Hitomi Kuroishi has become a familiar name to anime fans, most notably because of her contributions to the 4 Code Geass OSTs, as well as being involved in the spectacular Last Exile score as part of Dolce Triade. However, until now, she had never created a score by herself . . .

Shangri-La is perhaps GONZO's final stand as the struggling animation studio tries to find a hit. Every cent GONZO has left is being poured into the gorgeous animation, and the anime tells a well-crafted story based on a science fiction novel of the same name.

This is the Nipponsei release of the first of two Shangri-La OSTs, with the 2nd OST due at the end of September. The first OST has been zipped up nicely with scans and a tracklist. Full versions of the OP and the first ED are also part of the package along with Hitomi Kuroishi's BGM and a pair of vocal tracks sung by her.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C9DN89O0

The moment I get my next paycheck I'm going to buy this.

BTW, pay close attention to Tsuki Ryuuden, especially the 2nd half. That's actually a leftover Code Geass track that played in the final episode of R2 and found its way into this OST somehow.

This has to be one of my favourite scores of the year. I had this one on pre-order from CDJapan and I can't stop playing it. I wish I could describe what's so appealing. Kuroishi just has something about her. Largely known as a songwriter, I don't know if anybody was quite prepared for her great scoring skill. So many popular musicians try to make the transition and they fail... but Kuroishi I think is onto something good. A gorgeous sense of melody, particularly, but I don't know what else... I love to analyse and I love to go into long complicated detail why I think something is great, but with this one, I just go with my heart. Cues like track 5 (Risoukyou) - a ravishing theme, light Goldsmithian electronics, lush orchestration... Well, I'll stop now - I love it.

As far as Gonzo is concerned, I hope to hell their fortunes pick up. I don't think they're in nearly as much trouble as some people have been reported, however... there's a lot of scaremongering going on.

They recorded a deficit last year (as did virtually every company on the planet - not surprising considering the recession, which hit Japan a lot harder than most of the West) and delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That doesn't mean they've gone bankrupt or they're about to go bankrupt. They're just not doing as well as they were - the company has been absorbed into its parent company owners (GDH) to provide financial stability and I believe they've restructured a little to streamline. It might not be a bad thing - they've shed some dead weight, and are now concentrating on what they do best.

They've always been pioneers. I think they'll prevail. :)

The thing I find amazing about Kuroishi's score here is that she found a way to keep the relatively tired "jungle beat" fresh-sounding. She hired skilled musicians and she composed the ethnic drums quite well, making it melodic but also energetic, adding color and power to the music instead of it overshadowing everything by being too loud or annoying. Kajiura and Kanno have kinda beaten the "jungle beat" sound to death, so it is refreshing to hear Kuroishi try to do something new with that kind of sound.

Another thing I appreciate is that Kuroishi credits all of the strings players on the OST, instead of merely putting them under a catch-all name like "somethingsomething strings" or "Teriyaki Group" or whatever. It's nice to know the talented violinists, cellists, etc., supporting the music. And it is hard to believe that the strings section is only 32-pieces (this is including the harp), considering how powerful and colorful the music is. As a result, you know that the orchestra she put together for the Shangri-La sessions is 52 musicians, including Kuroishi herself.

When you think about it, what Kuroishi is able to create with 52 musicians makes you wonder why Hollywood bothers to invest in 100-piece orchestras that simply make the majority of film music sound precisely the same, when something half the size provides more color and life.

I think my favorite track is "Suntrap" which uses the clarinet to good effect, before bringing in the strings and letting them carry the song. It's so soothing and beautiful, and it manages to avoid going overdramatic like the Code Geass soundtracks she is drawing some influence from.

I hope someone translates the lyrics for the songs Kuroishi sang soon. They're beautiful sounding, but I want to know what she's singing about.

Before I comment any further, I have something very important to say:



*drool*

OK - now, on with the show. ;)

It's so easy to slip into the percussion cliche (particularly the ethnic percussion cliche) these days... And here's a score which actually does something genuinely interesting. When I listen to it, I don't hear tired cliches, worn-out ideas and concessions to modernity - I hear a genuine, colourful, artistic, creative score; and best of all, good music in its own right.

