me. I loved that album. I purchased it as an adult (digital media) but still sounds good to me.

... 
I still like Switched on Bach and its sequel, mainly because I am a fan of J.S.B. But I can't think of another synth-only recording that has held up as well over the years as Snowflakes are Dancing.
 

The only one I can think of, is Tomita's Firebird Suite, which is astounding, and fits the imagery so much better, and deserves another listen. I have a version (not complete -- missing first few minutes) where my roommate in Santa Barbara played the album on the radio ... he used to play two of them at the same time in many cases, to get that swish feeling and wobbly imagery in your head ... and let me tell you ... that is above and beyond "music" ... and totally out of this world! Makes synthesizers ... be more than just synths!
 
His version of The Planets is also excellent. But yeah, Snowflakes are Dancing is a magnificent album, and I'm not sure people know what it means nowadays, but it was a RED LABEL album, which means it got special treatment along only a handful of classical music albums at the time!

drewfx1
... 
Also - Beagle take note(!) - they seem to have an odd "cat fancy" thing there for some reason.

Sometimes it's too much dog ... thing ... around here! We need some cats!

Moshkito

drewfx1
... 
Also - Beagle take note(!) - they seem to have an odd "cat fancy" thing there for some reason.

Sometimes it's too much dog ... thing ... around here! We need some cats!

 
It's just that they have a cultural idiosyncrasy regarding cats there for some reason.
 
 
Though I have (at least - can't remember off the top of my head) Tomita's Planets and Firebird, I tend to prefer Wendy Carlos' works.

So I've been cruising around the muffwiggler site, testing the waters to see if it's a place I'd want to spend any time in. 
 
The logical place to start seemed to be the "Your Tunes Here" subforum, the equivalent of our Songs forum. I wanted to see if forum members' stuff was the ear-grating random noise of early experimental electronica, the mind-numbing repetition of techno, or if it had progressed to something more musical.
 
I found examples of all three, but for the most part the typical submission consisted of interesting sounds in excruciatingly uninteresting musical contexts. Does anybody really want to listen to slowly-modulated white noise for 10 minutes?
 
 

bitflipper
So I've been cruising around the muffwiggler site, testing the waters to see if it's a place I'd want to spend any time in. 
 
The logical place to start seemed to be the "Your Tunes Here" subforum, the equivalent of our Songs forum. I wanted to see if forum members' stuff was the ear-grating random noise of early experimental electronica, the mind-numbing repetition of techno, or if it had progressed to something more musical.
 
I found examples of all three, but for the most part the typical submission consisted of interesting sounds in excruciatingly uninteresting musical contexts. Does anybody really want to listen to slowly-modulated white noise for 10 minutes?
 
 

I don't really understand the electronic music stuff, so...
 
 
But I do know that many folks over there seem to want things like EG's and LFO's with time frames of tens of minutes or even hours. Personally I don't get it. 

I saw the movie on Netflix last night and liked it. OK it's about modulars, but I don't see why they had to diss computer-based music (soft synths and DAWs) so much.
 
And I don't remember any mention of what they use to record, master, and distribute their music.
 
Mitch I.

I suppose the purists use tape and razor blades, like their heroes of yesteryear. Like I used to do myself.
 
Before discovering MIDI sequencers (Cakewalk 1.0, c. 1988), the simplest arrangements would take me days to assemble. Keep in mind that a 3-note chord requires 3 separate tracks with a monophonic synthesizer, and I only had a 4-track machine. There was always a sense of accomplishment at the end of the process, regardless how mundane the composition.
 
This is a big part of what makes Tomita's Snowflakes are Dancing such a monumental feat. It took him 2 years and lots of splicing and bouncing. And he didn't have a technical guy on hand like Carlos did; Tomita's was the only synthesizer in all of Japan at the time, and he the only (self-taught) expert. 
 

Check out this documentary about the Moog Modular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TJyPAyTiQ
 
When I saw Keith Emerson perform with this instrument in 1970 (in Frankfurt), I was unaware that it had previously only been used in live performance one other time: a one-off demonstration at the Museum of Modern Art. I didn't know that this synth had been custom-built for Emerson, nor did I appreciate what a pioneer Emerson was at the time.
 
I just remember that the concert was held up for hours while the synth cleared customs. Seems the customs agent did not have a suitable classification for it in his book. So we sat on the floor for 3-4 hours passing joints while we waiting for the notorious German bureaucracy to do its thing. I'd had similar experiences bringing my own gear into Germany from England.

Ah, that will be something good to watch while eating lunch.  You also are bringing back fond memories of being in Frankfurt in '81 for me - lol!