Personnel: Kitaro (various instruments); Kristin Stordahl Kanda (flute, alto flute).

Recorded at Mochi House, USA and Japan.

AN ANCIENT JOURNEY was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best New Age Album.

Kitaro's double-disc An Ancient Journey is collection of gentle, ethereal compositions utilizing his unique style of performance. Blending traditional Japanese instruments with lush keyboards, Kitaro crafted some very relaxing and meditative music on this album. Like any album in this genre, this is for very specific tastes only, but this is definitely one of the superior artists working in new age music. With gorgeous melodies and a penchant for keeping things low-key, Kitaro's An Ancient Journey is a proper follow-up to 2001's Ancient that should keep fans happy and possibly gain him new followers within the genre. ~ Bradley Torreano

Although this set is entitled AN ANCIENT JOURNEY, in the hands of Kitaro history is only half the story. The musician creates an atmospheric sense of space, and refuses to clutter it up, leaving one to feel that he's speaking as much about the future as the past. At the very least, he suggests that the spiritual truths unlocked by ancient civilizations have yet to be fully realized.

Of course, this drama is also achieved by conventional Kitaro methods--the electronic droplets of "Whisper," or the orchestral sweep of "Maya Magic," for instance--but less so than in other productions. For the most part, this is an understated, imagistic album, one that roams freely through time and space.

NAPRA Review (07-08/02, p.56) - "...Along with his magical synthesizer, Kitaro adds traditional Chinese and Middle Eastern instruments...to create varied and richly textured sound pictures..."