With 52 musicians, this score is certainly in the upper-echelons of anime orchestra size (with the obvious exception of the lavish fully symphonic scores recorded overseas in places like Warsaw and Prague) - and I can't agree with you enough.

The orchestra size does not matter at all - what matters is creativity and compositional quality; two things this score has in spades. Knowing what to do with your orchestra is paramount. Hollywood routinely throws ridiculous sums of money at blockbuster scores, assembles gargantuan symphony orchestras - and has them play music that is badly written, unimagineatively arranged, and completely drowned in electronica.

This score is music written by a musician... A massively sexy one, at that.

Wow guys I will have to give this score another listen! I grabbed it a while ago because I loved Hitomi Kuroishi's vocals on Geass and others and thought I would hear more but was surprised that she composed it. It didn't really grab me the first time but maybe I was out of it or something. Good thing I never deleted it.

EDIT: And of course on second listen, I find that this score is majestic, powerful, relaxing, energizing, regal, and such a wonderful score I can't believe I almost ignored it. NotSpecial, if you would, please post a link to this wonderful score on the big orchestral action music thread and include a photo of the cover art when you do to draw attention to it. I think that everyone needs to know to give this a listen and as much attention to be given to it as possible. I like to use large green bold font to draw attention to my posts as you may have seen. A quote from dannyfrench would also generate some interest. Thanks for posting this here and reminding me to give it another listen!

Before I comment any further, I have something very important to say:



Oh man, why did you have to go and show that to me! She's gorgeous! Why doesn't America have a Hitomi Kuroishi? Whhhhhhhhhy?!!!/!?11!?/

I am in total agreement with you on the current state of Hollywood music. With some exceptions (Michael Giacchino, somehow, hasn't had his soul sucked out like what's happened to John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and others) all film music has begun to sound the same, drowning any semblance of melody with brass and electronica. I have nothing against either type of instrumentation (one of my favorite composers, Taku Iwasaki, regularly uses electronica as part of his scores, and the afore-mentioned Giacchino uses brass extremely effectively) but the way composers write the music degenerates everything into loud noise.

I wouldn't pay so much attention to Japan if Hollywood composers would start putting some heart and soul into the music, giving it some warmth and life instead of just concentrating on being dramatically loud. Even the music of the Dark Knight is ultimately forgettable IMO because it is, in the end, noise.


NotSpecial, if you would, please post a link to this wonderful score on the big orchestral action music thread and include a photo of the cover art when you do to draw attention to it. I think that everyone needs to know to give this a listen and as much attention to be given to it as possible. I like to use large green bold font to draw attention to my posts as you may have seen. A quote from dannyfrench would also generate some interest.

I'll do that soon, but I have never posted or even visited that thread before. Plus, I am unsure whether the cover art is easily accessible for me to post.

Quick google image search pulled this up

Also the orchestral thread is
Thread 57893
Just take a look at a few of my posts for some guidance as how to give your posting in that thread prominence.

...include a photo of the cover art when you do to draw attention to it.

Forget that. Just put Kuroishi's picture up. There's nothing hotter than a smouldering young woman who's got dexterous hands and knows her way around a symphony orchestra. ;)

Yeah except she looks like a pop singer so people might be thrown off. Sure i want to bang most pop singers but in an orchestral thread it might not be the best draw.

People need to stop being such genre snobs. ;)

Ok fine then post the album art AND her sexy picture! That way we are all satisfied.

HAHAHA! The nature of the discussion has quite derived since the posting of the photo... Oh She's breathtakingly beautiful.

Thanks for posting!


Forget that. Just put Kuroishi's picture up. There's nothing hotter than a smouldering young woman who's got dexterous hands and knows her way around a symphony orchestra. ;)

I badly want to make a dirty joke about her handling the conductor's baton...

afk...

[Edit]

F**K, it's not her. Somebody got their Hitomi's mixed up. That picture is Hitomi Furuya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitomi)

I am crushed...!

