Yasohachi Itoh is a legendary producer who has directly produced more than 350 albums and overseen the production of over 3,000 albums throughout his career at Nippon Phonogram (currenlty Universal Music), CBS/SONY and his own East Wind label. His nickname "Eighty-Eight" comes from his given name, which literally means eighty-eight, the number of keys in a piano.
To meet the increasing demand for high quality jazz albums, he created a new label bearing his name. The label's concept is clear. First, Itoh is responsible for the production of each album as the sole producer.
Secondly, Eighty-Eight's is committed to good sound. From his experience of supervising the development of the
Super Audio CD (SACD) format and establishing the SME's new DSD recording studio in Tokyo, Itoh is firmly convinced of the sonic superiority of the DSD and SACD format. Therefore, all new albums are recorded directly in the
pure DSD format and released as
hybrid SACDs. The label only employs the world's best engineers, such as the late David Baker and SME's chief engineer Yoshihiro Suzuki.
Thirdly, the label uses the work of world-class photographers and art directors to create albums memorable for their visual appeal as well as musical content. Its hybrid SACDs are presented in beautiful paper sleeves and double-fold jackets.
Eighty-Eight's Website (English and Japanese): click
here.
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