Vinphonic
10-03-2017, 04:14 PM
The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Toshiyuki Watanabe
Toshiyuki Watanabe is Hollywood Silver Age Film music incarnate. His greatest personal influence is old Disney and John Williams and both can be found aplenty in his work, in addition to Alan Silvestri and Friends. Perhaps not the most technical impressive composer but certainly among the most touching.
The first three albums as well as “Hymn of the Forest and the Earth” as well as “Triforce of the Gods” show Watanabe as a symphonic poet the most, starting with his fantastic compositions and arrangements for Sailor Moon, still one of my all-time symphonic albums from Japan, a glorious poem of brass fanfares and romantic dances.
Roman Empire is another masterpiece, perhaps his most mature work to date, a Japanese stunning musical tribute to the Mediterranean’s most famous empire, with a beautiful fusion of ancient vocals, guitar and orchestra, taking us through a musical journey from its rise to fall. And here's Watanabe conducting his masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL_ZeBU-Hsc
Toshiie To Matsu has everything I love about NHK Taiga Dramas: Killer theme, classical gestures and beautiful romance. Watanabe goes more classical than usual for this one and it has certainly concerto characteristics in parts. Great stuff.
Now we come to the stuff you’re all here for, I’ve put hours of sweat and tears into it but I completely remastered Watanabes three fantastic Silver Age SciFI rides to professional Hollywood sound standard. I think you will find them now even more thrilling to listen to than before.
Back to 1985 (http://picosong.com/7w7g)
Space Travelers has everything! There’s Silvestri, Goldsmith, Williams… almost no one gets spared and all in a fantastic, leitmotif-driven SciFi ride. Must-have for any serious film music collector.
Majestic Prince is a theme park ride full of Williams and developed and revised ideas from previous efforts for the Mothra Trilogy. Moments like “Last Stand” or “Reinforcements” make it one of the best SciFi scores in recent memory.
Space Brothers is an incredibly pure and uplifting Americanaesque score and among the most human musical tribute to achieve your dreams. It has moments in it, that combined with the show’s very best episodes, achieves a level of drama and emotion, millions of CGI dollars and explosions can’t achieve. “Beauty of the Stars” shows the very best aspects of Watanabe’s romantic side. I personally can’t wait for the shows continuation. One of the most inspirational TV scores ever created.
Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot to Marple is a precursor to Space Brothers, but no less lovely with a bit more classical touch (but when its set in London that’s to be expected). Pieces like Epilogue are just sublime.
Ohisama is a classical inspired Silver Age score for TV and full of delightful dances and beautiful romantic intermezzos. In the best way a Silver Age romantic score.
Mori Monogatari does not disappoint as an NHK drama and is basically a conplementary piece to Roman Empire and a beautiful war drama. But the action is not exactly what you expect, it’s in the style of his early career, which is definitely worth a look.
Speaking of his earky career, his three Mothra score are basically the prototype for his later rides and full of fantastic melodies and Hollywood adventure action.
The Best of Toshiyuki Watanabe ~Melodies~ is a compilation from his concert, television and film work and a must have for any musicians. It’s just so full of the very essence of music, demonstrating you don’t need to apply the most complex technical skills to make your music soar. I would say every soundtrack featured here is worth checking out. His Celebration Overture is not only a loveletter to John Williams but a brilliant composition in its own right.
His Voice of Heaven is a much quieter but no less effecting, beautiful outburst of melody and a compilation from his vast NHK work.
So that about concludes it and after three years of conception and one and a half years of sharing, my Legacy project is very close to the finishing line.
As always, I hope you have a blast with the music and always remember We Are All Shining Divine Sparks.
LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!Z3RVRSJT!d2LFQGURtrRg3cSQcSl1fMAKA0Lmqp4HQW0h-SjEge0)
New releases:
MAZINGER Z -INFINITY-
Tokyo Studio Orchestra
LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!K54GSBRa!njmp3fQykOtAtQijpszF-LG-4WDTKa9wLXYs0v3LhcM)
Music composed, orchestrated and conducted by Toshiyuki Watanabe
Another "scored to picture" anime film score. 60s/70s/80s action galore mixed with symphonic setpieces and some sparingly but effectivly used drums:
Army strategy preperation (http://picosong.com/wymgX) / Battle and destruction ~ Dr. Hell (http://picosong.com/wymgY/)
It's pure unfiltered testosterone in a battle for the planet and absolutely bonkers (female robots shooting rockets out of their bosoms is the least notable). But even then the score is not nonestop action. Watanabe has a little romantic core with "Lisa's Theme" woven into the score and even a "love theme" (based on the credit song The Last Letter, which is a really good pop ballad to end the score on) appears. The middle part of the score is a welcome breather between the major action setpieces in the film and an emotional core even makes up the score's climax, including a stellar four minute piece for orchestra and choir that has to be one of the best pieces Watanabe ever wrote. But the main attraction has to be the action and oh boy there's a lot and in plenty of styles, from one minute thrills to four minute extravaganza, this score has it all. This will probably not be the last time we hear of Mazinger, either a new movie or a TV series seems like a certain affair, given how pretty much all of Go Nagai's works got TV adaptions recently. In any case, this is a kickass mecha score with some of the best action I've heard in a long time.
