I caught up with Tomita in Tokyo, which he rarely leaves. In fact, by my standards, he rarely leaves his "eight mat room", an 8 x 10 carpeted cubicle, which is floor-to-ceiling electronic equipment. Out of this tiny space, he works tirelessly for 10 hours a day, either modifying and improving his impressive bank of synthesizers, mixers, amplifiers, and tape-decks, or noodling with new sounds for his next project.

"My family has given up on me", he says wistfully.

Tomita's cartoon-like approach to impressionistic classical music is indeed unique. While the strict western classicists would like to send a posse after him, there are still many fans who appreciate his obsession with new sounds.

"I am not interested in electronic music like Cage and Stockhausen," he said through an interpreter. Tomita's interpreter was Tokugen Yamamoto of RCA Records in Japan, the man who first passed Tomita's audition tape onto New York after all the other Japanese companies had rejected him.

"I enjoy melody, a sound many people can appreciate. For instance, I am currently working on a Debussy project" - an electronic reading of "Daphnis and Chloe" and a rather spacey "Aranjuez" (by Rodrigo) - "and I would like to do pop music in the future. But pop music has so many splendid arrangements, it might not be the right move."

Tomita has been approached by Francis Ford Coppola to score his film, "Apocalypse, Now", currently filming in the Philippines. That, Tomita says, could be his introduction to non-classical conceptualization. "I would like to expand on a theme that involves Japanese traditional music," he conjectured. "But not jazz - it's not a feeling native to the Japanese."

Tomita began his career writing themes for Japanese television programs, after having first established himself as a premier performer and composer of classical music in Japan - which incidentally is the largest classical record market in the world.

After "Snowflakes Are Dancing", his award-winning first record, Tomita began investing in equipment - now worth 70 million yen, or close to $300,000. He made use of the investment on "Pictures at an Exhibition", "Firebird", "The Planets", and the latest, "Kosmos".

"My work is like a cartoon running through my head, yes," he said. "And like animation, I must create the sound myself, and then, bit by bit, piece it in and give it motion. It is like weaving a carpet or a bamboo basket."

Only once has Isao Tomita left Japan to perform his work. It was two years ago, in Germany, and the venture was a success, he reports. But since then, Tomita's technological advances have made it impossible for him to do a live show.

"What can be created on the spot is very limited," he said. "I would need a number of prepared tapes for accompaniment, and then it would depend on the mixers to recreate the sound on the records. I've been offered a chance to play in America" - notably by promoter George Brown, and New York-based promoter Kazuko Hillyer - "but I am apprehensive."

"For Firebird, I created 700 different sounds, and at best, I can re-create five of those live. The other problem is that I work in four-channel sound. I want the music to surround the audience, and that feeling is hard to replicate when the sound comes off the stage right at you. Even my stereo frustrates me, and I get the feeling all my work sounds condensed."

But Tomita manages to mitigate his frustration. His wife told us: "He never listens to classical music or his records. He likes Pink Floyd."

By Stan Mieses