2egg48: Thank you so much for Gaia Gear! Do you have any plans to post the first soundtrack of the collection, please?

I don't have it :(

Hamaguchi Girlz und Panzer der Film also has no flac on several private trackers that have everything typically ... :(

@ topSawyer, the pass is described under the link ...

This is going to be a great album: http://square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/saga/orchestra/

10 orchestral medleys by Yamashita and others. Check out the samples.

The Unlimited SaGa battle theme is glorious and I love how the style of the original is integrated. I hope they put a good amount of Hamauzu pieces on this and not just Ito's music.

ok thank you

---------- Post added at 08:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 PM ----------


I don't have it :(

Hamaguchi Girlz und Panzer der Film also has no flac on several private trackers that have everything typically ... :(

@ topSawyer, the pass is described under the link ...
Thanks Enigma 0066
Provide the password= kawasaki^___^

Some of you may recall the music from The Tale of a Forest by Panu Aalito, released a few years ago by MovieScore Media. Well now the delightful follow-up score is released for Tale of a Lake. Digital release out today and CD release coming soon.
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/30893/TALE-OF-A-LAKE/
It is already available on Spotify for those of you who use that service. Such an unexpected surprise as I had only heard of this score very recently. Aalito really showed off his ability to write gorgeous melodies in the first score and continues to do so here.

Some of you may recall the music from The Tale of a Forest by Panu Aalito, released a few years ago by MovieScore Media. Well now the delightful follow-up score is released for Tale of a Lake. Digital release out today and CD release coming soon.
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/30893/TALE-OF-A-LAKE/
It is already available on Spotify for those of you who use that service. Such an unexpected surprise as I had only heard of this score very recently. Aalito really showed off his ability to write gorgeous melodies in the first score and continues to do so here.

totally agreed.Tale of a Lake is even better then the already gorgeous Tale of a Forest.Hope for many other Tales.his score for Island of Secrets is also a lot of fun.going through MSms impressive catalogue revealed that most if not all of it is available on spotify.dozens of hours of new scores to explore!happy dance.

TOLGA KASHIF
Queen Symphony (2002)
(featuring melodies composed by Queen)



OK, before we go any further... YES, this is a repost. I uploaded The Queen Symphony in August 2010, in MP3 format. TazerMonkey did a FLAC upgrade in 2013 but he has since retired and deactivated his links. So, here's a nice, new rip - in FLAC - with a few super "bonus features"...

If you're expecting just another "classic rock" album, with limp orchestrations of well-known songs, your expectations will be exceeded. Tolga Kashif's work is, in fact, a fully fledged six movement symphony - constructed from the ground up with Queen's raw material. Some people say this is the biggest piece of crap ever made. Some people say it's 21st century classical music's finest masterpiece. It is neither, of course; it is what it is - a massive symphonic love letter to Queen. It's heaps of fun, and it's well worth your time - even if you don't consider yourself a big fan of Queen. If you can appreciate a heart-wrending melody or two, and a massive symphony orchestra doing what a massive symphony orchestra does best, you'll find something worthwhile. This is not simply a collection of arrangements of Queen songs - it is, as the name implies, a coherent concert piece in its own right that utilises the melodies and harmonies but turns them into something completely different.

The style is shamelessly filmic - some have noted this as a weakness, and at least one typically foolish Amazon reviewer has written it off as "funeral music" but in my opinion they're rather off the mark.

Julian Kershaw, who orchestrated the piece from Kashif's very detailed sketches due to time constraints, frequently works with George Fenton - his work can be heard on The Blue Planet, Deep Blue, Planet Earth, and Earth - amongst others, and for other composers, Stardust, Around The World in 80 Days, and Dinotopia.

So, what we have here is an hour of hopelessly romantic, grandoise, sweeping, fun, and not at all tawdry, symphonic music - which really allows the source material to shine. It has been repeatedly noted over the past thirty years that Queen's music beats with a symphonic heart - so of course it made sense that a piece like this should be written sooner or later!

If you have the opportunity to hear it in the concert hall, as I did in 2007 (in Northampton's Derngate Theatre, with the Royal Philharmonic and Kashif conducting) it is well worth getting along to it. It's performed sporadically in the United Kingdom though not as often as it should be, and still from time to time around the world as well.

In my 2010 post, I apologised in advance for the poor quality of the scans and I will repeat that apology now. They're all crinkly and horrible. Somehow, the CD and the jewel case were separated in 2003. The case was destroyed and subsequently replaced, but the booklet disappeared for many years and eventually appeared, all screwed up at the bottom of a bag of old Christmas decorations.

I have tried to clean the scans up a little bit (I've included the 2010 scans so you can compare them) but they're not perfect and if you increase the brightness you'll see artifacts all over the place. Readable, but not pristine. I worked hardest on the front cover image, which is a rather nice embossed cardboard package and I'm glad to say the scan does it justice.

Original 2002 CD Release

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (leader: Rolf Wilson)
The London Voices (director: Terry Edwards)
The London Oratory School Schola (director: Michael McCarthy)
John Lenehan (piano)
Nicola Loud (violin)
Fran�ois Rive (cello)
Tolga Kashif (conductor)
Julian Kershaw (orchestrator)

FLAC with scans: https://mega.nz/#!Jhoy1ZCQ!30Z4sVsS9OdaPDjYVxm95nEU1RjSR7pQmPYRUzgGIzE (298mb)

This is the CD that's been uploaded before. It's a studio recording (Abbey Road) of the piece, made a couple of months before the premiere in August 2002.

Mini Documentary

H264 video, AAC audio: https://mega.nz/#!h8gFAQrA!SjsguEjM7_CLTGGtVilkmBZ_Jz1QBMQ0j2OKtSoZY4k (39mb)

EMI Records released this short (four minute) mini-documentary to promote the piece. It has some footage of the recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios and a brief conversation with the composer.

Live Concert Performance



A DVD of the world premiere performance (held on 6th November 2002 at the Royal Festival Hall) was released in 2003. The performers are the same as those on the studio recording.

High Quality - H264 video, FLAC audio: https://mega.nz/#!JoIA2SiY!o5XWJx9nnKWGZt15EfKBM8tVEWc6xh5fPUwAuLo6jNo (1.23gb)
Standard Quality - H265 video, AAC ~128kbps audio: https://mega.nz/#!RkpTBKoA!GcyOxtMsh3LaPIPLx42pticluCokG9K_3loVCPabjTQ (310mb)

Tolga Kashif's Original Synthesizer Sketches

FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!584CgBhb!0UAIQ_eLtH-afY8iYVH4xCee2sWIaB9e8-SuTQyoc6g(210mb)

One of the bonus features on the DVD is the ability to hear Kashif's early "sketches" for the work in synthesizer mockups. In actuality, the "sketches" add up to an hour of music and present the complete symphony. The synthesizer is utterly dreadful, but it's fascinating to hear an earlier "incarnation" of the piece and note the differences. For example, in the fifth movement we learn that Kashif originally planned a considerably lighter arrangement of "We Are The Champions", featuring a new-agey percussive beat. It doesn't fit with the piece but I actually find it quite a lovely interpretation of the song.

Erik Somers' Transcription for Concert Band



FLAC with scans - 318mb https://mega.nz/#!Q05XEaLR!OG2I0CQvr4-lb5RXpJN2aNh_CVblof7oNpB6I3Aheow

Banda Sinf�nica "La Art�stica" Bu�ol
Orfe�n Universitario de Valencia (conductor: Constantino Martinez Orts)
David Soliva (piano)
Francesc Navasquillo (violin)
David Barona (cello)
Henrie Adams (conductor)
Erik Somers (transcription)

This arrangement (by Dutch composer Erik Somers) was recorded by in Spain by Banda Sinf�nica "La Art�stica" Bu�ol, conducted by Henrie Adams. The CD recording is stitched together from the "best bits" of three live concerts given on consecutive days in May 2008. The three concerts were all played in different venues in different cities, unfortunately - though the recording engineers have done a very good job under the circumstances. The recording is a little bit rough and ready, but I find the arrangement fascinating.

Enjoy. :)
TT

Thanks a lot!

I HIGHLY recommed getting Arturo Rodriguez From Earth to Mars A Symphonic Journey.This is essentially Tall Starships Suite.80s Williams,Goldsmith and Horner SciFimusic Hommage done without ripping it off directly.Spectacular Album, every bit of it.

Thank you for the reccommendation - I'm listening on Spotify and have just bought the CD on eBay.

The orchestra is hilariously bad in places... but the music more than makes up for it.

I'm not hearing a homage here, just a very assured work in a symphonic style. I'm really enjoying it. Cheers!

Thank you for the reccommendation - I'm listening on Spotify and have just bought the CD on eBay.

The orchestra is hilariously bad in places... but the music more than makes up for it.

I'm not hearing a homage here, just a very assured work in a symphonic style. I'm really enjoying it. Cheers!

throughout the year i will go through the entire catalogue of msm and the extra scores on spotify from featured composers.arnau batallers score for the cathulu movies la herencia valdemar and the sequel are also stunning.massiv, gothic highly thematic and incredibly emotional with huge choral action horror tracks.if you enjoy evil dead, house of frankenstein and similar score you should check it out.

Thanks Tango for the Queen update and thanks hater for the suggestion. It is indeed more film score than symphony and pretty damn good.

ARTURO RODRIGUEZ
From Earth To Mars: A Symphonic Journey
Gate Of Creation
El Rostro De La Luna

The New Millennium Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, conducted by The Composer (From Earth To Mars)
Orquesta Sinf�nica de San Luis Potos�r (El Rostro De La Luna), conducted by Jose Miramontes Zapata
Philharmonia Orchestra (Gate Of Creation), conducted by The Composer



https://mega.nz/#!4lpjzAKY!IkI5XrQbNr10WZVySFYx6NFhywqyWJPYfEHC4HjRHak

Motivated by Hater's glowing review, I went off to listen to this piece of music and it flawed me. The orchestra is occasionally deficient but Dear God, with music like this who the hell cares? This comes from Spotify - it's NOT a crappy recording made during playback and subsequent re-encoding, but a direct copy of the Spotify stream, at 160kbps in MP3 format. Since MSM are offering this freely on Spotify I feel justified in making this upload. Normally, I wouldn't touch MSM because they're a small label and they do wonderful things for the film music community.

If you want lossless, go buy the CD. It's readily available and not expensive. This is one hour of glory. You have no excuse. :)

From the MovieScoreMedia website:


MovieScore Media takes a trip to outer space with the seven movement concert work From Earth to Mars: A Symphonic Journey and two other pieces, Gate of Creation and El Rostro de la Luna. The centerpiece was first performed in December 2000 and was Rodr�guez’s first professionally commissioned composition, ordered by The Kennedy Center / Imagination Celebration Fort Worth. By depicting the trip of the first human colony to Mars through the power of music, Rodr�guez wrote seven movements of orchestral majesty in the style of his favorite ’80s sci-fi scores and composers such as John Williams, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. The recording on the album is performed by 80 musicians (and choir) of The New Millennium Philharmonic Orchestra.

The album includes two other self-contained pieces by Rodr�guez. The opening track entitled “Gate of Creation” was commissioned for the Universidad de Monterrey for the opening of their Center for Art, Architecture and Design, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The first two performances in 2013 were accompanied by a light show projected onto the building. The album’s closing track is the composer’s latest composition, whose theme of space exploration nicely compliment From Earth to Mars. “El rostro de la Luna” (The Face of the Moon) was written especially for the orchestra that recorded it: the Orquesta Sinf�nica de San Luis Potos�.

Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Arturo Rodr�guez’s musical studies include the Universidad Aut�noma de Nuevo Le�n, Texas Christian University and Butler University. He is a Sundance Music Lab Composer Fellow (2010) and has been a participant for the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop (2003) and the 11th New York University Composers Seminar (2003). He has worked as an orchestrator with composers like Osvaldo Golijov and Stewart Copeland; he participated in the scores of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Freedom Cry (2013), Elemental (2012), Zipper (2014) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt (2011). His score for The Maid’s Room (2013) has been released by MovieScore Media and Kronos Records.

Enjoy!
TT :)

Edit: Somebody beat me - six months ago - and uploaded the iTunes version. It's here: Thread 188988

Yeah sharing Movie Score Media suggestions is a great idea. I pay for Spotify Premium so I love to be able to jump on and check out something new. Which brings me to two of my all time favorite scores they have released, Zacharias M De La Riva's Hierro and Imago Mortis. Both are lovely though a bit rough around the edges mastering-wise. I haven't been as impressed by his later works but these two are just lovely. Don't let the horror film covers scare you away because they are not typical horror scores at all.

For anyone who missed it: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Original Soundtrack (Thread 199634)

Courtesy of Leatherhead.

My adventures on spotify continue with Arnau Batallers Ermessenda.Another great score, fullorchestral, heavy on choir.religious, very dark, dramatic and sad.a few real standout tracks.Worth A listen
Arnau Batallers Heroes score is a lighthearted orchestral score with no mickey mousing, a great main theme, a perfect spaghetti western track and very relaxing thoughout.Lots of fun.
His score for Rec4 is more for Brian Tyler fans.And more like his recent work.Pales in comparison to his other works.
Zacarias m de La rivas score for the animated film Un gallo con mucho huevos is a fun mix of modern and classic and even 80s rock stuff.great classic heroic theme, used and varied often, tons of action (attack of the vultures is neat) Not as good as Gamba, but very enjoyable and maybe worth a buy.
Arnau Batallers score for the thriller Brotherhood is very melodic, dark, haunting with a little bit of action.worth a listen
This next score is a mixed bag.I mago mortis from Zacarias m de la riva is a fantasy horror score. i loved the first half, beautifull dark gothic but more in an elfman way.second half is full of horror music and little of it is enjoyable.worth a listen
Tad the lost explorer is another of his animated scores,an adventure score heavily influenced by hollywood adventure scores...a bit too much.couldnt get into it.
Roque Banos Fragile is an brilliant horror score, with emphasis on thematic wrting, goldsmithian action and suspense and quite haunting and gorgeous with big highlights.kinda a subtle evil dead.
Soren Hyldgaards Eye of the Eagle Compilation album is so glorious it wants me to get everything he ever wrote.his spider soundtrack is available here in ffshrine.
btw there is a shit ton of johan de mejis music on spotify, most isnt even available on amazon or elsewhere and its freakin fantastic.
and to end todays update a shoutout to jack gallagher. i discovered his work while i was searching for score-like classic music.there are two albums with his 2 symphonies and other works.both are indeed classical and complex, but have an overall feeling of goldsmith and williams to them.the first symphony is more 70s and 80s style of them and the new one is more like 90s style.highly recommended.

oh if anyone here has more of soren hyldgaard especially his full eye of the eagle score (not msms compilation) please upload it.

On Sahashi's Website (http://info.jqwaves.com/category/1374137-1.html) there was a recent entry about an interview. Can anyone translate what it was about? Did he announce a new project?
Soul of Gold was quite a return after years of low-key efforts so I'm hoping he at least returns for the new Full Metal Panic.

I usually just lurk this thread, because it's such a good read (to say nothing of listening). I can hardly offer you a decent contribution. But I can offer a tiny one!

A small piece I wrote was recorded this week, and I've finished mixing it. I hope it brings you a minute-and-a-half of enjoyment, or at least cynically displeased amusement.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21518480/ajd_fmMisrule_studio.flac - drier, studio sound
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21518480/ajd_fmMisrule_hall.flac - wetter, hall sound, but still quite close

I usually just lurk this thread, because it's such a good read (to say nothing of listening). I can hardly offer you a decent contribution. But I can offer a tiny one!

