From THE BIG ORCHESTRAL ACTION MUSIC THREAD! (Thread 57893)


Dragonaut
-THE RESONANCE-
Studio Orchestra

Music composed and arranged by Kousuke Yamashita



Download (https://mega.co.nz/#!SlZEjQLL!MUtchSr_13s4xrDhNJAWlA-oB2nXfzQAKQeA9373Soc)
MP3 / V0 / 39 Tracks

I know it's been posted before but this score is another case of rather unfortunate presentation on the OST. The (really) good stuff easily fits on one CD so I made one myself. I always prefer the film score approach on soundtracks so I tried to work in a little narrative structure (which is absent on most anime scores). This is actually very easy to do since Yamashita is perhaps the closest equivalent to a traditional Hollywood composer in the anime business. For dragonaut he wrote two major themes. The first one is what I call the "Dragonaut Theme", the bold one of the two. It has many variations throughout the score, sometimes uplifting, sometimes tragic and it appears in many tracks as a motif (usually Brass). The second major theme is "Toa's Theme" or rather "Romance Theme" first heared in "Vestiges". It's more gentle than the first one but is also used for action in "Toa's power". Throughtout the score it illustrates the development between Jin and Toa and becomes more prominent at the end. The Dragonaut theme is given one final reprise as a motif during "Thank you" as the score finishes with one final reprise of Toa's Theme. In between we even have a few secondary themes including a villain theme that is a bit too understated to be relevant and a little venture into classical territory with "Baumgard" and the major setpiece "I will save you". The orchestration is typical Yamashita, even more confident after his first masterpiece "Glass Fleet" and Dragonaut has many pieces written in that grand SciFi style.

But he also uses the "modern sound" very well as we have Electric Guitars, Drums and Synth all tastefully interwoven with the orchestral score. Pieces like "Critical breakthrough" or "Fragment of Doom" really show how Yamashita can make the Guitars and drums sound like a natural part of the orchestra, not underwhelming the whole piece by giving them too much spotlight (like Tokyo Ravens sadly does).
In short, this is an excellent modern orchestral score, showing once again the class of Yamashita and how well Electronics and Orchestra can mix.

Enjoy

But he also uses the "modern sound" very well as we have Electric Guitars, Drums and Synth all tastefully interwoven with the orchestral score. Pieces like "Critical breakthrough" or "Fragment of Doom" really show how Yamashita can make the Guitars and drums sound like a natural part of the orchestra, not underwhelming the whole piece by giving them too much spotlight (like Tokyo Ravens sadly does).
In short, this is an excellent modern orchestral score, showing once again the class of Yamashita and how well Electronics and Orchestra can mix.

Not to make the discussion about Tokyo Ravens, but I thought that was a strong effort by Maiko Iuchi. Iuchi had precious little experience with orchestral music before Tokyo Ravens and I thought he adapted quite well to suddenly having a budget and a 40-piece orchestra to work with along with his electronics and electric guitarist. Some of the electronic elements go overboard, but I think it's overall a nuanced score that has a surprising amount of gentle moments for an action anime. Yui Morishita's gentle piano formed the backbone of the score in a manner similar to James Horner's piano in The Amazing Spider-Man and that crafted something surprisingly beautiful and heartfelt. If anything, I would blame the problem on the mixing and mastering putting too much emphasis on the beats and guitars, because as a whole Tokyo Ravens felt well-composed to me.