Enjoy and buy it if you love it!
Toshiyuki Watanabe
Toshiyuki Watanabe is Hollywood Silver Age Film music incarnate. His greatest personal influence is old Disney and John Williams and both can be found aplenty in his work, in addition to Alan Silvestri and Friends. Perhaps not the most technical impressive composer but certainly among the most touching.
The first three albums as well as “Hymn of the Forest and the Earth” as well as “Triforce of the Gods” show Watanabe as a symphonic poet the most, starting with his fantastic compositions and arrangements for Sailor Moon, still one of my all-time symphonic albums from Japan, a glorious poem of brass fanfares and romantic dances.
Roman Empire is another masterpiece, perhaps his most mature work to date, a Japanese stunning musical tribute to the Mediterranean’s most famous empire, with a beautiful fusion of ancient vocals, guitar and orchestra, taking us through a musical journey from its rise to fall. And here's Watanabe conducting his masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL_ZeBU-Hsc
Toshiie To Matsu has everything I love about NHK Taiga Dramas: Killer theme, classical gestures and beautiful romance. Watanabe goes more classical than usual for this one and it has certainly concerto characteristics in parts. Great stuff.
Now we come to the stuff you’re all here for, I’ve put hours of sweat and tears into it but I completely remastered Watanabes three fantastic Silver Age SciFI rides to professional Hollywood sound standard. I think you will find them now even more thrilling to listen to than before.
Back to 1985 (http://picosong.com/7w7g)
Space Travelers has everything! There’s Silvestri, Goldsmith, Williams… almost no one gets spared and all in a fantastic, leitmotif-driven SciFi ride. Must-have for any serious film music collector.
Majestic Prince is a theme park ride full of Williams and developed and revised ideas from previous efforts for the Mothra Trilogy. Moments like “Last Stand” or “Reinforcements” make it one of the best SciFi scores in recent memory.
Space Brothers is an incredibly pure and uplifting Americanaesque score and among the most human musical tribute to achieve your dreams. It has moments in it, that combined with the show’s very best episodes, achieves a level of drama and emotion, millions of CGI dollars and explosions can’t achieve. “Beauty of the Stars” shows the very best aspects of Watanabe’s romantic side. I personally can’t wait for the shows continuation. One of the most inspirational TV scores ever created.
Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot to Marple is a precursor to Space Brothers, but no less lovely with a bit more classical touch (but when its set in London that’s to be expected). Pieces like Epilogue are just sublime.
Ohisama is a classical inspired Silver Age score for TV and full of delightful dances and beautiful romantic intermezzos. In the best way a Silver Age romantic score.
Mori Monogatari does not disappoint as an NHK drama and is basically a conplementary piece to Roman Empire and a beautiful war drama. But the action is not exactly what you expect, it’s in the style of his early career, which is definitely worth a look.
Speaking of his earky career, his three Mothra score are basically the prototype for his later rides and full of fantastic melodies and Hollywood adventure action.
The Best of Toshiyuki Watanabe ~Melodies~ is a compilation from his concert, television and film work and a must have for any musicians. It’s just so full of the very essence of music, demonstrating you don’t need to apply the most complex technical skills to make your music soar. I would say every soundtrack featured here is worth checking out. His Celebration Overture is not only a loveletter to John Williams but a brilliant composition in its own right.
His Voice of Heaven is a much quieter but no less effecting, beautiful outburst of melody and a compilation from his vast NHK work.
So that about concludes it and after three years of conception and one and a half years of sharing, my Legacy project is very close to the finishing line.
As always, I hope you have a blast with the music and always remember We Are All Shining Divine Sparks.
LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!Z3RVRSJT!d2LFQGURtrRg3cSQcSl1fMAKA0Lmqp4HQW0h-SjEge0)
New releases:
MAZINGER Z -INFINITY-
Tokyo Studio Orchestra
LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!K54GSBRa!njmp3fQykOtAtQijpszF-LG-4WDTKa9wLXYs0v3LhcM)
Music composed, orchestrated and conducted by Toshiyuki Watanabe
Another "scored to picture" anime film score. 60s/70s/80s action galore mixed with symphonic setpieces and some sparingly but effectivly used drums:
Army strategy preperation (http://picosong.com/wymgX) / Battle and destruction ~ Dr. Hell (http://picosong.com/wymgY/)
It's pure unfiltered testosterone in a battle for the planet and absolutely bonkers (female robots shooting rockets out of their bosoms is the least notable). But even then the score is not nonestop action. Watanabe has a little romantic core with "Lisa's Theme" woven into the score and even a "love theme" (based on the credit song The Last Letter, which is a really good pop ballad to end the score on) appears. The middle part of the score is a welcome breather between the major action setpieces in the film and an emotional core even makes up the score's climax, including a stellar four minute piece for orchestra and choir that has to be one of the best pieces Watanabe ever wrote. But the main attraction has to be the action and oh boy there's a lot and in plenty of styles, from one minute thrills to four minute extravaganza, this score has it all. This will probably not be the last time we hear of Mazinger, either a new movie or a TV series seems like a certain affair, given how pretty much all of Go Nagai's works got TV adaptions recently. In any case, this is a kickass mecha score with some of the best action I've heard in a long time.
Enjoy and buy it if you love it!