A small piece I wrote was recorded this week, and I've finished mixing it. I hope it brings you a minute-and-a-half of enjoyment, or at least cynically displeased amusement.

That is a cool composition! It almost has a Yoko Kanno opening in the brass :). How much does something like that cost? I am curious.

The first bars do seem inspired by Exodus from Aquarion :D
Thank you very much for sharing your work, Von Stalhein, I enjoy it very much. Some little things I noticed and I only mean it as a kind suggestion and you might disagree:
I would have repeated the thematic idea on strings right after the brass with a little counterpoint to really hit it home to people's brains and at 1:10 I would have used flute with winds performing the theme before the brass to strengthen the impact of the closing bars, making the piece more dynamic, but I of course don't know if it's picture-locked. I also had a little fun with the studio recording, I hope you don't mind: http://picosong.com/8Bb5/ (flac) (https://mega.nz/#!30BxRLoS!8Y7leQg4GKTKF5JA8R417CIsc1ahA2FNmjtQDdr3830)

I would love to see more of that, it fills my heart with joy to know people are out there who still write music.


JBarron2005: Have you heared of the 99$ Orchestra? I personally don't have experience with them but I might consider it in the future. http://99dollarorchestrastore.com/

Spotify Odyssee part 2
Nuno malos score A Celestine Prophecy is simply wonderful and a treat for fans of horner-like music.its incredibly pleasent with great choir (the track heaven deserves its name) and a handfull of really good action cues.must have
Hans Zimmers and Richard Harvey collaboration The little Prince was a fruitful one, much much better, classic and ochestral than we are used from him.did not like the french singer but thats just me.
Sarah Class seems to be a singer and songwriter, but also wrote two scores.One for the BBC docu Africa, which is as good as the fenton and foster music and infinitely better than the boring steven price 2cd the hunt which put me to sleep halfway through.Africa is great and worth a buy.
Her other score is Brother of the Wind, some kind of nature drama about a boy and an eagle.music is very nice, emotional, but also not very interesting.
Jessica Currys gamescore Everybody goes to the Rapture is wonderful.its very pleasent and full of choir which sings actuall english lyrics.loved it.must have.
Peter Batemans Atlantis The Last Days of Kaptara is a massiv fullorchestral and mostly classical fantasy actionadventure score..and i dont think i heard any temptrack.its really good and worth a buy.
George Kallis Gagarin First in Space kinda sounds like the next Civlilisation Beyond Earth Addon with an russian twist.Its a mix between modern and classic, very emotional,dramatic and full of pathos with lots of russian choir.i like it a lot.woth a buy for fans of civilisation BE and RT.
btw if you dont have Kevin Kaskas Tone Poems Cd...get it immediately.Never heard a so faithfull take on williams and its by LSO nonetheless.one of my favorite cds of the past decade, along with tall ships,cinema symphony,planet earth symphony and the new from earth to mars.

The Kaska Tone Poems disc is not by the LSO, it's by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. :)

The Kaska Tone Poems disc is not by the LSO, it's by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. :)

yeah but the golden falcon is by the LSO

So, five minutes of a 65 minute album is by the LSO. Pardon my mistake. ;)

it doesnt matter. everything is performed expertly and sounds delicious.kinda wish LSO would rerecord from earth to mars.oh and the jack gallagher symphonies are also LSO and glorious.

---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 PM ----------


So, five minutes of a 65 minute album is by the LSO. Pardon my mistake. ;)

tango i think its time to dedicate a post to marc timon barcelo because...just listen to the little wizard, witches and coliseum.wow...WOW....i�m beginning to think he may be just what the doctor ordered.little wizard is better than gamba, witches is better than little wizard and coliseum is completely insane.little wizard and witches have no modern touches whatsover, very 80s.no temptrack.coliseum is an experiment if you can combine rosza and zimmer.and yes you can.at least if you�re this talented.even his musical josefat is bloody amazing.has the 90s disney alan menken sound throughout with great background score.

ARTURO RODRIGUEZ
From Earth To Mars
Gate Of Creation
El Rostro De La Luna

New Millennium Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir (From Earth To Mars)
Orquesta Sinf�nica de San Luis Potos� (El Rostro De La Luna)

No conductors are credited; nor is the orchestra which performed Gate Of Creation. I guess this information will probably be in the CD booklet, so I'll update this when it turns up.


gate of creation appears to be performed in abbey road by the london philharmonic orchestra

https://mega.nz/#!4lpjzAKY!IkI5XrQbNr10WZVySFYx6NFhywqyWJPYfEHC4HjRHak

Motivated by Hater's glowing review, I went off to listen to this piece of music and it flawed me. The orchestra is occasionally deficient but Dear God, with music like this who the hell cares? This comes from Spotify - it's NOT a crappy recording made during playback and subsequent re-encoding, but a direct copy of the Spotify stream, at 160kbps in MP3 format. Since MSM are offering this freely on Spotify I feel justified in making this upload. Normally, I wouldn't touch MSM because they're a small label and they do wonderful things for the film music community.

If you want lossless, go buy the CD. It's readily available and not expensive... and if you can't or don't want to, hey, LAME at 160kbps isn't THAT bad! :)

From the MovieScoreMedia website:



Enjoy!
TT :)

Edit: Somebody beat me - six months ago - and uploaded the iTunes version. It's here: Thread 188988

JBarron2005: Have you heared of the 99$ Orchestra? I personally don't have experience with them but I might consider it in the future. http://99dollarorchestrastore.com/

I definitely will try them out some time! I find the cost quite reasonable. I just hope it isn't one of those things where it is too good to be true. But if it is, then I will most certainly be getting that FFXII orchestra album out :).

Request password

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It's not a bad price for an orchestra of that size and standard. The main draw is the fact that you can book micro-sessions.

If you want to test your orchestration skills, get a feel for the process, seven minutes of studio time is all you need; it's enough time to do a rough and ready rehearsal and record a good one to three minutes of music. If it goes well, you'll be more experienced and that's when you go back for an hour session (849 euros) or a whole day (5,000 euros).

Bear in mind though that the orchestra is pretty naff and it's only a 30 piece - four woodwind, eight brass, piano, and seventeen strings. There is no mention on the website of percussion so either there isn't any and you'd have to dub it with samples later on, or there IS percussion and that means fewer strings. Not that you can't do a lot with a 30 piece orchestra, but it's worth bearing in mind. [Edit: The video on the website clarifies; there is one percussionist available and the string section is 5/4/3/3/1.]

It's rough and ready and cheap. Personally, I'd be interested in doing my experiments with them but going elsewhere for the bigger session.

I see they're offering a MIDI to score service for 89 euros per minute. That is really worth considering.

You could write a 90 second test piece, send them a MIDI file, and receive a recording and spend just over 200 euros.

(Americans - warning - they bill themselves as the 99 dollar orchestra but they're actually the 99 euro orchestra... 99 euros is about $114 at the moment.)

Anyone happen to have a high quality version of the Romancing SaGa 2 Eternal Romance album? I came across the track Aspirants and I really enjoy it.

Ike Yoshihiro The BEST -20th Anniversary Selection- (2007)
Yoshihiro Ike(池頼広) VGMdb (http://vgmdb.net/artist/1938)

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!AggW2JrR!YCh8g0_tQNGBM-B42-9Z0ycYRarhum4ADwR63GRz_m4)

Thanks to everyone for the comments. For those interested, it was indeed a recording with the $99 Orchestra. I've had plenty of time playing and conducting orchestras, but never recording them, or with my own material. As tango says, the opportunity value of a seven minute session is pretty high! But don't expect miracles; for example, they never played the piece through in one take (partially accounted for in advance when I composed the piece). Also, there's diminishing returns on session cost. If you're going to book much more than half a day, it's worth reaching out to other professional recording orchestras (especially in Eastern Europe) to get quotes.

@tangotreats: out of interest, do you think my recording is better, worse, or on par for what you'd expect?

Aargh! I'm so sorry, I whined on and on about the orchestra and totally neglected to comment on your piece!

Well, to start with... the orchestra isn't great as you discovered... quite how you can crack as badly as they did in the opening bars I don't know... That wasn't a difficult passage by any means. Bearing in mind almost no rehearsal time and the microscopic budget, I'd say you did really, really well. I really like the piece, too - trying to compress ideas in 90 seconds and still write something that sounds "complete" is not easy and you managed to establish a couple of themes, mess with them a bit, and even manage a nice full-circle coda.

At some point this year I'm going to buy a 21 minute session and record something; a nice round five minutes. If it goes well, I've got a sampler album I can use to raise funds for a longer session with a bigger orchestra. If it goes horribly wrong, well, I can earn back that money back with a week of overtime - and I don't look like a prat in front of a prestigious orchestra. It's a win-win scenario.

I agree with you - for longer sessions, The 99$ Orchestra loses its appeal... but for its completely unique ability to buy tiny chunks of time means you can test the waters, give yourself an invaluable education, and not spend a lot of money.

I bet you're listening to this recording a hundred times a day and analysing what worked, what didn't, and you're beginning to connect those experiences in your head to write a new piece...

News: Kohei Tanaka and IMAGINE (which employs Hamaguchi, Matsuo, Inai, etc.) will be providing the music for the upcoming 24 episode fantasy adventure series Endride.

Tanaka also finished recording the music Gravity Daze 2 last week, so we should be getting a good amount of new music from him this year.

Edit: Kohei Tanaka's comment: "For a long time I've wanted to write full-scale fantasy music. With this work, I feel that wish will finally come true."

Oh, that is just fantastic! :D

Edit: Once again, Hiroshi Takaki goes WAY above and beyond the call of duty in YET ANOTHER shitty Precure series that premiered tonight. The expected HYPER-CHEERFUL disco stuff is there, but so is the proper orchestral score... which seems to get a little better and a little more symphonic every year. Takaki really, REALLY need to do another big sci-fi series with a good budget. Tytania was far, far too long ago for my liking.

Yeah I mostly was so distracted by the missteps of the orchestra in that short piece that I have a hard time getting down to the music itself. But then I've rarely been able to hear the music behind the recording. Thinking of how bad they would screw up something Tango wrote is just yikes!

Alan Menken
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
[SIZE=5]Orchestral Score

Thanks So Much For This! I Really Look Forward to Hearing This. :D

I have updated my post of From Earth To Mars by Arturo Rodriguez to reflect new information that was printed in the physical CD booklet.


Yeah I mostly was so distracted by the missteps of the orchestra in that short piece that I have a hard time getting down to the music itself. But then I've rarely been able to hear the music behind the recording. Thinking of how bad they would screw up something Tango wrote is just yikes!

The orchestra's not great, but it's not terrible. That's what your average orchestra sounds like when it's had no rehearsal time. It's bloody hard to look past crappy performances, dodgy mastering, and poor recordings sometimes... but there's so much great music out there sometimes you just gotta. ;)

I don't think they'd mangle my music too badly. One "quirk" of my orchestrations is that I like a lot of bassoons (four or five) but the $99 orchestra is very brass-heavy; it badly short-changes the woodwind in favour of making up an 8-strong brass section. Strings are pretty weedy too. I guess that's understandable but I'd have to do a fair bit of re-arranging if I were to record something extant. (What the hell am I going to do with those notes?) I'm planning to write something specific for the first session; exactly tailored to the "shape" of the ensemble. If there's no live percussion I'll use MIDI in the mix - grudgingly, but if you need to thin out an orchestra, percussion players are the logical choice to drop because they can be sampled so well. I don't want a lot; timpani and cymbals will do me nicely, snare would be nice but I can live without them.

Given a choice (the $99 orchestra doesn't offer a choice) I would probably rebalance the orchestra - if I had to stay at thirty players I'd drop the pianist, two horns, and one cello and gain two additional bassoons, one additional flute, and one additional oboe. I'd probably go up to 42 players for a proper session; 6/5/4/3/2 strings (20 total) plus four bassoons, three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, three trumpets, three horns, two trombones, a tuba, one timpani, and one general percussionist.

If things work out with the $99 orchestra I'm going to stick the results on a CD, copy it two hundred times, and use it as a fundraiser. Whatever money I make (I have a rich cousin I should really get back in contact with...) will go into a full day with another, larger, orchestra; probably in the Czech Republic and go from there. (I will pay for it all out of my own pocket if I have to, but I think it could be at least partially funded by donations. Even a few hundred would take care of travel and accommodation expenses.)

I don't expect to get famous, rich, or even moderately wealthy, not do I want to build a career as a composer. It would be nice if a concert or film score commission or two might come to pass... but mainly it's just something I want to do as a purely selfish venture. The very nature of my thoughts are orchestral... and since I have problems adequately expressing myself, the possibility of recording an album of my own music with live musicians means more to me than I think anybody realises.

Even if the music is terrible, the session is a disaster and a waste of money... I will have done something I wanted to do in my life. :)

�������������

Many thanks for the Yoshihiro Ike collection. I am glad to say that there is quite a lot of nice orchestral music and smaller ensemble pieces without synth. Removing a few of the synth-heavy tracks and it is quite nice. I may post my tracklist changes later if someone is interested.

EDIT: Wow! I've been listening to Fernando Velazquez' score for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on Spotify. Why didn't they hire this guy for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Anyway this is a seriously impressive orchestral work from Velazquez. I have been enjoying recently his Concert Suites released by Quartet Records (CD arriving soon!) and I could easily imagine a suite from P&P&Z fitting right in on there. Such a lovely combination of styles with solid themes throughout and only a handful of source cues. While Crimson Peak didn't really reach me emotionally this one has all the right parts of a great score.

Well I took the critique from my last arrangement/orchestration for the FF7 Materia project and got a new mixer to put the instruments together. The result, I think is a LOT better. Anyway the new album, which is called SUCCESSOR: Final Fantasy VIII Remixed, I did two arrangements: Drifting (which is in a Jazz Noir style) and Find Your Way (which is a chamber orchestra arrangement inspired by the likes of Shiro Hamaguchi). I wanted to share this with you guys in the hopes you all enjoy :)! I am no where near Hamaguchi-san's level but one day I hope to be!

Find Your Way for Chamber Orchestra - https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/find-your-way-final

And if you want the whole album which I really enjoy! Really there is something for everyone! You can find it here: https://loudr.fm/release/successor-final-fantasy-viii-remixed/UcaXy

And if a purchase is a hard sell to you at first, then listen on Spotify :).

I am glad to hear this new piece. It blends together quite nicely and you have some solid performances out of your players. I am quite glad to hear that you are adding this style of music to those remix projects. I'm sure others can give you a more detailed critique.

THAT'S BETTER! :D

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it! I definitely try to offer more refined orchestral music and I think it makes me stronger as a composer and arranger to know these techniques. I will be doing other orchestral projects soon and a new recording with the same group of musicians. It will be from Mass Effect 3 and I am taking it in a concerto route. As for other stuff, I am delving into European folk styles for my next production along with other arrangers. All the music for that will strictly be JRPG selections and there are the usual popular series but there are a few rarities too. I'll be announcing that soon!

You are going to end up with a reputation as the guy who knows he *could* turn in some cheap synthy trash and still get a big fanbase... but instead offers sensitive, acoustic arrangements played by real people.

That's the kind of stuff that helps ease people into more traditional film music, and then it's only a short hop over to classical.

With five people and a bit of judicious mixing you've ended up with a pretty good chamber ensemble of 20-25 players. The sound isn't perfect but it puts some commercial recordings to shame. That said, watch out for tuning... the issues are fewer than in previous recordings but in some passages - for example when the flute doubles the solo violin at 0:54 it makes the fillings in my teeth vibrate. ;)

How are your players tuning their instruments prior to recording?