Edit again: Think this is the right lady -
Even the Japanese don't seem to know which one is which. I found that one whilst searching for the Kanji of Kuroishi Hitomi (黒石ひとみ) so hopefully that's actually her.

The real Hitomi is MUCH more beautiful! I was seriously worried there guys by the lapse of taste. And to think, the sacred glades of the Orchestral thread have been thus polluted ;)

You really ought to know better than to be swooning at tilted head + icy stare + lollipop..

Edit: ...And thanks for the heads-up on this score!

We have weaknesses...

Personally my preference is for the actual Real Hitomi - though say what you like about Imposter Hitomi's shamelessly manipulative photo, and manufactured provocative look... I would!

I think that Real Hitomi, Mina Kubota, Yoko Kanno, Megumi Ohashi, and Michiru Oshima (she's still a stunner as far as I'm concerned) should... collaborate... on a project. And I won't take that particular thought any further!

men...have 2 heads but they only use one..:laugh:

:p

I should apologise here to the lovely female readers of this forum - and hope that they will forgive this exhibition of testosterone which I instigated...

The real Hitomi is MUCH more beautiful! I was seriously worried there guys by the lapse of taste. And to think, the sacred glades of the Orchestral thread have been thus polluted ;)

This is very precisely why I didn't make that joke in the Orchestral thread!! :D I wouldn't dare posting so crude humor in this distinguished place... Here it'll be forget way faster, so let's let it slip a bit for once.

And of course apologies to the ladies here.

Now let's come back to music! I look forward to listening to this one: so many good comments. "favourite scores of the year"? It must be really good then.

There are too many girls named Hitomi in general. It makes it annoying not just to grab the pictures but to grab the music. Oh well, thus is Japan.

More pics please, if its not acrime to ask.

Don't know what's the fuzz about. For me it's rather boring, not so original score. I tried to listen to it and enjoy it as much as U guys, but I just couldn't. There are some nice tracks here (emergency call,metal age, previous notice, well mostly final 15 minutes) but most of it is just tribal/ethnic/underscoreish "meh sounding" tracks. For me mediocre anime score. At best.

Though, lady is very nice;). And I mean this one:

One man's gold... :)

I suppose, as usual, it all comes down to taste. For me, anyway, there's something special going on under the surface in this score that makes it just "work" for me. Superficially, it is indeed just another ethnic influenced piece of underscore... And I probably would've completely dismissed it as such, but I don't know - something just caught me.

I get a certain feeling of... quality and of being led somewhere by a capable storyteller with some composers - Jerry Goldsmith, Michiru Oshima, Yoshihisa Hirano, Mina Kubota, Joe Hisaishi; and Kuroishi's work is beginning to reach me in the same way... I'll be looking forward to Kuroishi's next solo scoring effort - if Shangri-La is anything to go by, I think that it would be interesting if nothing else.

(Wow, isn't this a little too civilised... I like this and here's why / I don't really and here's why / OK I respect that, everybody has differing tastes / Let's all go down the pub. A refreshing change from the narrow-minded semi-literate attacks that happen in other threads when somebody dares to dislike something that you like, like something you hate, or otherwise have an opinion that is something beyond blind hero worship...) :)

To build off what Dannyfrench said, I think this score represents a relaxing piece of music for one and more importantly signals to us that we need to watch out for other works by Kuroishi. Of course I assume she got a good amount of help from Kotaro Nakagawa which would explain why she is so good.

Funny thing is, I enjoy this and I'm not really a fan of Nakagawa, with a few exceptions. I find most of his music to be pretty stodgy. Kuroishi seems to occupy a similar sound world, but even the heavy pieces have a sense of... playful exhuberance and space, that Nakagawa's don't. There's a lot of love for him on this forum and in general - I freely admit I find him mostly overrated... (Please don't hit me.)

I'll admit i don't love ALL of the nakagawa scores. Especially those Sentai Boukenger scores posted by Artheirr that I somehow missed. BUT, I really love his scores for the Code Geass series and Gun X Sword so I try to grab everything else as well because you never know what you will love. The rest of his work so far is a little subpar compared but considering there are 2 soundtracks for Gun X Sword and 4 soundtracks for Code Geass, that alone is enough for me to love the man's work. I also think over-rated composers are exactly what we need to get people into listening to soundtracks and eventually discovering the greats.

