The Music of Akito Matsuda: Liz und ein Blauer Vogel & More

Akito Matsuda
Senzoku Gakuen Freshman Wind Ensemble

Liz und ein Blauer Vogel
Concert Work for Wind Orchestra (Opus 6)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!XYxChK4L!VryhES_tKtQx2Woi_-IYO6wOuxDEWvfFKvQsaBpGPj4)

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

Where to begin. It’s Matsuda’s most mature composition to date. A beautiful woodwind heavy poem. If you like his work, I guarantee you will love it. Maybe it gets a full symphony orchestra upgrade in the future. I can see the Tokyo Philharmonic performing it. I can only repeat what I wrote about him some years ago. He’s come a long way. Essentially the story of a Visual Novel (or Erogame if you prefer) composer turning into a serious concert composer for anime. He’s still very young in composer terms, only 35 and I see a bright future for him.

Well Akito Matsuda has come a long way since his first days as NIJINE. He did countless works of which I generally liked most, my favorites were of course the pleasant string pieces perfect for a pleasant afternoon. But in recent years I really noticed how he evolved. I think his score for the Chunibyo movie was a really good effort as far as orchestral "film" writing goes.

He is also venturing further and further into "classical/concert" territory and thankfully he works in a musical environment which encourages such tendencies. So it’s no conincidence to find a whole String Quartet piece in four movements on his soundtracks these days. I’ve also really enjoyed his score for Euphonium for the most part. His music has that shamelessly schmaltzy drama quality I adore and his score certainly matched the beautiful visuals. But he also did some arrangements for the concert pieces as well which also feature the melody of the drama score. Akito Matsuda is really improving and as of late it won’t be long now until I’m reallly looking forward to one of his scores in the future.

About the Hibike project, well, if nothing else we got little intimate moments where the instruments shined and some beautifully animated concert performances. Pretty damn neat.
On a side note I’m also enjoying the music around the Euphonium project, it’s neat to hear your standard pop performed with a little more meat & Brass

A shame they didn’t release it separately with the beautiful artwork. Maybe you can purchase it individually someday, I will point it out in this thread when that happens. Ultimately Matsuda wrote a concert work for an anime film and it gets released on the same day it premieres, so I shouldn’t be too gloomy over here. If I remember right, there’s more Hibike Euphonium films coming and Matsuda will be doing the BGM for those again as well as new concert works, so all is well. Below are his other concert works and film scores he did before Liz.

Chuunibyo and Other Delusions
The Film Score

Download (https://mega.nz/#!OBIFnSyS!ORI_5VYjVziAsshf3pmBWWe2nr2xG0IJ04Ds7Ecp24Q)

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

His only substantial film score (so far). Matsuda wrote it when he turned 30. This is all of the orchestral tracks. He is confident with the orchestra and writes in a style I think we could hear more of these days. There’s certainly potential here. His recent film score "Take on Me" (featured below) has some really good moments too, fake brass be damned: http://picosong.com/wCVDg

Sound! Matsuda
Works for String Ensemble, Brass Quartet, Wind Orchestra and Television Ensemble

Download (https://mega.nz/#!iFJCGAqI!dEQT6ugyF2yWXNtDvP-6G5wrMQl6CB86C46ARWR1bGM)

Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDiyeydXtnQ)

A compilation of all his other noteworthy stuff, from Glassip to Bahamut to Hibike, including all concert works as well the Kitauji Quartet (Trumpet, Eupho, Tuba, Bass) from the character songs, as well as new arrangements from my side for Hibike, Zero Kara and Take on Me. He thinks with the mind of a classical composer, and I hope he can gets his hands on more projects. It has to be said I love the Wind Orchestra versions of the songs for Hibike he arranged and since I like TRUE’s voice they are a special treat. She and the Orchestra seem to be extra passionate when they perform it for the Movies so I’ve picked the Movie versions.

That’s all for now. Please Enjoy.

I am truly glad that someone else notice Akito Matsuda’s works and make that kind of topic. I think he is quite underrated and should do more "ambitious works" just like Grimoire of Zero, which was really good from my point of view. One of my favorites OST from that guy will always be Glasslip and its absolutely marvelous 10 min track "Toutotsu na Atarimae no Kodoku". This anime is a complete failure except for its wonderful music, especially that track. Today, it’s still one of the true masterpieces of my library.
I really hope he will expand the scope of his works in the future and I’m looking forward to hear more of his compositions!

I am truly glad that someone else notice Akito Matsuda’s works and make that kind of topic. I think he is quite underrated and should do more "ambitious works" just like Grimoire of Zero, which was really good from my point of view. One of my favorites OST from that guy will always be Glasslip and its absolutely marvelous 10 min track "Toutotsu na Atarimae no Kodoku". This anime is a complete failure except for its wonderful music, especially that track. Today, it’s still one of the true masterpieces of my library.
I really hope he will expand the scope of his works in the future and I’m looking forward to hear more of his compositions!

I know this is off topic, but could you reupload the Orphen Revenge soundtracks in that one thread you posted in? Thread 205643