I can't say I'm a fan of the music you've chosen to arrange (my feelings about Hamauzu are well known) but your arrangements are lovely, getting better each time, and your commitment to live performance is an inspiration.

:)

---------- Post added at 10:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

You are going to end up with a reputation as the guy who knows he *could* turn in some cheap synthy trash and still get a big fanbase... but instead offers sensitive, acoustic arrangements played by real people.

That's the kind of stuff that helps ease people into more traditional film music, and then it's only a short hop over to classical.

With five people and a bit of judicious mixing you've ended up with a pretty good chamber ensemble of 20-25 players. The sound isn't perfect but it puts some commercial recordings to shame. That said, watch out for tuning... the issues are fewer than in previous recordings but in some passages - for example when the flute doubles the solo violin at 0:54 it makes the fillings in my teeth vibrate. ;)

How are your players tuning their instruments prior to recording?

I can't say I'm a fan of the music you've chosen to arrange (my feelings about Hamauzu are well known) but your arrangements are lovely, getting better each time, and your commitment to live performance is an inspiration.

(And thank you for realising stringed instruments can make different sounds; pizzicato and tremolo specifically seem to have been almost completely killed off by contemporary arrangers...)

:)

Well considering this is a FFVIII track and thus by Uematsu no point in mentioning Hamauzu. But then he likes what he likes.

Tango,

Actually I have the strings record everything first and then the rest of the instruments record theirs and are supposed to tune to the dominant section, in which case the strings. In my Mass Effect one I am having everything tune to the piano simply because the piano is the feature and also the hardest to tune out of everything in the ensemble. But honestly with the productions of these albums happening within three months, I didn't really think to check that part. I usually have so much going on these days. Your ears must be more sensitive to the pitch than mine, but generally I leave a reminder of how I wish everything to be tuned. I am also hoping to do smaller releases including a FFX chamber work that is 100% strings only and I will be busting out some interesting effects that have also been killed off by contemporary arrangers (Bartok Pizz being one of them).

And I am very grateful for your support of my efforts! I still think my works are better when using fewer instruments such as my Skyrim chamber arrangements on my album. I was able to make the effect of ice melting and glacial shifts in Secunda using pizz effects and in Ancient Stones I tried to channel the power of a full orchestra with as few musicians as possible. I think a lot of composers now think they have to have over 100 piece orchestras, but when you get past a certain number things get covered up and then you just have blaring noise. I mean big sounds are ok, but do not necessarily need to have tons of musicians to achieve them. This is why I believe Japanese composers are so excellent in music and can make magic happen with so little. I learn a lot through finding out what really makes a composition work and then leaving those things exposed. It helps me write full ensembles A LOT because then when I learn all of the small pieces, I can put them all together.

And I hope to to make a Hamauzu only album and hopefully I can get you to enjoy it :P. I will accept that challenge lol!

Well considering this is a FFVIII track and thus by Uematsu no point in mentioning Hamauzu. But then he likes what he likes.

"No point"?

JB has arranged Hamauzu in the past and I wanted to make it clear that whilst I'm not a fan of the composers in question, I have great respect and love for the quality of the arrangements.


Your ears must be more sensitive to the pitch than mine, but generally I leave a reminder of how I wish everything to be tuned. I am also hoping to do smaller releases including a FFX chamber work that is 100% strings only and I will be busting out some interesting effects that have also been killed off by contemporary arrangers (Bartok Pizz being one of them).

I'm sure you're right - flute and violin are always a difficult combination to put together in unison solos because even the most microscopic intonation issues will stick out. If your violinist and your flautist were playing together in the same room they would both compensate... but if your musicians are tuning up and playing their part in different places on different days (or even the same places on the same days, but separately) it's going to happen. Stringed instruments have no accuracy about pitch - both in terms of tuning and in performance. It's entirely dependent on where the performer puts his finger on the soundboard. No frets, no visual cues, just a human being's experience and intuition.

I'm whining, I know. I just mention this stuff because I think it exposes the "constructed" nature of the orchestra. The arrangements and performances are so good that things like that start to matter.

And I absolutely agree - the great arranger knows when to bring in his whole ensemble, and also when to make a powerful statement with one or a handful of instruments. I advocate a similar attitude to spotting music during film score composition; know when it's time to wheel out your big theme with 80 people, and know when to SHUT UP. A famous composer (I forget who; if anybody remembers please tell me - it's driving me crazy) once said that the space between the notes is just as important than the notes themselves, if not moreso. Another great composer (whose name I have also forgotten; I'm not doing too well today) said that he liked writing for smaller ensembles for exactly the reason you stated.

When you've got a gigantic ensemble, you take shortcuts. It's easy to hide bad ideas in a melange of impressive noise. When you've only got a few, you think about every note. They are exposed.

In case some of you have followed him, classical composer Steven Stucky has passed away at 66. I was not aware of his works but a friend on Facebook seems pretty shocked at the news. I am now exploring some of his works on Spotify.
http://slippedisc.com/2016/02/a-major-american-composer-has-died-at-66/

Thank you for the news... that's awful. Stucky was one amazing orchestrator.

I will do as you're doing. :(

I usually just lurk this thread, because it's such a good read (to say nothing of listening). I can hardly offer you a decent contribution. But I can offer a tiny one!

A small piece I wrote was recorded this week, and I've finished mixing it. I hope it brings you a minute-and-a-half of enjoyment, or at least cynically displeased amusement.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21518480/ajd_fmMisrule_studio.flac - drier, studio sound
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21518480/ajd_fmMisrule_hall.flac - wetter, hall sound, but still quite close

I like it. It's good music :) Thank you for sharing

And now Intrada has released The Rescuers Down Under much expanded :) Big Broughton music with some 30 minutes of previously left out material, and a few alternates. And they are hinting at something big for the first release from the following month.

I was browsing the recent Grammy winners for contemporary classical works and saw that a composer named Joan Tower was nominated. I wasn't familiar with her work, so I tracked down this Concerto for Orchestra on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auwgbosri5o

I can hear some moments that must have influenced Elliot Goldenthal. Pretty interesting stuff.

I have a CD of her works that includes the full version of that Concerto if you are interested. I happened to see a performance of one of her pieces a few years back and they were selling CDs of one of them. Solid performance on the CD by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

I went to that concert too.

In La Jolla? Featuring a new chamber work of John Williams as well?

ACK. I misread your reference to the Colorado Symphony to mean you had heard the Tower piece performed in Colorado, Denver specifically.

"No point"?

JB has arranged Hamauzu in the past and I wanted to make it clear that whilst I'm not a fan of the composers in question, I have great respect and love for the quality of the arrangements.



I'm sure you're right - flute and violin are always a difficult combination to put together in unison solos because even the most microscopic intonation issues will stick out. If your violinist and your flautist were playing together in the same room they would both compensate... but if your musicians are tuning up and playing their part in different places on different days (or even the same places on the same days, but separately) it's going to happen. Stringed instruments have no accuracy about pitch - both in terms of tuning and in performance. It's entirely dependent on where the performer puts his finger on the soundboard. No frets, no visual cues, just a human being's experience and intuition.

I'm whining, I know. I just mention this stuff because I think it exposes the "constructed" nature of the orchestra. The arrangements and performances are so good that things like that start to matter.

And I absolutely agree - the great arranger knows when to bring in his whole ensemble, and also when to make a powerful statement with one or a handful of instruments. I advocate a similar attitude to spotting music during film score composition; know when it's time to wheel out your big theme with 80 people, and know when to SHUT UP. A famous composer (I forget who; if anybody remembers please tell me - it's driving me crazy) once said that the space between the notes is just as important than the notes themselves, if not moreso. Another great composer (whose name I have also forgotten; I'm not doing too well today) said that he liked writing for smaller ensembles for exactly the reason you stated.

When you've got a gigantic ensemble, you take shortcuts. It's easy to hide bad ideas in a melange of impressive noise. When you've only got a few, you think about every note. They are exposed.

The recording was all done in different places and most likely on different days. The best part about being with the Materia Collective is that I have a good amount of access to some great talent. I am able to make these productions and some of the stuff I have coming in the future is going to be awesome! I will be announcing something official in a few months. Plus the ETHEReal String Project's next album will be all Mitsuda music from his various titles such as Xenogears, Xenosaga, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Hako no Niwa, World Destruction, Sailing to the World, and even kirite and Shadow Hearts. Then after that hopefully I can get my Ori Symphony done. I still only have a few minutes of that and I am not even out of the first movement! It is the first time I have written something that large of a scale and I haven't had extensive classical training on music theory or orchestration. I am learning this all through my musician friends and through my own research.

I am also wanting to do more original concert works too ;). SO busy busy me lol. I really appreciate the praise you all have given my work and I certainly work to make better recordings based on critiques. We always want to make sure we release a good quality product and as long as we keep getting better then we are getting closer to that aim :).

Ah the second season of Shirayuki does indeed feature quite a lot of new (more dramatic) material and it's all superb, surprisingly she even goes a little into ICO territory. The soundtrack also features a beautiful cover and plenty of music, if the finale of the second season has more pieces as majestic as Rokka no Yuusha then I already have my soundtrack of the year. I'm just smitten by the sheer amount of timeless classics she has composed in the last five years, some of my favorite orchestral scores of all time.

"Prelude to a Battle" also made me listen to much Rozsa again and I find myself enjoying Nic Raine's rerecordings quite a lot. It doesn't beat the symphonic albums by Decca but the effort should be commended for demonstrating that it is not the "music" but rather the "sound" of the old Hollywood epics that keeps people from enjoying it to it's fullest. Recently Tadlow released the rerecording of the complete score for The Blue Max aswell.


On a different note, does anyone feel that the Girls und Panzer Herbst Musikfest was a genius idea of rerecording an entire TV score for symphony orchestra while also making lots of cash. You only need to cut the applause on four tracks and edit out a single hiccup and it's basically album quality and the pieces can be used for potential sequels without problems.



Seems like I missed some good discussion:

@JBarron: I'm of course looking forward to your projects, JB, I'm much more in favor of Mitsuda than Hamauzu. Also get me to enjoy Ori :D

@Tango: I agree that the purely orchestral stuff is lovely but after Princess the rest feels much too formulatic to my ears. Let's see what he has in store for the new All Stars movie.

@nextday: Great news, I hope there will be a soundtrack release this time, but considering nearly everything gets a soundtrack this season I'm optimistic that there will be one.

Yes agreed. I am much looking forward to The Blue Max release and the suites on disc 2. Should be arriving soon in the mail with Tale of a Lake and Concert Suites and Themes by Fernando Velazquez. Anyone else been enjoying listening to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

Yes agreed. I am much looking forward to The Blue Max release and the suites on disc 2. Should be arriving soon in the mail with Tale of a Lake and Concert Suites and Themes by Fernando Velazquez. Anyone else been enjoying listening to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

no.it isnt nearly as great as his spanish scores and you will hear it soon.you better give alexandre guerras o tempo e o venlo and cesar benitos el tiempo entre costuras a go.both on spotify and you should enjoy them as everyone else.great emotional scores.

Sure but it is a solid action score with some nice themes and much better than I expected for that film. I picked up the CD because we rarely get such high quality action scores. I tend to require new music pretty regularly because I get tired of listening to the same things over and over, so even though I really like his other works, and have nice suites of them on the concert suites album I enjoy the addition of his new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies score. I will check out those suggestions though for sure.

Also my Blue Max 2CD arrived today and it is quite fantastic. I enjoy almost all of the concert suites despite being only vaguely familiar with a number of the films selected for inclusion. But for the ones I am familiar with (Sand Pebbles, A Gathering of Eagles) they are spot on. It is also quite lovely to hear Tale of a Lake in full CD quality.

Sure but it is a solid action score with some nice themes and much better than I expected for that film. I picked up the CD because we rarely get such high quality action scores. I will check out those suggestions though for sure.

Also my Blue Max 2CD arrived today and it is quite fantastic. I enjoy almost all of the concert suites despite being only vaguely familiar with a number of the films selected for inclusion. But for the ones I am familiar with (Sand Pebbles, A Gathering of Eagles) they are spot on. It is also quite lovely to hear Tale of a Lake in full CD quality.

currently listening to abel korzeniowskis works.always loved penny dreadful but copernicus star and romeo and juliet blew me away.copernicus star is one of the very best animated movie scores of the past decade and romeo and juliet is BEAUTIFULL.dont know why horner got rejected but this is not only a proper replacement but propably a much better score altogether.

Vinphonic: More and more, we're seeing concert attendance staying the same or actually going up, but CD sales going through the floor. It's a good way of making a recording for essentially no money; just the price of the recording engineer plus a little overhead. These events tend to sell out. However many thousand CDs they sell is just a bonus.

I'm not massively convinced by this concert - there's too much military march music and not enough score for my liking, but it's still really nice to hear it... and the two orchestral versions of the OP and ED songs are just gorgeous - they're Hatayo Matsuo arrangements quite reminiscent of his work on Haruhi songs (most notably "Lost My Music" which seems to form the blueprint for DreamRiser) from the 2009 concert - full five minute lavish arrangements - no shortcuts, drum loops, or electronics... and they really play up the romance of the whole thing.

[Edit: I mistakenly credited the "Lost My Music" orchestration in Haruhi 2009 to Shiro Hamaguchi when it was, in fact, by Hayato Matsuo.]

Some excellent performances of Mitsuda's music from Chrono Cross by an orchetsra called the Cosmosky Orchestra. It is even Mitsuda approved ;). The first is a near 20 minute medley of Chrono Cross and the second link is a nice arrangement of Life and Radical Dreamers.

Suite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC31xi_hTnE&ebc=ANyPxKpEHAHVy4imr-y5wD9HCeRE0QRF6ERYyHtUFINoGL32-ztXSXp5BdbhgFZ3hpuPPIuy6U-743CtMaN0D6vc2rsd8nq2lA

Life ~ Radical Dreamers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24fsjJHKWY8

Wow these are absolutely wonderful. Thanks for sharing JBarron.

I really like the piece, too - trying to compress ideas in 90 seconds and still write something that sounds "complete" is not easy and you managed to establish a couple of themes, mess with them a bit, and even manage a nice full-circle coda.
...
I bet you're listening to this recording a hundred times a day and analysing what worked, what didn't, and you're beginning to connect those experiences in your head to write a new piece...

Thanks for the kind words; I'm glad you liked it! (And to everyone else's comments, too. All read and absorbed with great interest.)

It was quite fun, actually, forcing oneself to write something (a) cohesive but (b) interesting and "as full as I could get it" inside the 90 seconds. I wanted to test this, that, and the other instrumentation, technique, and so on when I had the chance, and trying to keep myself under control and create something structurally sound within that was enjoyably tough. I remember finishing the score in Sibelius at 4:30am the day of the deadline. One of the more egregious things I did, which I think in the end worked out, were the low string parts at 00:40. As the melody comes in, post-trumpet flare and doubled between violins and flute, the Va, VC and CB parts play measured trills for the first two bars, and then switch into unmeasured tremolo on the third bar. I had no idea if it would work, but I quite like the way it gives a "shiver" as the melody falls down to its resting note. Nevertheless, I was very worried that I was generally doing too much in too little a space. I think keeping a certain kind of swelling theme front-and-centre helps.

And yes, as may now be obvious, have spent too much time listening back and analysing. Saving up some pennies to hire them - or at least, an orchestra - for the next one, whatever it happens to be!

(P.S. Probably of no interest, but since it's so rarely possible with "recent" music, if anyone wants to take a gander at the score, they're welcome to PM me.)

