Great Anime Composers: Yugo Kanno

Yugo Kanno is a true “modern” composer in a sense. He’s an allrounder and and experimentalist, trained in every field of music, from classical to Jazz to EDM. You can find everything in his work, a range from a bit of Henry Mancini to a bit of Gabriel Prokofiev.

He’s also founder and company president of a composer company that employs many promising talents that are steeped in classical (and film) music.

Of course, my collection focuses on his orchestral (film) music. He’s also increasingly approaching the concert world in recent years and wrote many classical pieces for his recent TV work and even attempted a Symphony, that while a bit simple for that kind of gravitas name, is still a worthwhile listen that satisfies.

He can successfully combine many modern elements, an armada of electronics and drums that still maintain musical cohesion. They are not included here (well Psycho-Pass and Jojo to a degree) but I think they work far better than their Hollywood counterparts.

The first part starts with a collection of his best work for TV with some concert arrangements by myself woven into the mix. He’s really the king of the bouncy, uplifting, happy afternoon TV drama theme. But it’s more an introduction album.

The Border (provided by nextday) and Kanbee demonstrate his ability with a full symphony orchestra (for better or worse) and Birdy, Shaolin Girl and Library Wars demonstrate his very best TV scores. Kanno still has not reached the same height as those three albums again but I think Gundam Reconquista in G, Jojo and Psycho-Pass are his best recent efforts with some great classical setpieces among very well done modern Hollywood scoring.

Finally Kanno is also a true composer in the sense that he’s also an entertainer, with many classical and hybrid fun concerts he holds and conducts annually. Some great fun (or just plain weird stuff) can be found here. The video was provided by tango.

Kanno just recently turned 40 (and that’s one year younger than Takaki), so he has not even reached the midpoint of his career (the point where most composers really get good) for an orchestral composer and he has already much to show for.

I still see much potential for him to grow and who knows, perhaps next year’s Lodoss will be that gamechanger.

LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!IngFmbwB!V2aQaYEYoA65XfFHNoekwImynZRffO1Y9IS9g1ROzOQ)

New releases

A present from ladatree

Yugo Kanno
Record of Grancrest War
The Film Score

Download (https://mega.nz/#!broTXDgb!pefTM4sWJKiariaj1MZX9w6a-wdKup86E9d0tRYYhhc)

Sample (http://picosong.com/w4FAn/)

This is at least a cohesive attempt at a film score. There’s quite a lot of his electronic experiments I had to discard to make a nice 90 minute album.
Someone didn’t give Kanno the memo that this is supposed to be an epic fantasy conquest series and not his personal experimental playground, but then again, the show was cheap as shit and a mess so communications were probably off. In any case I prefer this to Batman but be warned, if you can’t stand traditional orchestral fantasy fanfares and marches transitioning on the fly into his Batman score, you will probably not enjoy it. But for the purists there’s a classical waltz, a heroic march and quite a few romantic pieces to satiate that aspect from Kanno. The action is also strong, similar to Stardust Crusaders.

An example (http://picosong.com/w4FNG/)

If you want the rest (i.e. the electronics), here they are:

Grancrest Outtakes (https://mega.nz/#!r7BAnQRT!Ga147zif3vOL90vuKFerLaaY8HFqQQDyUO1p29if5w8)

He also announced his second symphony for next year so I’m interested how that will turn out.
The rep goes to ladatree btw 😉

AND last but not least for the troubled mind my Doctor recommended me some Yugo Kanno’s Sunday Afternoon Drama Theme Therapy, so here’s the latest:

Half blue Overture (https://mega.nz/#!prByXAIK!F1FiYPJSv1vEOb6fOAoUJh6AsG-0RI6ogM3MWv0sRAQ)

EDIT:
Sadly it does not but Shaolin Girl is nowhere to be found and you had it here so thank you!

i see Yugo Kanno in posts alot because of the large amount of work he has taken!
he must be one of the most sought after composers in japan?
and he has done taiga and gundam already?
wow, he must be unbelievably skilled and talented! right? right??
but does he even spend time to write his music—-mostly elevator music???
and the way he tries to put some variety in series like jojo…

maybe my expectation was too high…