You can definitely detect Kotaro Nakagawa's influence in the score here, but considering Nakagawa was busy composing Cross Game's score when this was recorded I don't think he gave much to the score here other than advice. I do think being involved in so many Nakagawa scores definitely rubbed off on Kuroishi, though, considering how Code Geass-esque majestic the tracks are, plus, as I said, a track from Code Geass did sneak its way onto the Shangri-La OST.

On the 4th CG OST, Kuroishi instrumentals showed up at last and they definitely gave a feel of Nakagawa even though he wasn't involved with those.

I think the big difference is that Kuroishi's tracks give a feel of a fully-fleshed out idea while Nakagawa's tracks tend to feel like they ended too soon.

All right, just so everyone knows, the 2nd (and probably final) OST for Shangri-La comes out on September 23rd. I'm going to do my damndest to get my hands on it, whether through Nipponsei or by buying it myself. Knowing the typical anime OST patterns the 2nd OST will likely come with more tracks than the 1st OST did, though I have not found a concrete tracklist yet.

But I would recommend buying the OST anyway. We all want Hitomi Kuroishi to compose more series, don't we? ;)

EDIT: Correction, tracklist found. And it has a lot of tracks, yay.

1. midori - Tsuki ni Kakuseshi Chou no Yume (月に隠せし蝶の夢 )
2. Jiyuu no Kaze (自由の風)
3. Souran no Arashi (騒乱の嵐)
4. Dennou Kuukan (電脳空間)
5. Magical Ginna (Matsumoto Tamaki) - Orange Kandara (オレンジかんだら)
6. Akiba no Sanjii (アキバの三爺)
7. Eien no 28-sai (永遠の28歳)
8. Anata no Iibun (あなたの言い分)
9. Dennou Net no Moshiko (電脳ネットの申し子)
10. Ko wo Omou Haha (子を思う母)
11. Kunou no Dangan (苦悩の弾丸)
12. Tokyo Daikuushuu (東京大空襲)
13. Mimamori Hitobito (見守る人々)
14. May'n - Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare (Ballad ver.) (キミシニタモウコトナカレ (バラードver.))
15. Seiatsu Mono no Bansan (制圧者の晩餐)
16. Sennyuu Tansaku (潜入探索)
17. Partisan (パルチザン)
18. Kagakusha no Lullaby (科学者のララバイ)
19. Keizai Tanso no Shikumi (経済炭素の仕組み)
20. Hametsu no Fuchi (破滅の淵)
21. Shuuen e no Countdown (終焉へのカウントダウン)
22. Karappo no Kanashimi (空っぽの悲しみ)
23. Hitomi - Ten e no Inori (天への祈り)
24. Chika ni Nemuru Mystery (地下に眠るミステリー)
25. Kami no Mezame (神の目覚め)
26. Kuuchuu Toshi Houkai (空中都市崩壊)
27. Saigo no Seisen (最後の聖戦)
28. Hitomi - Shangri-La wo Mezashite (シャングリ・ラを目指して)

I think it's something of an understatement to say I'm VERY VERY MUCH LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Awesome! Can't wait for it.

Thanks for uploading this :)

One thing to keep in mind: there are a couple of obvious "comedy/goofy" tracks that get played in the series that weren't on the 1st OST. Like many comedy themes, they aren't that great. Those comedy tracks may wind up on the 2nd OST, so don't freak out if they show up.

To open up an old can of worms, there's a reason for the ethnic percussion. The setting of the show is inside a city that's being reclaimed by jungle. Combined with sci-fi elements and also having to show there's still civilization Kuroishi had her work cut out for her, as she had to bring in sci-fi themes, traditional themes, and jungle themes and somehow make it all work. When you listen to the OST in the context of the show itself, it makes sense. The ethnic drums drive home how the jungle is reclaiming the city, but the more traditional instrumentation reveals that there is still civilization, humans haven't regressed all the way to hunter/gatherers yet. The electronics show off the sci-fi bent of the series, but as the sci-fi elements are in the background and not heavily focussed upon the electronics stay in the background of the music and back up everything softly.