Benny Oschmann recorded a demo track in Hollywood at the Eastwood Scoring Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WHirqCvvLI

Benny Oschmann recorded a demo track in Hollywood at the Eastwood Scoring Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WHirqCvvLI

I won't lie... that bought a tear to my eye, not because of the music but because of the image of that formerly great orchestra, which once played great music every single day and now spends most of its time grinding through ostinato after ostinato and stupid power anthems. Even though they've lost their unbeatable 1970s shine, there's still old Hollywood magic in the sound they make. When is somebody going to take a chance and commission a real score for a major motion picture?

Benny Oschmann continues to improve and I really think in time he could become one of the best, if not the best in the business... but he really needs to get this Williams pastiche thing out of his system. Like The Book Of Unwritten Tales, it's deliciously orchestrated, utterly professional, tuneful, and it makes all the right sounds but it takes absolutely no risks, goes nowhere new, and sounds like it was written by a computer running John Williams Orchestral Technique plugins. There wasn't a single note in that piece I didn't see coming.

Except that awful "comedy" linking section at 1:35 which didn't need to be there and utterly destroyed the impact of the minor key brassy passage beforehand...

As a composer myself, I have more experience with smaller ensembles. I haven't completed a full orchestral composition... yet. But I do know how daunting of a task it is, which is why I am learning smaller ensembles before tackling that particular beast. Now Oschmann's music is nicely orchestrated, but the whole time I am hearing it I have this drive to *want* to feel something rather than simply feeling it. It doesn't quite get me there, but it piques my interest enough to get me to finish listening. It is still better than most modern scoring, even if it sounds like Williams. At least Oschmann has good taste in composers :P.

Anyone catch this upcoming Final Fantasy release? It is called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and it is composed by Noriyasu Agematsu with orchestrations by none other than Natsumi Kameoka. It appears this entire soundtrack features live instruments as far as I can tell from the samples. Square really is starting to improve with the quality of their releases as of late even Heavensward sounds promising.

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/FFBE_ost/

Yeah, at least he's emulating golden age film music composers rather than modern composers. He's still young and has a lot time to form his own style.


Anyone catch this upcoming Final Fantasy release? It is called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and it is composed by Noriyasu Agematsu with orchestrations by none other than Natsumi Kameoka. It appears this entire soundtrack features live instruments as far as I can tell from the samples. Square really is starting to improve with the quality of their releases as of late even Heavensward sounds promising.

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/FFBE_ost/
It's only February and we already have this and the upcoming SaGa album. Square is producing some great work this year. :)

Indeed, you can already call it an exceptional year for orchestral scores. Not only countless symphonic albums and promising game scores, nearly everything from the current anime season with an orchestra involved has an official release which is a wonderful return to common sense. I wonder if someone campaigned against BD cds because there's barely anything anymore.

I also checked Sanada Maru on iTunes but I fear the score itself is not as good as the Main Theme. The rest seem to be performed by a smaller studio orchestra and the RC drum patterns appear quite frequently which is a shame. BUT the Main Theme is a real killer and there's a couple of really well composed pieces. Perhaps I will buy it next month but I'm not tempted right now.

Indeed, you can already call it an exceptional year for orchestral scores. Not only countless symphonic albums and promising game scores, nearly everything from the current anime season with an orchestra involved has an official release which is a wonderful return to common sense. I wonder if someone campaigned against BD cds because there's barely anything anymore.
Blu-ray CDs are definitely still a thing. It is quite fortunate that the majority of the recent soundtracks relevant to this thread have avoided this fate. I'm very happy that Oshima's Snow White is getting a soundtrack next month (with a nice looking cover). I've only skimmed it but the music is reminiscent of her previous Paris score, Sound of the Sky (a personal favorite). It definitely has potential to be my score of the year too.


I also checked Sanada Maru on iTunes but I fear the score itself is not as good as the Main Theme. The rest seem to be performed by a smaller studio orchestra and the RC drum patterns appear quite frequently which is a shame. BUT the Main Theme is a real killer and there's a couple of really well composed pieces. Perhaps I will buy it next month but I'm not tempted right now.
Yeah, unfortunately only the main theme was performed by a nameable orchestra - the rest was performed by Shinozaki's studio orchestra. I guess the budget wasn't there this time. I'm still not sure if I like the main theme more than his fantastic Shinsengumi theme, but it's definitely up there.

WTF an orchestral score for a mobile game? Only in Japan! Sounds pretty promising.

And England... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVMCG62fvag ;)

According to a 2ch post the orchestrators are Natsumi Kameoka, Sachiko Miyano, and Evan Call.

Who the hell is Evan Call?!

Composer and arranger of Elements Garden, his most recent work was Dance with Devils.

He did Tokyo Esper

Neo Japonisme - Bob Sakuma (1990)
Ii Tabi Nippon Soundtrack (1987-1991 TV, travel documentary)
ボブ佐久間　いい旅 日本

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!N8YQ1BTL!KmwYbo3tEyooiL9aNu3P1m0e7GHDcsfAZtzU64UR3hs)


VGMDB: Bob Sakuma (http://vgmdb.net/artist/1882)
--related posts--

Sakuma's THE SILENT SERVICE (1993, Radio drama soundtrack)


1 (Thread 67259) 2 (Thread 67259)


THE SILENT SERVICE by Akira Senju/Warsaw (1996 OVA)

3 (Thread 67259)

NHK Taiga Drama "Sanada Maru" vol.1 by Takayuki Hattori (NHK大河ドラマ「真田丸」vol.1 by 服部 隆之)



Music composed by Takayuki Hattori, feat. NHK Symphony Orchestra, violin: Miura Fumiaki & piano: Tsujii Nobuyuki

AAC@256 (131mb)
Thread 200614

p.s. findings on net, credits goes to the original uploader:~D

http://vgmdb.net/album/56989

>Final Fantasy arcade game
>London Symphony Orchestra

What is going on with Square this year

WHAAAAAAAAAT?!

I wonder if this is what Natsumi Kameoka was up to at Abbey Road a few months back...

The list of composers is not inspiring from a symphonic perspective... there has to be a REALLY good orchestrator beavering away behind the scenes if the LSO is involved.

WHAAAAAAAAAT?!

I wonder if this is what Natsumi Kameoka was up to at Abbey Road a few months back...

The list of composers is not inspiring from a symphonic perspective... there has to be a REALLY good orchestrator beavering away behind the scenes if the LSO is involved.
Kameoka's LSO trip was actually for a different game company (http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?p=72478#post72478). They still haven't announced what project it was for.

So yeah, there's still that coming this year too.

Benny Oschmann continues to improve and I really think in time he could become one of the best, if not the best in the business... but he really needs to get this Williams pastiche thing out of his system. Like The Book Of Unwritten Tales, it's deliciously orchestrated, utterly professional, tuneful, and it makes all the right sounds but it takes absolutely no risks, goes nowhere new, and sounds like it was written by a computer running John Williams Orchestral Technique plugins. There wasn't a single note in that piece I didn't see coming.

Except that awful "comedy" linking section at 1:35 which didn't need to be there and utterly destroyed the impact of the minor key brassy passage beforehand...

Give him a break ;) He�s... what... 28? So he still has a lot to come for him. I for one don�t mind inspirations by other composers. Especially if they show a capable composer having a knack for catchy tunes (THAT is the really d�mod� thing). The level of professionalism he already has at this young age surely points towards some future greatness, I�m so sure of it. Besides, the piece sounds very good, especially for a youtube video.

Thought I should point out a recent post on another thread that seems very promising. I haven't gotten to hear it all yet but, "The Violinist of Hameln Magic Music Complete Works" in 3 volumes contains a lot of Kouhei Tanaka and some classical pieces on each that are either arranged by Kouhei Tanaka or Shiro Hamaguchi.
Thread 67259

Also if you can stand older orchestral recordings with a bit of prog rock mixed in, the original Guin Saga soundtracks from the 80s.
Thread 67259

Kameoka's LSO trip was actually for a different game company (http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?p=72478#post72478). They still haven't announced what project it was for.

So yeah, there's still that coming this year too.

Do we know if Kameoka's trip was with the LSO? AFAIK all that was made public is that she was at Abbey Road.

Do we know if Kameoka's trip was with the LSO? AFAIK all that was made public is that she was at Abbey Road.
Making an assumption based on the producer's connections.

Though it's worth noting that the conductor is the Principal Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra Of London (which shares some members with the LSO), so it may be that instead.

SATORARE: Thread 200691

53rd NATIONAL SPORTS FESTIVAL MUSIC: Thread 200688

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xw0pfWVu57g/VtC_8V-79VI/AAAAAAAAJ1Q/WWve89GgAxg/s495-Ic42/Satorare%252520%252526%25252053rd%252520National.j pg

Making an assumption based on the producer's connections.

Though it's worth noting that the conductor is the Principal Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra Of London (which shares some members with the LSO), so it may be that instead.
I can now confirm it was the Chamber Orchestra of London. And it seems I mistranslated the session length: two 4 hour sessions rather than two sessions totaling 4 hours.



By the way, the producer went back to London a month after this (December) for what seems to be an unrelated project. There were two sessions but he did not mention any details. So there's apparently another London project by Japanese composers in the works.

Where the hell are you finding this stuff?!

I'm starting to lose track of these projects... :D

Prowling social media, mostly. ;)

Sometimes it takes a little while to piece everything together.

Well, I for one am really grateful for your work! :)

I concur! Getting your little snippets of projects (like recording sessions and even tweets) gets me really exited even months before an official release. If you're guessing right then we already have THREE London scores in the same year. I just hope it will not turn out like Amano's trip to Hollywood to score Saint Seiya Online... we all know how that went :(



Wow I did not even noticed it but after years of hearing absolutely nothing Souhei Kano's name suddenly appears on the Phantasy Star Online "Sympathy 2015" concert album, unfortunately only as an arranger...

I mostly do this research for myself but I'm always happy to know other people find these tidbits as interesting as I do. :)


Wow I did not even noticed it but after years of hearing absolutely nothing Souhei Kano's name suddenly appears on the Phantasy Star Online "Sympathy 2015" concert album, unfortunately only as an arranger...
Souhei Kano has been stuck in the same boat as Masamichi Amano for a while now. He makes his living arranging music for concerts and composing for wind orchestras. The only difference is that Kano doesn't have a Shiro Sagisu to piggyback on. He occasionally mumbles on Twitter about wanting to score another anime but he doesn't seem to have the connections. The only reason he landed Fractale is because he was friends with the director.

He really needs to join a music production company if he's serious about getting into the scoring business. That's what Daisuke Ehara, a friend of Kano's and arranger on that PSO album did - he was hired as a composer at IMAGINE (http://imagine-music.co.jp/artist/) about a month ago. Here's a sample of his work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNF9LgglarY), if you're curious. Best case scenario would be Kano following his friend's footsteps and applying for a job at IMAGINE. I just don't expect that to happen, sadly.

I always wondered what happened with Kano. When I heard Fractale, I remember thinking "Oh, my God, in a couple of years this guy is going to be scoring EVERYTHING!" - and then Fractale comes, goes, and we never hear from him again. I had a list of problems with that show as long as your arm, but I thought the score absolutely pitch perfect.

Perhaps he just doesn't care enough to jump through all the hoops; he seems to want to sit back and wait for producers to come knocking his door down... and they just won't. Unless he's friends with somebody, or a producer is a big big fan of Fractale, nothing's going to come his way. I wonder if it's the same boat Yasuo Higuchi ended up in. A handful of projects emerged due to friendships / connections / chance but he never kept the momentum going.

Souhei Kanno deserves a big Warsaw score like no other. Can you imagine what he'd do with a good budget and an inspiring show? I truly salivate at the thought of it.

Ehara's music is splendid... I hope they manage to find some work for him!

Yeah, it really is a waste of talent. His music BEGS to be performed by a large, professional orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTy8VyRCVGc

Not these amateur wind orchestras.

Some of Fractale is so physically complicated I can hardly believe that he wrote down all those notes knowing that his score would almost certainly get cut to ribbons in the series. It's a credit to the Japanese freelance orchestra that performed it that it sounded as good as it did - and it really is an excellent performance. For example, the string phrasing in the first track - it's truly first grade... and in the final action cue (Mirai e no Tabiji) the whole orchestra is going along at 100mph tossing themes and fragments of themes and chords and rhythms back and forth like it's the most effortless thing in the world. Kano's background in wind ensemble writing is very evident with the brass and woodwind heavy scoring, and that's not easy music to play. I can only imagine the trumpet players sweaing as they read through their parts that eventually became the segment from 2:08 to 2:34. It's an utter chaos of dissonance; but everything is precise and full of bite, with the trumpets playing these stabbing chords (some of which are pushing the limits of the trumpet's register) against a flurry of almost fugal woodwind and string interplay. It's JUST ASTOUNDING.

And away from the orchestral acrobatics (which I think Fractale deploys on a scale completely unprecedented in the entire history of film scoring) the themes... Stunningly diverse. Phyrne's theme is mysterious and melancholic and turns up the score in so many different ways; it's a chamber lament, it's a love theme, it's an action cue... And that mini-oratorio in the middle - Hibi no Kate nomi no Roudou to Kueki kara... A searing modernist piece occasionally drowning in atonality and the avant garde, but featuring such original orchestration, a strikingly challenging part for solo soprano. And the cue isn't just background music for the anime; it tells a story, musically and through the words. It is a cry of pure anguish and pain, a tale of wilful human slavery and indoctrination, of mankind's descent into desperation and madness. It makes the point that the series tried and failed to make. I have never known a piece of film or television scoring to attempt so much, let alone succeed.

When film music reveals that it can do all these things... this is why I get annoyed when some crappy Hiroyuki Sawano noise gets praised. Yeah, I know all the retorts - it's fun, it makes me feel good, it's good at what it tries to do, etc. But I think to myself "Good enough" is never good enough - and when somebody tries to do something a little bit different, a little bit special, and they achieve transcendent results... it's a very, very bitter pill to swallow and it's one I have to swallow every day of my life.

Music of that calibre should be performed by a full symphony orchestra of international standing. It demands it. Fractale should be re-worked into a concert-hall piece and it should be performed on the international stage.

I wrote a lengthy review and analysis of Fractale a few years ago. I believe I posted it at the time, but I think it's time for a shamelessly egotistical repost. ;)

Fractale had me hooked from the very first note through to the end. It was, to my ears, an instant classic, and a strong contender for score of the year. Over the past six months, this score has become one of my very dearest personal favourites – a desert island disc, if you will – not just in the genre of anime or even media music in general, but a favourite composition full stop. In my mind, it had turned into something simply beyond criticism. Some weeks ago, a close friend dropped something of a bombshell and confessed that he disliked the score. He found it generic and lifeless. I trust the musical opinion of this gentleman implicitly and have always found his judgement in such regards to be thoughtful and fair, made with impeccable taste, encyclopaedic knowledge of the medium, and a civilised, well honed sense of culture... and there was he, suggesting that this score – the one that spoke to me so directly and so perfectly – was a load of rubbish!

Thankfully, grown-ups are able to sustain a difference of opinion without starting a childish electronic brawl - treating it as an opportunity for expanding knowledge and challenging preconceptions. With that happy thought in mind, and with the full support and encouragement of my friend, I decided that a review was more important now than ever before; after all, if one has a passionate belief, one should be ready and able to defend it and state his feelings.

If you’re looking for a detailed analysis of Fractale as an animated television series, you won’t find it here – although I will discuss it in brief so as to provide some context. Fractale is a romantic fantasy science fiction drama set in Ireland, far in the future at which time Earth is ruled by the “Fractale” – a powerful and Godlike system that provides for the needs of mankind. The protagonist, a young man named Clain, encounters a mysterious girl, Phyrne, whom he later discovers to be a runaway priestess of Fractale. His connection with Phryne is noticed relatively quickly and Clain is kidnapped and forced to work for a resistance group who advocate overthrowing Fractale and returning humanity to self-sufficiency. Along the way, he discovers the wicked truth Fractale’s origins and Phryne’s heartbreakingly tragic, intertwined story.

