Biography

portrait

Goro Ito, a composer, arranger , guitarist and producer, has been active as a solo artist “MOOSE HILL” and also as member of a bossa-nova duo “naomi & goro
Along with releasing his own albums and performing at home and abroad, he has written music for movies etc.
While pursuing his own music with profound taste of Bossa Nova, he has played in genre-straddling style of music such as classic and rock, etc. Besides his own work he has collaborated with various musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Taskahashi. For singer and actress Tomoyo Harada, he has produced many songs and albums.
He has worked with Takashi Hiraide, a poet who won the Best Translated Book Award by his poetry collection “For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut” in USA.

He also has maintained close musical relations with Brazilian musicians such as Jaques and Paula Morelenbaum. With them, Jorge Helder, Rafael Barataand other excellent Brazilian musicians, he has produced the album “Rendez-vous in Tokyo” recorded in Rio and Tokyo.
The album has won the “Disco de Quro da Musica popular Brasileila” best album award in 2014.

Tomoyo Harada(Japanese famous actress and singer) sings two songs in Moose Hill’s second album “desert house”(2006).
He wrote the soundtrack to the movie, “To Pray for Snow”. This movie won 4 prizes including Best Director & Best Male Actor at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival.
The movie is directed by Kichitaro Negishi and features Yusuke Iseya, Kouichi Sato, Kyoko Koizumi & Kazue Fukiishi.
On August 8th, he produced two CDs, Penguin Cafe Orchestra
tribute album and Penguin Cafe Orchestra Japanese best album. They were released from “commons”, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s label. This tribute CD includes Ryuichi Sakamoto, YukihiroTakahashi, Steve Jansen, Hiroshi Takano, Masakatsu Takagi, and so on. He wrote the inserted song and soundtrack for two short movies, “identify”and”metamorphosis”, directed by Masahiko Nagasawa for Fuji television’s campaign event.

On November 28th 2007, he produced Tomoyo Harada’s 25th anniversary album “music & me”.
On February 18th 2009, he produced Kourin’s album “Hibino-Uta (Sony music)”.
On October 12nd 2009, he produced Tomoyo Harada’s album
“eyja (EMI Music Japan)”.

In 2010 For the first time in four years, he released his solo album under his own name. It features Sean O Hagan, Valgeir Sigurosson and Yukihiro Takahashi as guest players. He produced “Christmas Songs” , a Christmas album participated by Haruomi Hosono, yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto and so on. 2011 In February , he gave an installation event of his own music and image works “Tone Poem: Memories of Blue” at Aomori Museum of Art in Aomori.

In 2011, in collaboration with Naruyoshi Kikuchi, Naomi and Goro released their album “calendula” from commmons label and made it a smash hit. At Aomori Museum of Art, he presented a sound installation “「TONE_POEM」” and held a workshop on composition with a local dialect and a storytelling session “on-doc” with Tomoyo Harada.

In 2012, he will produce music for the exhibition “Art and Air” held at Aomori Museum of Art from July 21st to September 17th. On April 25, he released “GLASHAUS”. Freely blending jazz, classical and Brazilian elements, Goro’s classical guitar performances propel an instrumental tour de force that transcends musical genres. Goro’s sublime performances in a duo with cello or contrabass, or by an ensemble incorporating piano and strings quartet, open up new musical horizons and represent the fruits of the intimate knowledge of diverse genres, incomparable guitar skills, and keen melodic sense he has built up over his long career. His talent resonated with top Brazilian musicians such as Jaques Morelenbaum and Andre Mehmari, who took part in the recording sessions in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo and effusively praised the finely honed sensibilities that lie behind Goro’s beautiful compositions and idiosyncratic harmonies. “GLASHAUS” is received a high evaluation and became an enduring long seller album. ”This is what romantic, lyrical and truly borderless music sounds like – Ryuichi Sakamoto” In the same year he held a special concert titled “Goro Ito + Jaques Morelenbaum Special Duo Concert” at Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo.

In 2013, he produced a tribute album “GETZ/GILBERTO+50″, commemorating the 50th anniversary of renowned “GETZ/GILBERTO” album release.
The album has received the first prize in Brazilian Music Award hosted by a Japanese radio station J-WAVE.
In the same year he released his 3rd solo album “POSTLUDIUM”.

In 2014, Goro held a concert with Jaques and Paula Morelenbaum at Blue Note Tokyo in August. In the same year he released a joint work album with Jaques Morelenbaum.

In 2015, The album “RENDEZ-VOUS IN TOKYO” has received the second prize of the year in the Brazilian Music Award.
Goro appeared in a popular TV program “Yoru-Tamori” and performed with Antonio Kazuyoshi Jopim(a parody character acted by the famous Japanese comedian Tamori).

In 2016, Goro produced and arranged Japanese renowned actress Tomoyo Harada’s album. During recent years, he has been working together with her actively. The album has become a smash hit entering the album charts at No.4 in a Japanese reliable music chart ORICON(25 May 2016).

