he was a fan of the walker brothers and the ventures when he was 13, but symphonies of beethoven and tchaikovsky fascinated him when he was 14. since then he composed a number of pieces before making his name with the serialist 'threnody for toki' in 1981. soon afterwards, he became disenchanted with atonal music, and began to compose in a free neo-romantic style with strong influences from jazz, rock and japanese classical music, underscoring his reputation with his 1985 guitar concerto. , yoshimatsu has presented six symphonies, 12 concertos: one each for bassoon, cello, guitar, trombone, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, marimba, chamber orchestra, traditional japanese instruments, and two for piano (one for the left hand only and one for both hands), a number of sonatas, and various shorter pieces for ensembles of various sizes. his 'atom hearts club suites' for string orchestra explicitly pay homage to the beatles, pink floyd and emerson, lake & palmer.