The series isn’t entirely successful – with chronic pacing issues, unresolved plotlines, contradictions, and missed opportunities – but it is a genuinely bold and brave undertaking; original, and it never pulls its punches. I feel the series should have been either considerably longer (and fleshed out the side stories and peripheral world-building), or considerably shorter (and focussed on the central plot). As it stands, sometimes it drags and actively wastes time on unimportant things, and other times it’s zooming along so fast it makes no sense whatsoever.

Nonetheless, Yukata Yamamoto and his Studio Ordet (born out of the ashes of his notorious and acrimonious dismissal from Kyoto Animation in 2007) prove themselves to be exciting and brimming over with potential. Fractale could have been one of the finest things ever made – instead, it stands as a frustrating oddity; albeit one which is fascinating, absorbing, and overall well worth your time.
The score, by newcomer Souhei Kano, is a largely symphonic affair which adopts a surprisingly operatic approach to theme and development. Since Fractale is an eleven episode TV series, it was not scored to picture and therefore the score’s storytelling role is somewhat limited by necessity and budget – but nevertheless, the music fulfils a strong role with great character. This is certainly an example of a flawed story that is elevated by the music, although generally the score works better on its own - when considered as a standalone listening experience, it tells the story of Fractale with a sensitivity, panache, and flawless sense of drama which is notably lacking in the series itself.

The lynchpin of Kano’s score is a wonderfully melancholy and mystical (but strikingly busy) melody which belongs in spirit to Phryne, although I hesitate to refer to it as “Phryne’s Theme” as I believe that conveys the wrong impression. Perhaps it’s the theme of her soul. Semantics aside, it makes its first appearance at the very beginning of the series in an acrobatic, fast paced cue as Clain and the audience meet her for the first. A Hirano-esque, chromatic brass fanfare introduces the main melody – played on solo trumpet supported by an orchestra of low strings, horns, and snare drum. It’s a fine example of how to build suspense musically and melodically instead of using cheap tricks. This melody – a leitmotif of sorts, re-appears in a number of cues throughout the score – most notably as a gorgeous, poignant lament for Cor Anglais, strings, and piano, which opens out into a six minute set piece for full orchestra, and exotic percussion, with a vocal part (lyrics by Thomas Moore, performed in less-than-stellar English by Noriko Lewis) that recalls the joyously florid, jaw-dropping range and pure tone of Minnie Riperton.

This theme is also a distant relation of another character theme – a considerably lighter, more carefree melody, which receives a full performance for chamber ensemble. Right from the beginning, the score is hinting at a possible connection between them; never giving the game away but busily stirring that little pot of curiosity inside your head.

“Hibi no Kate nomi no Roudou to Kueki kara” (“From the Labour and the Hard Work Only for the Daily Bread”) deserves recognition not as a superlative piece of film scoring, but as a mini-dramatic opera. It is a tense and unforgiving examination of the conflicting and totalitarian nature of the Fractale system. It insidiously conditions the people into complete dependence, to consider those who oppose it as sworn enemies, and to present itself to a desperate and lost people as the panacea to all of life’s problems. It keeps its citizens under control, under the guise of insulating them from the hardships of daily life. Kano’s cold, dead melody and sparse, dissonant orchestration accompany lyrics that speak of life’s evils; all of which Fractale will sweep away. The soprano voice sings for all of humanity; her delivery is automatic and resigned. She is singing the words with passion, but it’s an unsettling and mechanical passion. There is conviction, but not belief. Fractale paints a bleak picture, dragging you to a point of frenzied desperation, and then it offers you a way out; as the lyrics call for an end to suffering (“Give us eternal peace, save us with thine endless wisdom, Give us, Save us”) Kano’s harmonies suddenly shift to warmer colours – but the mood becomes more ambiguous still. The piece enters its third act; having manipulated humanity’s sadness and confusion, Fractale now sets about destroying its opposition. The piece becomes a militaristic call to religious war – to convert non-believers at any cost, and to turn believers on non-believers (“those who disobey”) as evil incarnate. Fractale whips up hatred and then stands back to watch the destruction unfold. The piece ends with a chilling, Schoenbergian call for Fractale to lead believers to paradise; all tonality, all common sense, is lost – madness and desperation reign supreme.

The series itself hints at these concepts, but never outright states them – it colours Fractale as mysterious and basically corrupt and instead spotlights Phryne’s very personal pain, allowing the bigger picture to fall by the wayside. The scene in which this piece of score plays is poignant but it somewhat misses the point, instead concentrating on a grizzly massacre. It establishes humanity as slaves of Fractale but then the resistance group show up with machine guns to “rescue” the slaves; by wiping out almost the whole lot of them in a frenzy of death and destruction. It turns a complex and compelling idea into a senseless bloodbath, and although it is easy to see how the scene was intended, it is wrecked by poor execution and inconsistent pacing. The scene becomes nothing more than clich�d exposition, fast-track character development, and a flagrantly manipulative way of getting key characters where they are needed to quickly advance the plot:
“I will do these things which appear completely illogical, because if I don’t, I won’t be able to participate in the incredible series of coincidences that will follow.”

The score, by complete contrast, presents a structured, ironic commentary.

I promised that I would not talk about the series at length; I have done so here to illustrate how the score consistently “understands” the story – and conveys it to the audience – better than the script. Kano is a master storyteller; and to recycle that old adage from Hollywood, he scored what it should have been - not what it was.

Mirai e no Tabiji begins with a brass chorale statement of the Fractale theme, which is immediately followed by the central presentation of Phyrne’s theme discussed above. At around the two minute mark, it morphs into a furious action cue; the unusually large brass section (fourteen players) take on fast and complex dotted rhythms accompanied by buoyant string counterpoint, Goldsmithian xylophone, relentless timpani, marital snares, and Hiranoesque piercing woodwind decoration… not to mention a debt of gratitude to Shostakovich! Fever pitch is reached with screaming trumpets at their very highest register and there follows a brief, very uniquely scored moment of woodwind and strings interplay. This develops into an almost-fugue – a deliciously complex, breathlessly fast piece of writing for the full brass ensemble and bass strings. From a perspective of construction and melody, it could almost be JS Bach – but the clashing dissonances and irregular rhythms beg to differ. The full ensemble take up fragments of melodic material and throw it from section to section like a hot potato, until eventually a surprisingly conventional series of chord progressions leave the cue hanging in thin air with shimmering tremolo strings and atonal pianoforte decoration. A solo trombone plays a noble variation of the Fractale theme and calm is restored; gradually the full orchestra come in leading to climactic statement of the theme in its entirety. The cue concludes with a glorious major key finale.

The highlights in this score are endless. It’s unique, daring, lyrical, beautiful, intelligent, superlatively orchestrated, and like no other anime score I know builds a mysterious, magical world and then places you right inside it. Souhei Kano’s compositional style is mature, assured, and measured – and he handles his modest-sized symphony orchestra with outstanding elegance.

sounding very interest. having link? overlooking for...

Anyone have GIRLS und PANZER Herbst musikfest? in any format? :)

@Tango: Do you have by any chance more reviews of scores that you never posted because that was a beautiful analysis of the score. I share your sentiments that we need more context sensitive orchestral operatic song in basically everything. I doubt Tytania, FMA or Berserk: Golden Age would have left such a soul-touching impression without Conqueror of the Universe, Bratja or Darkness Comes. They just make everything better. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShe58IL47k)

Fractale Original Soundtrack (mp3 v0): https://mega.nz/#!oZFzxDDa!NjHoodiPalzC-R2-iAPxD3jtRnS7W-zLAGxEHoIH5Fc


Since it got brought up.

Anyone here listened much to Gods of Egypt? It isn't a masterpiece but it is one of the best scores we have gotten from Beltrami in years. There are some solid themes in there and I found it quite enjoyable at parts.

Anyone here listened much to Gods of Egypt? It isn't a masterpiece but it is one of the best scores we have gotten from Beltrami in years. There are some solid themes in there and I found it quite enjoyable at parts.

It doesn't reach the consistent heights of something like Goldsmith's "The Mummy" or Arnold's "Stargate", particularly in the action writing, but as with a good many Beltrami scores of late its strengths are more often than not revealed in the expositional or reflective moments.

It's an entertaining B movie music contribution that thankfully didn't get squashed through the RC grinder to form just another savourless sausage score.

My main gripe with Gods of Egypt is the heavy use of "epic" percussion to the point of ridiculousness because it clearly clashes with the more sophisticated writing in everything else. But if I have to compare it to the modern blockbuster standard then it's a cut above the rest but still below something like Jack the Giant Slayer.

By the way, if you were not already aware, there are three unreleased tracks, totalling 8 minutes, posted on Beltrami's official website.

@Tango: Do you have by any chance more reviews of scores that you never posted because that was a beautiful analysis of the score. I share your sentiments that we need more context sensitive orchestral operatic song in basically everything. I doubt Tytania, FMA or Berserk: Golden Age would have left such a soul-touching impression without Conqueror of the Universe, Bratja or Darkness Comes. They just make everything better. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShe58IL47k)

I don't, although I would write some if I thought anybody would care. ;)

I just HAD to write about Fractale because, to me, it's a work of genius. It's not just a pretty good piece of film music... Souhei Kano wrote a classical masterpiece and somehow managed to sneak it into a naff TV series. There's plenty of scores I really, really like... but I'm not sure there's much more I'd be THAT enthusiastic about, apart from Higuchi's Phoenix 2772...

*cogs in brain start turning*

also enjoying review - finding many soundtracks good that not looking so because of review :)

(thank also nextday share link for from last review :) )

Anyone here listened much to Gods of Egypt? It isn't a masterpiece but it is one of the best scores we have gotten from Beltrami in years. There are some solid themes in there and I found it quite enjoyable at parts.

Not yet. It briefly appeared on this board but when I came back to grab a copy it was all gone (or at least I wasn't able to find it again). Is it available from some other source, perhaps?

Yo Tsuji & Fuuki Harumi

Miss HOKUSAI



Download (m4a) (https://mega.nz/#!b4JRzKRD!C9ZDEXgLO3bSr6Ii4U7w131ajj9JTPG1ziQ1lDgT3DI)


Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBrDOTILnv4&index=8&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4bCnCFUrfaG_q8BM11CwZSE)

I'm quite enjoying Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Sure it has some elements of putting a new spin on familiar Final Fantasy themes and in many ways is just what you would expect from the sort of score but it is also a generally smooth listen from beginning to end without anything I felt I had to remove. It has a lot of similarities with something like Final Fantasy XIII without the fully orchestral stuff orchestrated by Yoshihisa Hirano. Still, with so few really solid scores like that coming out these days I really enjoy it.

It doesn't reach the consistent heights of something like Goldsmith's "The Mummy" or Arnold's "Stargate", particularly in the action writing, but as with a good many Beltrami scores of late its strengths are more often than not revealed in the expositional or reflective moments.

It's an entertaining B movie music contribution that thankfully didn't get squashed through the RC grinder to form just another savourless sausage score.

No memorable themes. The orchestrations (in the Obelisk Fight cues) are top-notch, though. Reminds me a bit of Avatar. Probably because Jon Kull.

I'm quite enjoying Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Sure it has some elements of putting a new spin on familiar Final Fantasy themes and in many ways is just what you would expect from the sort of score but it is also a generally smooth listen from beginning to end without anything I felt I had to remove. It has a lot of similarities with something like Final Fantasy XIII without the fully orchestral stuff orchestrated by Yoshihisa Hirano. Still, with so few really solid scores like that coming out these days I really enjoy it.

Only gripe I had was that the Prelude theme/motif was overused. It felt like it was in EVERY track to the point where I got slightly annoyed by its use.

Only gripe I had was that the Prelude theme/motif was overused. It felt like it was in EVERY track to the point where I got slightly annoyed by its use.

I think it's a score in which the skills of the orchestrator are perhaps more conspicuous than they should be. I will never, never, EVER understand why this happens so much these days; bring on board a not-so-good composer as your "lead" and then get genuinely skilled arrangers to give it some production values. It's the same mentality that hires Shiro Sagisu as composer with Masamichi Amano doing "donkey-work" like orchestrating and conducting, when over the past thirty years Amano has proven himself a ludicrously talented composer who sells CDs. Exvius should've been a "composed, orchestrated, and conducted by Natsumi Kameoka" score and it would've been better.

That said, the music isn't as bad as it could've been - it's functional and professional. The quality of the orchestrations obviously helps a lot but I think there's more to it than swanky orchestrations. It's very well done. I like it. I wish they hadn't gone with this stupid looping nonsense. It's a con of galactic proportions making it look like there's more than twice as much music as there really is. Even on tracks which have a pretty natural conclusion they loop it. It wouldn't have taken long to record some proper finishes for the looping tracks and make a better listening experience on album... but as it is, everything just fades out like a pop song. They must have known that a soundtrack CD would've been a foregone conclusion. Oh, well... :)

My thoughts exactly. I'm just irritated by loops on commerical releases, they're just nonsensical. The score itself, however, is good. Not an orchestral rollercoaster ride like Kid Icarus or Star Fox Assault but genuinely good. I just hope that the Arcade score is a league above and more like Dissidia 012 because why otherwise go to London?!

It's Takaharu Ishimoto... I have to say I'm not holding out a lot of hope. He has some samples up on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=final%20fantasy%20arcade

Jury's out...

Oh god, do I love both Uprising and Assault's scores. I wish Assault got fully released in CD.. I wish more games had this type of music.

^^ Yeah, it's too Nintendo didn't give Zero a music budget. That could have been something. :(


News bits:
- Producer Tommy Kikuchi is back in London for the third time since the November session with Kameoka. This time he is at AIR instead of Abbey Road (the December session was also at AIR).
- Mitsuda was in Slovakia recording something with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and a 40 piece choir. Recording took place over 3 days. Procyon's new composer Mariam Abounnasr was also in attendance.

Again? Now what?! :D

Air Lyndhurst is a gorgeous studio (it's actually a Victorian church) - and it does have a slightly more cavernous sound than Abbey Road. Air is where you go if you want a concert hall ambience. Whatever this is, it could be really interesting. I wish Kameoka would record more of her own music though...


Mitsuda was in Slovakia recording something with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and a 40 piece choir. Recording took place over 3 days. Procyon's new composer Mariam Abounnasr was also in attendance.

Interesting! Abounnasr comes from the classical world... I wonder if she's composer, arranger, or both? Or maybe just along for the ride? Will this be Mitsuda's first time in Bratislava?

I guess he must have a good deal with someone in London considering he keeps returning. I do not currently know which composers were involved with either of the AIR recordings, unfortunately.

Mariam is listed on Procyon's website as a composer and arranger but she has had no credits since she joined last year. It was their first time recording in Bratislava.

Hmm I hadn't really noticed the loops before but now that you mention it...ugh. Yeah and the ironic thing is if you look on Youtube or elsewhere you will find people who extend the loops further because they want things to just go on forever for no reason.

Yeah, what the hell is that? SUPER☆PRETTY☆FUCKFACE☆R♥O♥B♥O♥T GODKILLER DX HYPER-POWER PERFECT COMPLETE 2 ☆ THEME LOOPED TO 10 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why, oh, WHY, OH WHY?!