In 2017, 90th anniversary year of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s birth, he produced a Jobim tribute album “Architect Jobim”, reconstructing Jobim’s songs in classic tinged style by guitar, piano and contrabass trio plus strings quartet format. The album won the “Disco de Quro da Musica popular Brasileila” second best album award and Hires-Music award in 2017.
Also in 2017, he was featured in the magazine “PAPERSKY”(http://www.papersky.jp/2016/04/30/papersky-50-rio-de-janeiro-bossa-nova) and introduced Bossa Nova music and musicians in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2019, he wrote a theme song for an animation movie “Sumikkogurashi”. Recently, he’s been active in the area of anime music.

In 2020, he is going to produce music for animated TV program “Arte”.

■Goro Ito Brasil Projects

2008:naomi & goro “Bossa Nova Songbook 1″ / commons Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Label”
Produced & Arranged by Goro Ito
2009:naomi & goro “Bossa Nova Songbook 2″ / commons Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Label”
Recorded & Mixed by Duda Mello Produced & Arranged by Goro Ito *Musicians
Piano: Itamar Assiere
Bass: Jorge Helder
Drums & Percussions: Rafael Barata
Flute, Flauta & Soprano Sax: Eduardo Neves Flugelhorn: Vander Nascimento
Cello: Hugo Pilger
Cello: Jaques Morelenbaum (tr.1)
2009:naomi & goro “passagem” Original Album / commons Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Label”
Produced & Arranged by Goro Ito *Musicians
Piano: Itamar Assiere
Bass: Jorge Helder
Drums & Percussions: Rafael Barata
Flute, Flauta & Soprano Sax: Eduardo Neves Flugelhorn: Vander Nascimento
Cello: Jaques Morelenbaum (tr.11)
Piano: Ryuichi Sakamoto (tr.1)
*Strings:
Cello: Hugo Pilger Violin: Bernardo Bessler Violin: Gustavo Menezes Viola: Christine Springuel
*Jaques Morelenbaum
“É um prazer estar colaborando com Naomi e Goro nesse projeto aqui no Brasil, tocar…
Gostei muito da música composta por eles, “Good Night Song”, é uma música muito delicada. E acho muito bonito essa aproximação das culturas, terras tão distantes, podendo ser irmanadas , podendo estar juntos através da música.”
2012:GORO ITO “GLASHAUS” / Spiral Records Label
All Composed,Arranged & Produced by Goro Ito *Musicians
Guitar : Goro Ito
Cello, *Strings Arrange : Jaques Morelenbaum
Piano : Andr é Mehmari
Piano : Marcos Nimrichter
Bass : Jorge Helder
Violin : Bernardo Besseler
— Recorded (Tokyo):20 oct, 29 dec 2011, 6 feb 2012 at Pastoral Sound, Recording, Mixing
Engineer: Taiji Okuda (studio MSR), Piano Technician: Michiko Mikata — Recorded (Rio de Janeiro):4 jan 2012 at Biscoito Fino
8-10 jan 2012 at Rockit! Studios, Recording Engineer: Duda Mello(Rockit! Studios), Assistant Engineer: Lucas Ariel (Biscoito Fino)
Mastered by John Davis (Metropolis Mastering Studios)

2014:V.A. “GETZ/GILBERTO+50″ / Verve / Universal Music
Arranged & Produced by Goro Ito featuring Getz/Gilberto Lovers
http://itogoro.jp/en/discography/3025
2014:LIVE JAQUES MORELENBAUM, PAULA MORELENBAUM & GORO ITO at BLUE NOTE TOKYO
2014:GORO ITO + JAQUES MORELENBAUM “RENDEZ-VOUS IN TOKYO” / Universal Music

2015:LIVE & PRODUCE “BRASIL FANTASTICO!”
at GINZA MITSUKOSHI
2016:LIVE Worldwide : Japan Project”100 Years of SAMBA”with Mira Freitas
https://qetic.jp/art-culture/wwjpn-pickup/213838/
2016:naomi & goro “RIO, TEMPO” / commons Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Label”
Naomi Fuse: Vocal
Goro Ito Guitar
Produced & All Songs Arranged by Goro Ito *Musicians
Violin: Aya Ito
Rhodes: Rhodes Masayatsu Tzboguchi(tr.8, 9) Piano: Fernando Merilno
Bass: Jorge Helder
Drums:Jorge Rafael Barata
2016:「PAPERSKY NO.50 Brasil Issue」
http://www.papersky.jp/2016/05/06/goro-ito-bossa-nova/ http://papersky.jp/en/tag/goro-ito/
2017:Goro Ito AMSAMBLE “ARCHITECT JOBIM”
Arranged by Goro Ito
Produced, Arranged & Strings Arranged by Goro Ito
2017:LIVE “GORO ITO & JAQUES MORELENBAUM Special Concert at YAMAHA GINZA”
https://jp.yamaha.com/sp/myujin/14725.html
2018:Bossa Nova 60th anniversary “GETZ / GILBERTO + 50 Special Live” at BLUE NOTE TOKYO
http://www.bluenote.co.jp/jp/artists/getz-gilberto/
2008〜2019:BOSSA AOYAMA GORO ITO & naomi & goro
https://www.bossa-aoyama.jp/