So there is a method to the madness here, and it is a testament for Kuroishi's skill that she managed to craft a score that had to do many things at once but can also stand alone.

It remains to be seen if the 2nd OST can live up to the first one. A lot of the themes that showed up in the 2nd half of the series are quite good. But again, expect the comedy themes to show up and take up some space.

All right, just so everyone knows I will not be able to get a physical copy for two weeks. However, the Nipponsei torrent should be available before then so I will use that and post it here, probably Monday from a college PC as I'm highly uncomfortable using a torrent on my home PC.

I first saw Shangri-la at Anime Weekend Atlanta two weekends ago, and the quality blew me away as well as the music! So I am eagerly anticipating listening to the whole thing.

I must admit that I tend to judge a movie/anime/tv series by the quality of its music....and I like what Ive heard so far of Shangri-la (My other favorite 2009 anime OSTs have been the Ef~tale of .... series,)

Yeah the original artwork is what drew me to this series. God thing the score and music is just as high in quality. Oddly enough its either the art, the music, or it being an all time favorite that draws me to a series. (I liked the music to Utena before watching that series, for example.)

With Shangri-La I am happy to say, the story was just as great as the art and the music.

Now I do wonder if Nipponsei is having problems getting albums as well to rip? Much like you, NotSpecial, or is your issue more about funds than availability?

Now I do wonder if Nipponsei is having problems getting albums as well to rip? Much like you, NotSpecial, or is your issue more about funds than availability?

Nipponsei has not gotten the 2nd OST yet, and I really can only allocate funds to one OST a month, and I wound up buying the 2nd Kurokami OST. In hindsight, I should not have done that and got the 2nd Shangri-La OST instead. I was just sure that Nipponsei would already have it, while Nipponsei has pretty much ignored the Kurokami soundtracks and I don't know how long the few existing downloads of those two OSTs will exist.

I use uTorrent to yank stuff off of Nipponsei but I have a lot of trouble extracting off of Nipponsei for some odd reason and Bittorrent is an epic failure, I've never had any success using that one.

As an endnote, Shangri-La OST 2 will probably be the final upload I make to ffshrine. I don't want to make piracy a habit. If any links go down I will replace them but other than that Shangri-La OST 2 will be my final uploading hurrah.

Nipponsei just upload the music that finds in P2P, they never buy the CD. So LonE has the same releases that Nipponsei at same time. Just a japanese person buy the CD and upload it to P2P, but no one wants(/will) upload the OST...

Ah ok, that makes sense of late about the oddness of Nipponsei releases. I guess maybe at one time they did buy and rip albums.

Nipponsei just uploaded the second ost. I'm gonna post it once I can get it re-hosted.

Hitomi Kuroishi - Shangri-La Original Soundtrack 2
|MP3|320kbps|260MB|
|Originally Downloaded from Nipponsei|

http://anonym.to/?http://rapidshare.com/files/304337513/Shngr-L-ST2.part1.rar
http://anonym.to/?http://rapidshare.com/files/304342070/Shngr-L-ST2.part2.rar
PSW: smile

Some of you said that the first soundtrack has a track from Code Geass, correct? Tsuki Kyuuden? Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember this track at all. And I'm a big fan of the Code Geass music, but this track doesn't sound familiar to me..

Do any of you remember what scene it was used in Code Geass?

Well the similarity to Code Geass is that Hitomi Kuroishi sang a couple songs on Code Geass and her style is similar to Kotaro Nakagawa's.

Some of you said that the first soundtrack has a track from Code Geass, correct? Tsuki Kyuuden? Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember this track at all. And I'm a big fan of the Code Geass music, but this track doesn't sound familiar to me..

Do any of you remember what scene it was used in Code Geass?

I believe Tsuki Ryuuden (or a really early version of it) was used in the last episode or 2nd-to-last episode. Several Code Geass tracks were not released and for some reason Tsuki Ryuuden sounds incredibly similar to a piece used in those episodes.