Kotaru Nakagawa
Elmer Bernstein, �ric Serra

Prison School

Hollywood Studio Orchestra




Download (https://mega.nz/#!35JD0I4L!GpKa0ETudd33uwVKB8R8sZAxJvVbbogBcRhFFaPjwcU)
MP3 / 320kps / 64min


It's just ludicrous to send a composer to Los Angeles for what is essentially smut but at least it's smut with extraordinary style. Not since the kiss scene from Escaflowne have I witnessed so much over-the-top dramatic antics. The music itself is more about "the end of the world hangs by a threat" than a high school prison with a few little winks to Great Escape and Goldeneye. Oh and I just love the style of synth Nakagawa uses here.



Tatsuya Kato
Ravel, Debussy, Satoru Kosaki

The Vanishment of Nagato Yuki

Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!PtgEVZTD!zSXZH4MFyuPFUSeNbxZLcfpq4tcUNWoPfzbJTJs4IkU)
MP3 / 320kbps / 90min / Score Selection


A rather beautiful score for a relaxing afternoon. This one shows a bit more of Tatsuya's emotional side and he certainly has potential to make something great in the future. He has good stuff inside him, afterall.

Update: "Dream" is also composed by Debussy, I don't know why it's not listed in the credits

Thanks!

(＊゜ー゜)b Thank you

Just lovely thanks for these. Fun to see the what looks like the Death Note artist doing work on this Prison School anime.

Akito the Exiled's second soundtrack is out (thanks Leatherhead!): Thread 201212

Pretty much entirely jazz this volume. Not really any orchestral music aside from a string quartet piece, one dissonant orchestral piece, and a nice finale cue.

The finale "Promised Land" would fit right into any of those loveliness compilations. Oh, and there's another new Kanno/Maaya song which is always nice.

Promised Land: http://picosong.com/AqLM/ http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Yes, thanks for the Nakagawa album.

I wasn't expecting much in the realm of orchestral score, so this is a bonus - thank you. "The Final Campaign" is gorgeous... I could do without that electronic crap that comes in near the end but the world needs more film music that sounds like this.

Hashimoto's jazz is exceptional too. :D

Orchestration credits for the SaGa orchestral album are out: 9 tracks by Yamashita, 4 by Kameoka, and 1 by Hamaguchi!

I can already see this being one of the best VGM albums of the year.

EDIT: Full Crossfade (16m22s) - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22621624/mix.mp3

Speaking of orchestral albums, was the Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary shared somewhere? If it's not out by april I will add it to my CDJapan cart.

The recently released Tales of Orchestra Concert turned out pretty amazing too considering the source material is not exactly great stuff. Tales of Zestria: Trial Shrines Medley is just fantastic. The more I listen to it the more I feel frustrated about Go Shiina's engineers. God Eater 2 should have sounded even better and it was recorded and processed as if the whole orchestra was stuffed into a tiny metal can. I tried many times to fix it but it's just hopeless. I sure hope Go Shiina get's an European orchestra in the future.

Oh and just ten seconds from Endride are enough to level my expectations greatly, I'm still not sure if it's just a large studio ensemble or actually recorded overseas but this has a high chance of being pure symphonic Tanaka.

I have high expectations considering Tanaka's bold comment about writing "full-scale fantasy music" for this show. Tanaka almost never records outside of Japan so I wouldn't expect much there.

Possibly this session from December (TL "Kohei Tanaka, recording of a new show airing next year"): http://masachan4994.blog116.fc2.com/blog-entry-2583.html


Edit: Spotted this on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1066108148/mika-stoltzmans-new-album

Michiru Oshima's "Double Concerto for Marimba, Clarinet, and Orchestra" (temporary title) A new piece written for us by Michiru Oshima, Japan's representing composer (especially for film music)

The Fire Emblem concert is here: http://wapwon.info/video/Fire-Emblem-25th-Anniversary-Concert/FPeUc_cEqrU

(In crappy quality, but good for a sample.)

It's my favourite of the recent run of concert/symphony albums... but sadly it's only received a DVD release with a lossy audio track. The "done thing" with DVD was always to provide a lossless PCM soundtrack if the programme was music-oriented but it almost never happens on Japanese releases. I really, REALLY hope they get around to a Bluray or a CD of that concert at some point soon... :O

On Tales Of Orchestra... is it me, or is Go Shiina's work the standout? Nobody does a big theme like him... Look at what happens when he gets a competent arranger and a good orchestra! :D

Here is the latest project that I am attached to... It is called Nibel: Ori and the Blind Forest Remixed. I took this as an opportunity to create an arrangement of the beginning three minutes of my Ori Symphony and condense it into a string quartet and piano arrangement. A side note on this, I had three days to meet the deadline and I had numerous hurdles/headaches throughout due to that dark cloud of bad luck following me every step of the way, BUT in the end it got finished just before the deadline. I finished this arrangement in 3-4 hours (that includes editing) which left me two days to gather musicians, record, mix. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this. The best part of making this was finding the true essence of my full orchestration and what I managed to to do with it sound intimate and warm.

Album comes out March 18th on Loudr, iTunes, and Spotify so please support it if you can!

https://soundcloud.com/josh-barron/the-journey-begins-from-ori-and-the-blind-forest-for-piano-and-string-quartet

Lost in Space Complete is glorious.So much unheard incredible Action.Spiders Attack is twice as awesome now.

Thread 187201
Soukyuu no Fafner EXODUS，the soundtrack beats me
Jinrui ga Motometa Mono is my favorite,it arrange and develop by the main theme of heaven and earth
I think the series of Fafner is the top of Tsuneyoshi Saito

The Fire Emblem concert is here: http://wapwon.info/video/Fire-Emblem-25th-Anniversary-Concert/FPeUc_cEqrU

(In crappy quality, but good for a sample.)

It's my favourite of the recent run of concert/symphony albums... but sadly it's only received a DVD release with a lossy audio track. The "done thing" with DVD was always to provide a lossless PCM soundtrack if the programme was music-oriented but it almost never happens on Japanese releases. I really, REALLY hope they get around to a Bluray or a CD of that concert at some point soon... :O

On Tales Of Orchestra... is it me, or is Go Shiina's work the standout? Nobody does a big theme like him... Look at what happens when he gets a competent arranger and a good orchestra! :D

Bro, it's Tales of. Of course Shiina's gonna come out on top. You'd have to be a blind, deaf and dumb capuchin with sever motor skill deficiencies to come out looking like second best next to Sakuraba's idea of orchestral technique.

Well, I know. ;)

I was just surprised to be enjoying his cues as much as I did. I'm not a particular fan of Shiina but credit where credit's due...

Isn't that concert in the video being released in this exclusive?

http://vgmdb.net/album/56610

10 Cloverfield Lane is the best modern filmscore in a while.Wonderful.

Isn't that concert in the video being released in this exclusive?

http://vgmdb.net/album/56610

Yes, but without a LPCM soundtrack. Meaning no lossless release is planned. :(

Yes, but without a LPCM soundtrack. Meaning no lossless release is planned. :(

You mean the concert is just plain Dolby 5.1? What concert DVD doesn't have a lossless? Even before Blu-ray there was lossless music DVDs!

I get it's not a comercial release, but still, just why? Hopefully soon we may get a better bigger commercial release with actual lossless..?

Honestly I don't care about the video I just would like that concert in CD. I wanna hear it, not see it

That is a lovely taste of the Ori arrangement but I hope you won't call it a symphony on the release unless you have a full orchestra. Something like "Ori and the Blind Forest, themes arranged for piano and strings." I admit I don't know the proper terms either but someone here could help with that I'm sure.

You mean the concert is just plain Dolby 5.1? What concert DVD doesn't have a lossless? Even before Blu-ray there was lossless music DVDs!

I get it's not a comercial release, but still, just why? Hopefully soon we may get a better bigger commercial release with actual lossless..?

Honestly I don't care about the video I just would like that concert in CD. I wanna hear it, not see it

I know the feeling. I'm interested in watching the concert, personally, but of course the priority should be the sound. As far as I know it is now a commercial release... no Bluray is odd, but no lossless on the DVD is just shocking.


That is a lovely taste of the Ori arrangement but I hope you won't call it a symphony on the release unless you have a full orchestra. Something like "Ori and the Blind Forest, themes arranged for piano and strings." I admit I don't know the proper terms either but someone here could help with that I'm sure.

Chamber Symphony could work... but I got the impression that JB is planning this as an orchestral piece and that he made this pared-down arrangement on the quick for a different project. (The term "symphony" doesn't, strictly speaking, describe instrumentation but more internal construction... but absolutely the term "symphony" has become synonymous with the term "orchestra" - and the term "orchestra" has in turn become synonymous with "full-sized symphony orchestra"... so when somebody says "symphony" there is an expectation that you're getting a large scale, multi-movement work in classical form, exhibiting calculated and deliberate development, and scoring for between fifty and seventy players.

I'm not sure I'd make the leap from making small-scale chamber arrangements of other people's music to a fully-orchestral original composition based on somebody else's melodies... but I've got to admire JB's audaciousness!

I've written a whole stack of pieces for orchestras of various sizes and chamber ensembles but never once invoked the word "symphony" - because I find the form very intimidating. Using terms like "fantasia" and "overture" and "symphonic poem" suggest something a little freer and spare me from criticism about form! Perhaps in a decade or two I'll get to the point where I'd consider writing a symphony, but not now, no way, no chance.

I used to be friends with possibly the most arrogant man I've ever known. He'd had one "experimental" album on limited vinyl release in the 1970s and that made him, in his eyes, the great sage on all things. He wrote turgid and depressing songs (rhyming "rose" with "repose", "vine" with "supine", and "word" with "absurd") that had no meaning except to show off his amazing vocabulary. I've seen people considerably more educated than I am sigh heavily and reach for the dictionary... and I've seen that man looking immensely pleased that he did that. He sat in a grey room listening to "squeaky gate" music on his hilariously expensive hifi system - pieces for orchestra, violin, helicopter, hornet, reversed tape of children playing, and wildebeest giving birth and such nonsense, nodding sagely and dancing around joyously proclaiming comments like "Oh, the composer has performed an act of metacognition - in his daring inverse modulation and delicate juxtaposition of the innocent and the banal, blending themes of creation, travel, death, and the fragmentation of tradition in a technologically over-dependent bourgeois capitalist world!"

And with ALL THAT CRAP... the one thing the guy wouldn't go near with a five hundred foot pole... was writing a symphony. He said "Dear boy, I am many things but I am not Beethoven."

It is not an undertaking ANYONE takes lightly, I think...

I think we agree then that Symphonic Poem could work. At least that would make the most sense. If in fact it is a small orchestra that would define it close enough. Of course it would be silly to assume something calling itself a symphony is such a work if it doesn't also indicate the orchestra that performed it, but I like to think words have meaning that are more exact than they are actually used in practice.

I think we agree then that Symphonic Poem could work. At least that would make the most sense. If in fact it is a small orchestra that would define it close enough. Of course it would be silly to assume something calling itself a symphony is such a work if it doesn't also indicate the orchestra that performed it, but I like to think words have meaning that are more exact than they are actually used in practice.

Tango is correct. This piece was simply a reduced arrangement from my full orchestration. My Ori symphony will be four movements long and it is taking em quite a long time to do, but I am not rushing it at all. I took advice from Jonne Valtonen's video on YouTube about music arrangement by making a visual outline of the themes. The first movement will be to introduce the characters and the story's beginning, then movement two will be about the Ginso Tree and Water Stone which I plan to make effects to give the impression of water flowing, the third movement will be about the Wind Stone and obviously the effect of wind so flighty and uplifting sounds here, and then finally the Fires of Mount Horu which will be full of effects to reflect the idea of fire and obviously the ending moments of the game's story in which all relevant themes, thus far, collide. This will be a deep musical narrative and one that I approach with reverence and respect to symphonic music. The goal is to transform the originals into colorful and vibrant works that are artistic and different, but still give the listener nostalgia from playing the game.

So in terms of Symphony this is not simply meaning the instruments but the form :). But Symphonic Poem would be more accurate since I am mainly wanting to tell a narrative through the use of themes.

I am glad you like the piece though! It was so stressful to get complete in three days :P.

10 Cloverfield Lane is the best modern filmscore in a while.Wonderful.

I has a Goldenthal-ish vibe to it. That said, the motif at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf_bhxvNinc&t=2m0s is very familiar.

Edit: found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a11w18k1u8

It bears some resemblance, but hey at least McCreary knows good film music ;) I actually enjoy the themes in 10 Cloverfield Lane. I really enjoy the music video of the Main Theme. The 15 foot steel guitar sounded very synth-like but it is cool that it is acoustic. I read somewhere it is the same steel guitar used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and that, to me, is a neat Easter Egg. I really hope Abrams employs McCreary for more films in the future. I really want to see what he can do with bigger budgets and honestly I think McCreary/Abrams collaboration would be more entertaining than anything Giacchino has written for Abrams.

Are you referring to the Blaster Beam? I thought I heard something that sounded like it, so that's neat.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure A Beautiful Mind is the first place I heard that motif. A minor 2nd down and a major 3rd back up is used often in scores to create a creepy vibe. It also resembles Neptune from Holst's The Planets.

Also heard throughout the score is the Dies Irae. Overall it will be one of those scores rife with familiarities that will drive me nuts.

Ah, Souhei Kano... :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

There is all together too much electronica in the PSO 15th Anniversary concert, but Kano's orchestrations are so damn good I don't care. :D

Fantastic concert! If this doesn't work as an incentive to hire more frequently Kano as a main composer, arranger and conductor for future anime, videogames or even give him a fully fledged Warsaw score in that manner, then I don't know what the hell will! Though I have to wonder if Souhei Kano was the only one involved in this (at least in the orchestral bits), as I read Masamichi Amano (who also arranged the past 2013 concert) and Daisuke Ehara (also involved in the past concert), nevertheless, it sounds mostly Kano to my ear.

That said, I thought the mixing in with the electronica, was a terrible idea for this type of music, specially for a man who has a sharp sense of instrumentation and melody as Kano does. I feel though this would've gone smoother for someone as Yugo Kanno, like his 2013 concert, where he'd know how and when to mix the electronic bits to a minimum. Oh well, I still loved the heck out of this.

Here's the concert (Thread 201609)(not mine), if anyone's interested. Thanks to MDash for the post!

Kano says he only arranged 3 tracks, Ehara doesn't specify what he arranged, and Amano doesn't have social media so there's no way of knowing what he did.

Edit: Worth noting that the 2013 concert had all of the arrangement by Amano except for 3 tracks (2 by Ehara and 1 by someone else).

I don't know if I would call that short motif a main theme but it is an interesting six note musical idea that pulls together the score to 10 Cloverfield Lane. I find that it is overall better than most of McCreary's work for TV. Has anyone listened to his other recent film scores? The Boy or The Forest? I'll probably check them out on Spotify soon as well.

The Orchestral SaGa -Legend of Music-

Livestream from Nicovideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFd-hIsuyTY

Bonus Kenji Ito piano performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P41P9zCIqoI

Fantastic concert! If this doesn't work as an incentive to hire more frequently Kano as a main composer, arranger and conductor for future anime, videogames or even give him a fully fledged Warsaw score in that manner, then I don't know what the hell will! Though I have to wonder if Souhei Kano was the only one involved in this (at least in the orchestral bits), as I read Masamichi Amano (who also arranged the past 2013 concert) and Daisuke Ehara (also involved in the past concert), nevertheless, it sounds mostly Kano to my ear.

That said, I thought the mixing in with the electronica, was a terrible idea for this type of music, specially for a man who has a sharp sense of instrumentation and melody as Kano does. I feel though this would've gone smoother for someone as Yugo Kanno, like his 2013 concert, where he'd know how and when to mix the electronic bits to a minimum. Oh well, I still loved the heck out of this.

Here's the concert (Thread 201609)(not mine), if anyone's interested. Thanks to MDash for the post!

Kano's pieces are so recognisable. Bearing in mind we know Kano's orchestral technique from ONE score only, and he's only credited as an arranger here... that's glorious. I wondered what kind of orchestrator would he be; would he be Sachiko Miyano - skilled, professional, but transparent? Or would he be Yoshihisa Hirano; totally dominating, and instantly recognisable? Well, he's definitely the latter.

On the downside, if Kano's career as a composer continues to go nowhere, that pill is going ten times as bitter to swallow now. The guy could surpass Hirano. Fractale alone created a third composer in my "favourite of the favourites" category; Yasuo Higuchi, Yoshihisa Hirano, and thanks to one score, Souhei Kano. The guy needs to do more work. Five years have passed since Fractale. Now he's arranging a handful of pieces for Phantasy Star Universe and Japan's Drunkard and Amateur Philharmonic. That's an insult to one of the most talented composers of the 21st century.

@nextday

3 tracks!? Really now? I'd almost believe he was given alot more. If I'd had to take a guess, I can certainly hear his work in tracks 03, 04 (gorgeous work here) and 05. Not like the rest was bland or anything, in fact this was far more enjoyable than what I expected through start to end, but Kano's arranged material was the reason I heard it in the first pace.

Also, as for Legend of Music, thanks for the share of this yet, another fantastical orchestral work done by Yamashita, Kameoka and Hamaguchi! The music here is a splendorous selection arranged in such way, that even the final track by Kameoka, which involves a hard rock cue, sounds fantastic! 2016 has been getting a good start, don't you agree?

If you don't mind nextday (if not, I can take it down ASAP), I convert the stream you shared into a pretty rushed one big mp3 file , while we wait for the discs release, in case anyone's interested. If you care about the quality, I'd suggest you wait for the release in about a week more, otherwise:


The Orchestral SaGa -Legend of Music- (Nicovideo Livestream)




Download (http://www.mediafire.com/download/iyby4qqb7dyibq8/The_Orchestral_SaGa_-Legend_of_Music.mp3)


@tangotreats

It would be a shame for someone as Kano to be dismissed in the future, either he'll continue in Kameoka's route, making arrangements for other peoples work while barely main scoring for himself or he'll finally earn the recognition as a one man composer in different projects. For 36 years old, he should've worked already on a sh*t ton of material based on how he dominates the fields of composition, arrangement and conducting likewise. Japan employers, you have a diamond in the rough of an artist under your nose, get your sh*t together!

I'll go ahead and ask him which ones he arranged. I don't always get a response but you never know.

Kameoka got back to me today on which tracks she arranged for that Tales concert, for example.

In honour of the music of SaGa here is the final battle from SaGa 2 arranged with the instruments from FFVII:

download (http://jeremyrobson.com/SaGa2-VII.mp3)

I don't know if I would call that short motif a main theme but it is an interesting six note musical idea that pulls together the score to 10 Cloverfield Lane. I find that it is overall better than most of McCreary's work for TV. Has anyone listened to his other recent film scores? The Boy or The Forest? I'll probably check them out on Spotify soon as well.

I have listened to them and the music is alright, but I find Cloverfield to be better in terms of musical consistency. The Boy and The Forest both are scary scores and the Theme to the Forest is the better of the two. I just wish he would steer away from the synthetic sounds and just go pure orchestral like he did in Da Vinci.

Well he only went pure orchestral for a handful of tracks in Da Vinci as well. But yeah I found the other two recent McCreary horror scores to be not as interesting.

Ugh I don't know if I should call ethnic choices for new scores lazy or inspired. Rob Lane's new Beowulf soundtrack got me excited until I heard the ethnic direction he decided to take with lots of percussion and traditional sounds complete with wailing vocals. Shame because he was able to write some interesting music for Merlin TV series but this is pretty boring to me.

Ugh I don't know if I should call ethnic choices for new scores lazy or inspired. Rob Lane's new Beowulf soundtrack got me excited until I heard the ethnic direction he decided to take with lots of percussion and traditional sounds complete with wailing vocals. Shame because he was able to write some interesting music for Merlin TV series but this is pretty boring to me.

Ya, wailing women are way past their prime. Lane's poorest creative choice for Beowulf, IMHO. I will give him credit for the guttural brass he deploys in a delightfully menacing fashion, though.

It's not a genre re-defining score by any means, but it's not another disposable RCP head-banger either.

2 more by Michiru Oshima (lossless)...

KULTA: THE ADVENTURE OF A GOLDEN DOG Thread 201682

MY SISTER MOMOKO: Thread 201681

just wanted to mention that echoes of war 2cd set with bonus making of documentary dvd is 5$ now in blizzards shop

just wanted to mention that echoes of war 2cd set with bonus making of documentary dvd is 5$ now in blizzards shop

Too bad the orchestrations on that are mostly uninspired. I mean you have Shiina Masaru's orchestration of Starcraft music which was interesting, but I felt the original Blizzard orchestrations were more lush and full sounding compared to the "arrangements" presented here.

Shin Sekai Kikou Soundtrack (1987)
Katsuhisa Hattori and His Orchestra (http://vgmdb.net/artist/603)
新世界紀行 SOUND TRACK - 服部克久



FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!hhQBXTqL!KSh8X5Bcz-CHvJNbsGykvoiCMlGsfkL2ODX01ZwU6E8)

The second Final Fantasy Brass album is out! Anyone listen to it yet? I'm really enjoying it so far. I'll have more detailed thoughts once I am through it :).

So it's now confirmed that Sagisu is doing the music for the new Berserk anime airing in July. Hopefully Amano is involved like he was on the films.

The second Final Fantasy Brass album is out! Anyone listen to it yet? I'm really enjoying it so far. I'll have more detailed thoughts once I am through it :).

Is this another one of those fan arrangements ? or something official?
I like your arrangements but most of what else I hear on fan arrangements is not interesting enough for me to listen to all of them.

Is this another one of those fan arrangements ? or something official?
I like your arrangements but most of what else I hear on fan arrangements is not interesting enough for me to listen to all of them.

It is an official Square release. And thank you for holding my work as the exception to the rule ;)!

I don't recall having listened to the first one but I got this new one to check out. Also this new soundtrack to I am Setsuna is nice though I'm not sure how a 2 disc piano soundtrack will end up being different enough to keep my interest.

I'm still a little surprised that they keep releasing various arrangement albums of the same overdone tunes. FFS we have so many interesting melodies and they decide to make a ton of albums rehashing the same pieces over and over. I just don't get it.

Yeah... we do NOT need another Final Fantasy album. They're fine melodies and all but seriously. This is like Dragon Quest. The same dozen pieces arranged and re-arranged for every instrument and combination of instruments from solo piano to Indonesian gamelan orchestra, via Mongolian throat singers.

That said, it's nice to see a brass band in the studio, even if the band is terrible and that studio is sodding Sound Inn - just listen to what that miserable place actually sounds like before mastering - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEDWRFU0pnU - but I'm not going to complain too loudly... proper band arrangements on mainstream release. I'm tired of Nobuo Uematsu too, but, you know... :)

-

Let the fabulous days of orchestral treasures begin :D


Masato Coda
GIVE BLESSINGS TO US ON THE ROAD!
KONO SUBARASHII SEKAI NI SYUKUFUKU WO!

Performed by a Studio Orchestra (Orchestrated by Sachiko Miyano)





Download (https://mega.nz/#!W8oXgDpB!_w9-zYUoZKZLug3hCF4OgBnZIzkybP--Px21Qu5Wm90)
Soundtrack/Orchestral Score/Outtakes


A pretty solid Hollywood score by Masato Coda. Better than Maria and Arpeggio. It's like Danmachi but with more comedy and Danny Elfman. There's 30 minutes of purely orchestral pieces and the rest is very much enjoyable. According to the booklet, most of the brass is fake but it's far less striking than in GATE. Nonetheless I wish more producers would take after Konosuba's example. Various physical soundtrack releases for the fans and a digital release of all the music for people who are in just for the music. Let's hope the second season will have more orchestral score.

As usual, if you like it, please buy it from iTunes or CDJapan.


Enjoy






@nextday: Considering pretty much all Sagisu releases of recent memories had at least one orchestral piece by Amano I'm not worried (yet).
I might be wrong but perhaps the recent London session was either for the Tales of Zestria animation in summer or the Kantai movie in fall, at least it seems plausible to me.

Hachiko story or would there is no soundtrack (1987)?
Model number is (VAP-8005330).

Yoshihisa Hirano's first contemporary works album Unlimited (http://www.rec-lab.com/#!ultimate/gl2sl) releases on April 15th! 4/5 of the compositions are from 2015 so that explains why he hasn't scored anything recently.

@Vin: Kikuchi briefly mentioned that the February London session at AIR was for an anime project that's been in the works for five years (unless I'm translating something wrong).

5年近く取り組んでいたプロジェクトのロンドン大レコーディングも今月終わっていて、新しいチームでのアニ メ用オーケストラ録音も2月に終わっていて、今朝になって急にホっとした気分。

The Orchestral Saga album has been posted here: Thread 201909

I wish I could say I really enjoy "Give Blessings to Us On the Road" But even aside from the lack of real brass it doesn't grab me very much at all even in just the orchestral highlights beyond the first track.

Can you imagine any other country on the planet where a guy would take a year off from scoring shitty cartoons to work on an album of avant-garde concert hall piano works? :D

Part 2...



Russel Shaw
Fable Legends

The London Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by Allan Wilson

Tiffins Boys Choir and the Pinewood Singers Choir



Download (https://mega.nz/#!ahAmwBZJ!sEaYBjRj5q7mmUPtPBlZiNCZQSiyDsou6dyLqwnurcA)
MP3 / V0 / 65 Tracks / 140 min


“Each quest is comprised of four arenas, plus ‘holding areas’, whilst the villain sets up creatures and lays traps for the next arena. A quest can last up to 45 minutes depending on players’ skills, so wall-to-wall drum-based combat music was a complete no-no. To convey a sense of the rollercoaster ride, there are frequent thematic, melodic and tempo changes, providing an ever-changing dynamic music underscore which transitions and progresses in pleasingly musical ways. The players should feel like the score has been specifically written for their experience. When things start to change and the Pendulum shifts, you’ll hear the triumphant hero melody and everything starts to feel joyous and more ‘we can do this’ – it’s all about the team mechanic and conveying the ‘story’ through music.” -Audio Director Steve Brown

“With so many different themes and styles, keeping some semblance of continuity was a constant battle. Steve and I had to come up with a hook for each theme. Usually this was something instrumental – say, glass harmonica or whatever. This helped me keep a grip on the continuity issues. We recorded the Philharmonia Orchestra at Air Studios and mixed at Abbey Road. Having Simon Rhodes as engineer for all this – his CV is ridiculous – was just an incredible and humbling experience. We had around 90 players, Tiffins Boys Choir and the Pinewood Singers choir. I’m always trying to bring a sense of beauty and charm into Fable. Luckily, aside from the Pendulum suites, there were exploration-style pieces, which allowed me bring in much of the beloved Fable fairy-tale style of music that fans love. I’m always intensely critical of my own work and throw away so much before I’m even remotely happy, but with the quality of professionals working and playing on this project – well, that’s half the battle really. I’m incredibly pleased with the results.” -Composer Russel Shaw



I guess we're lucky the music got a planned release before the game was canceled, otherwise it would probably not have seen the light of day. Still, this makes you wonder just how much failed projects have a finished quality orchestral score that will never be released. A good example is Chris H�lsbeck's score for Rogue Leaders: From his website, interviews and schedules you can piece together that he probably recorded all of the important midi files of the series with a giant Hollywood Orchestra and then some more. This would have been an orchestral rollercoaster ride like Starfox Assault with bits of Williams score, have a listen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-X8C_8nJQ4).













Oh and I don't know if it has been mentioned here before, but I can only give the highest recommendation to George Oldziey's Wing Commander rerecording project. You can still "buy" it (physical and digital) on his website (http://oldzieymusic.com/wingcommanderCD.html#). One of the few gems kickstarter has made posssible.

I'm feeling super bummed about the Dark Souls 3 soundtrack. Bloodborne isn't a masterpiece musically by any means, but at least it had live instruments for all the tracks. Dark Souls 3 going back to the soul crushing fake horns and fake choir that defined every Dark Souls 2 track makes my blood boil. I don't expect excellence but I'd at least like the bare minimum effort to at least make your soundtrack not sound like a playstation 1 game.

Part 2...



Russel Shaw
Fable Legends

The London Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by Allan Wilson

Tiffins Boys Choir and the Pinewood Singers Choir



Download (https://mega.nz/#!ahAmwBZJ!sEaYBjRj5q7mmUPtPBlZiNCZQSiyDsou6dyLqwnurcA)
MP3 / V0 / 65 Tracks / 140 min


�Each quest is comprised of four arenas, plus �holding areas�, whilst the villain sets up creatures and lays traps for the next arena. A quest can last up to 45 minutes depending on players� skills, so wall-to-wall drum-based combat music was a complete no-no. To convey a sense of the rollercoaster ride, there are frequent thematic, melodic and tempo changes, providing an ever-changing dynamic music underscore which transitions and progresses in pleasingly musical ways. The players should feel like the score has been specifically written for their experience. When things start to change and the Pendulum shifts, you�ll hear the triumphant hero melody and everything starts to feel joyous and more �we can do this� � it�s all about the team mechanic and conveying the �story� through music.� -Audio Director Steve Brown

�With so many different themes and styles, keeping some semblance of continuity was a constant battle. Steve and I had to come up with a hook for each theme. Usually this was something instrumental � say, glass harmonica or whatever. This helped me keep a grip on the continuity issues. We recorded the Philharmonia Orchestra at Air Studios and mixed at Abbey Road. Having Simon Rhodes as engineer for all this � his CV is ridiculous � was just an incredible and humbling experience. We had around 90 players, Tiffins Boys Choir and the Pinewood Singers choir. I�m always trying to bring a sense of beauty and charm into Fable. Luckily, aside from the Pendulum suites, there were exploration-style pieces, which allowed me bring in much of the beloved Fable fairy-tale style of music that fans love. I�m always intensely critical of my own work and throw away so much before I�m even remotely happy, but with the quality of professionals working and playing on this project � well, that�s half the battle really. I�m incredibly pleased with the results.� -Composer Russel Shaw



I guess we're lucky the music got a planned release before the game was canceled, otherwise it would probably not have seen the light of day. Still, this makes you wonder just how much failed projects have a finished quality orchestral score that will never be released. A good example is Chris H�lsbeck's score for Rogue Leaders: From his website, interviews and schedules you can piece together that he probably recorded all of the important midi files of the series with a giant Hollywood Orchestra and then some more. This would have been an orchestral rollercoaster ride like Starfox Assault with bits of Williams score, have a listen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-X8C_8nJQ4).













Oh and I don't know if it has been mentioned here before, but I can only give the highest recommendation to George Oldziey's Wing Commander rerecording project. You can still "buy" it (physical and digital) on his website (http://oldzieymusic.com/wingcommanderCD.html#). One of the few gems kickstarter has made posssible.
Its good but lacks a strong theme.but i definately will participate in the second kickstarter for volume 2 in the near future.

Can you imagine any other country on the planet where a guy would take a year off from scoring shitty cartoons to work on an album of avant-garde concert hall piano works? :D
He was also in the studio today recording music for a drama. Hirano is back. :)

Edit: Unrelated, but I just saw that Hayato Matsuo is contributing music to Drifters, an upcoming anime from the creator of Hellsing. Very interesting.

Also, stay tuned for Akagami no Shirayukihime's soundtrack at some point today.

Thanks for sharing Fable Legends. Hater, could you please not quote the full post when you reply. Thanks.

Michiru Oshima
with the Paris National Opera Orchestra

(http://vgmdb.net/album/56639)

Ripped, translated, etc. by nextday.

Shirayuki: The Image of Tranquillity (Main Theme) (http://picosong.com/Addn/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Download: https://mega.nz/#!hR0x3JRT!gu6WwCiz68k64KnKEUrJzfZf8hPSr2OvKlOUvssllbE

Here's a lovely new Oshima score which is reminiscent of her previous Paris scores - for me it brings to mind her score for Sound of the Sky (Thread 75286), which also had a scenic cover illustration. This soundtrack includes the the music from both seasons of the anime (about 85 minutes of score). If you are someone who enjoys a good, romantic slice-of-life score then I highly recommend checking this one out!

Did it by mistake sorry

Many thanks for the new Oshima! I'm always in for good, romantic slice-of-life tunes. Love that main theme sample and love the cover artwork too. Can't wait to listen!

It is very useful at all I like this Kathu
ทํานายเบอร์โทรศัพท์ (http://www.scnumber.com/%E0%B8%97%E0%B9%8D%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2%E0%B 8%A2%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C% E0%B9%82%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8 %9E%E0%B8%97%E0%B9%8C-%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%82/)

Saegusa (7)

OPERA CHUSHINGURA - Shigeaki Saegusa (1997)
オペラ 「忠臣蔵」 三枝成彰


FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!48hRgToI!61X6hocwmiY0KycrN6Akycr4bDgy6I7qDKOaOgw3_hE)


ORATORIO YAMATO TAKERU - Shigeaki Saegusa (1995)
オラトリオ 「ヤマトタケル」 三枝成彰


FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!NopUXbQL!o0fQuB8QzOxdNK5fkR2TEUuwXmHClaxI33L0o8sP8q4)

Part 3...




Akito Matsuda
Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle
Orchestral Score & Ensemble



Download (https://mega.nz/#!q9wWSa7Z!lVh3zhGYSUR5UKm61JQTuZzrouYUVx8LpRyVtGXM7hg)
MP3 / 320kbps / 30 Tracks / 54min


Well look at that, Matsuda is certainly growing stronger with each new release and apart from some action pieces, this one stays classical. "Formidable enemy ~ Advent" is the kind of action piece you would usually expect in a Sahashi or Hirano score. It starts right off with the very first bars of Verdi's Dies Irae mixed with a little Mozart and then develops into it's own thing. Matsuda's (Nijine's) affection for the classical was always apparent and it really shines here, completely compensating for the brass, which is sadly only one real trumpet (but hey that's already better than GATE). It never ventures into greatness but for what it is (yet another score for a generic Light Novel Harem), it's a pretty damn good. I await his Euphonium movie score with good expectations.

Matsuda makes some interesting stylistic choices there. He wrote a score that plays to his ensemble - by the sound of things, a small string section (I believe at least some of them are synthesized - possibly the celli and basses?) and a handful of woodwind. That action cue you mention (which, to my ears has nothing in common with Sahashi and especially nothing in common with Hirano except that it's a pastiche of mid-romantic classical music which those two composers occasionally invoke) is a case in point... It's entirely carried by the strings. Matsuda knows that stuffing in fake brass would spoil the effect so he makes a conscious effort to avoid brass all together. I approve. How many times have you heard a shoestring score that's doing it for you and suddenly there's a setpiece cue and you hear those horrible fake trombones - buzzing like a hive full of horny bees - and suddenly you lose interest? Maybe it's just me... ;)

That pastiche is actually what I was talking about, as in a confident bold display of musical knowledge. I'm not saying they are in the same league, that would be ludicrous, but they share similar essence.


On another topic, my copy of Snow White arrived today and it's just beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I had to replay it twice to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Easily among my favorite Oshima scores, if not in my top 3 already. "Prince of Clarines" is such a perfect regal piece, I was instantly enchanted the first time I heared it in the first episode, and "The Kiss of Two People" is just... *melts*. And the second part even has some great drama with a great action cue where I don't even mind the drum loops. If I'm forced to complain then I'm a tiny bit annoyed by the percussion playing constantly in "Mysterious Illness" because I really liked the track in the show but that's all I can think of. Romantic film scores really don't get better than this. In parts it almost has Tone Poem character. I desperately need her Symphony now.

A Herr Salat / Tangotreats Co-Production

VARIOUS ARTISTS (including 16 year-old Michiru Oshima)
International Electone Festival
1977 Grand Prix Album



My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. Full scans of the album cover, inner booklet, and vinyl itself are included. Tracks are tagged in English. If you ask for an EAC log or cue, I will freeze you in carbonite and hand you over to Darth Vader.

FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!R1BClZiJ!KPjASyF9LCfZcC4aJnbwF0NuzAajarRuP_a9vqNScbQ

Herr Salat sent me this ages and ages ago. I don't know how I managed to lose track of it, but a discussion about Oshima in another thread made me remember it and so here it is... better late that never... Hopefully Herr Salat will forgive me.



So, you're reading this and you have two questions:

A) What the hell is this?
and
B) Why are YOU, the "orchestra fascist", posting seventies synthesizer music?

They're good questions. This is an album of prize winning pieces composed for and performed on the Electone, an early Japanese (where else) synthesizer. I take an interest in it because the album contains two pieces written and performed by none other than a sixteen year-old Michiru Oshima. Whilst most prizewinners at such a young age disappear into obscurity, Oshima, nearly thirty years later, enjoys an international career as one of Japan's finest composers. This is where it began.

Oshima won the Grand Prix prize at this competition with the piece "Gloria" which opens the album - a piece that has more in common with Tchaikovsky than contemporary Oshima. The album ends with Oshima's "Improvisation" which is, again, not by any means "classic" Oshima but is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into what went through her mind so early in her musical career.

The other pieces on the album are quite interesting and very unique in their way; Niznik's and Van Rooy's pieces are both funky crowd pleasers, Nanbu's and Haba's are tone poems more rooted in the classical world, Tjahyono's is experimental and filled with effects and mysterious sounds, Ocampo's is textural and jazzy. (As a side note, Oshima is the youngest performer at 16, Tjahyono and Niznik the joint eldest at 26.)

Today, this is mainly a cultural curiosity. Get it if you're a fan of Oshima, for this is her earliest known music. Get it if you like crazy seventies synthesizers.

My usual rambling notes on the vinyl transfer and subsequent restoration...

This is by far the most problematic Japanese-sourced vinyl record I've ever tried to transfer. In contrast with by far the majority of Japanese LPs I work with, it wasn't in mint condition. To complicate matters further, the sound of early synthesizers is often harsh and angular - meaning automated noise reduction often does more harm than good. Accordingly, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time working on this one - performing a very, very light automated noise reduction and then going in for manual repair work. The end result is very pleasing.

The odd thump and click remain where repair work would have caused artifacts. There are also some unfortunate examples of vinyl's shortcomings at reproducing particular types of sounds - mainfesting most conspicuously in "Impression on Sunset '77" as unpleasant white noise distortion. It occurs only a handful of times on the album and in every attempt to make it better, artifacts ended up making it worse... so I left it alone.

Otherwise, the sound is really quite sumptuous. Obviously, both music and instrument are highly dated so my advice is to run for the hills if you have the kind of brain that recoils in horror at the merest mention of 1970s electronica and synthesizers that were, at the time, highly sophisticated but compared to the equipment of today are hilariously basic. That said, this is a glorious taste of the 1970s and I actually find some of the music very good.

Hands together for Herr Salat, folks - thank you, and enjoy. :)

TT

I say this once again, where on earth do you find this stuff Mr. Salat? Always interesting at the very least.


Edit: Why is Tatsuya Kato writing this brass heavy music for a cooking anime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_tsnSmpM-k

He's definitely getting better at scoring. Just wish he'd ease up a bit on the percussion.

I say this once again, where on earth do you find this stuff Mr. Salat? Always interesting at the very least.


Edit: Why is Tatsuya Kato writing this brass heavy music for a cooking anime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_tsnSmpM-k

He's definitely getting better at scoring. Just wish he'd ease up a bit on the percussion.

I don't see anything wrong with it.

Personal preference.

Personal preference.

Ah, legit then.

He's definitely getting better at scoring. Just wish he'd ease up a bit on the percussion.

The guy has some goodness in him... in Buddy Complex it's mostly this Hans Zimmer wannabe crap but then there's about five minutes of actual music in there as well, just enough to make you think that the guy is hiding some formidable talent. That right there... is traditional trailer fluff. I think there will be good stuff to enjoy in the score. :D

Snow White is quite lovely. I wish Japanese composers wouldn't so regularly use that strange combination of synth every time there are investigation scenes. The Comet ISON score had similar such cues that greatly break away from the flow of the otherwise solid music.

Yeah, I don't know why Oshima occasionally has those synthy tracks in her scores. They always sound so out-of-date and misplaced.

Luckily there's more than enough orchestral score to make up for it.

It is quite fascinating, and not only the synth itself, the percussion stuff also feels really forced, especially when its absent when you hear the piece in the film/show. A good example is the Main Theme of Rokka which really didn't need all the additional sampled percussion.

Oh God, that light synth moody "People thinking about stuff" music. Tell me about it.

I don't know why Oshima does it... she clearly doesn't like doing it and she has no particular talent for it... it takes a good cue and ruins it. The fact that she only does it once or perhaps twice in a score is quite telling...

Many thanks Amish for posting Saegusa's magnificent 'Oratorio: Yamato Takeru' (although I believe it was composed in 1989) [#16188]. I had been searching for this ever since I heard part of it played on the UK's BBC Radio 3 late one night many years ago and had it on order for a long time from Ark Soundtrack Square in Tokyo. A "rep" for you!

About Oshima's synth,you can listen the 漣歌 NHKスペシャル「太平洋戦争」 / 式部(DPCX-5104),it means the Pacific War,track No.3,the air,use the synth,but it sounds fantastic and suitable in this track
But in Tico of the Seven Seas ,she doesn't use the synth and full of orchestral.

PILI HEROES MUSIC COLLECTION LII 58


Raise The Trend With PILI Music
用霹靂天籟，掀起整個音樂浪潮
霹靂音樂絕美收錄：万堺塵濤、九月雪、不負相思不負君、劍非道、劍非刀、生命練習生、玄真君、玄凌蒼、万堺 塵濤搶先看預告曲，豪華加贈「魔吞不動城」迷你專輯，與您翻騰整個霹靂音樂的浪潮！二○一六年 三月二十五日 霹靂網、霹靂直營店/加盟通路、全家便利商店、ibon、新絲路網路書局、光南大批發、五大唱片行　全台狂襲上市！
01
万堺塵濤（万堺塵濤第一片頭曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡　
詞：廖明治
吉他：許勝峰　
演唱：阿爍 04:39

02
玄天劍印（劍非道武曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:12

03
道劍（劍非道角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:49

04
封劍主（歎希奇角色曲） 曲/編曲：風采輪 03:20

05
劍出夕痕（鬼刃夕痕武曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡 04:25

06
弓弧名家（弓弧名家場景曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:29

07
刀典（刀典情境曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:27

08
不負相思不負君（流蘇晚晴之歌） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡　
詞：東山
演唱：沐婷 04:34

09
精武之路（生命練習生氣勢曲） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:10

10
千古塵濤（万堺塵濤搶先看預告曲） 曲/編曲：浩旭 03:10

11
万堺朝城（万堺朝城場景曲） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:20

12
萬魔幽都（幽都氣勢曲） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:25

13
塵雲少子（玄凌蒼角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:18

14
芙蓉鑄客（巧天工角色曲） 曲/編曲：風采輪 03:44

15
至玄之道（玄真君武曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:02

16
魔流劍（風之痕殺曲） 曲/編曲：風采輪 03:54

17
孤獨殘峰（風痕雙少情境曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:10

18
刀劍忘機（劍非刀角色曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡 04:34

19
群俠護世（九輪燎原總收幕曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:27

20
九月雪（万堺塵濤第一片尾曲） 曲/編曲/唱：風采輪　
詞：廖明治 05:17
21
赤龍怒焰（赤龍影氣勢曲） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:16

22
背水一戰（白衣洛子商戰鬼刃） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:03

23
異譜殞英魂（白衣劍少悲壯曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:50

24
千古嘯紅塵（傲笑紅塵武曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 02:51
https://mega.nz/#!1l8hzIIS!uMkEfmMFFAi4r9hQM6N0Y1PqFaXR2zVe_HK2JPAZljk

Apperantly, Kousuke Yamashita is on board for the new Yamato. Get hype.

Buh... What?

Seriously?

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Where is this news coming from. I hope Akira Miyagawa returns. If this is true I hope he does not ruin the tried and true Yamato music.

Ehm... you do know he already scored a Yamato movie, right?

Info taken from this site http://yaraon-blog.com/archives/81783 and I assume to be Makoto's twitter.

Tetsuro Amino was chief director on Break / Broken Blade and Silk Road Boy Yuto, which wound up with two of Yoshihisa Hirano's finest works. On one hand, I'm sad he's not working with Hirano (can you just imagine what he'd come up with in a big-scale sci-fi show) but on the other hand, Kousuke Yamashita is working on a big-scale sci-fi show! Based on his music for the 2009 movie, this could oust Garasu No Kantai as Yamashita's sci-fi epic benchmark.

I hope they finally leave Hiroshi Miyagawa's 70s scores in the past. Akira Miyagawa's score was extremely good and a touching tribute to his father, but this will work better if Yamashita gets to write an original, full-bodied symphonic space opera instead of trying to crowbar in tired old melodies and disco. I'm all for some delicate allusions to the theme to act as a unifier, but if this is going to be another exercise in Hiroshi Miyagawa pastiche and "spot the Yamato tune" it's going to disappoint.

That said, Yamashita isn't a choice you'd make if you wanted something lightweight and throwaway. Fingers crossed! :D

He did part of Fukkatsu Hen soundtrack which is definitely my least favorite Yamato OST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGiR5HRUS0

Here is one of the two podcasts I appeared on to talk about ETHEReal String as well as my next production The Travelers, a game music arranged album in various European Folk styles. This features a special team of musicians and arrangers I have picked specially for this as well as new arrangements by myself. The concept is "what if the musicians were a traveling group of minstrels that went to different pubs around Europe?". And all of the music comes from JRPGs and in this podcast I premiered my arrangement of Meridian Dance (Secret of Mana) and Dissipating Sorrow (Final Fantasy IX) from the Travelers.

Stay Tuned tomorrow for another podcast release and that one is the biggie ;).

Tetsuro Amino was chief director on Break / Broken Blade and Silk Road Boy Yuto, which wound up with two of Yoshihisa Hirano's finest works. On one hand, I'm sad he's not working with Hirano (can you just imagine what he'd come up with in a big-scale sci-fi show) but on the other hand, Kousuke Yamashita is working on a big-scale sci-fi show! Based on his music for the 2009 movie, this could oust Garasu No Kantai as Yamashita's sci-fi epic benchmark.
Really makes you wonder if Hirano was on the shortlist but declined the job because he was focusing on his original works.

By the way, I don't expect it to surpass Glass Fleet simply because it's a Yamato series. There's no way the producers are ever going to ditch Miyagawa's themes.

At a guess, Amino probably thought that he would have been hunted down and killed by the Yakuza if he put something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLwovRSETps) in Yamato.

I would've loved it... but I can grudgingly see that Hirano would've been a bad commercial fit.

If Hirano scored Yamato, he would either do it his way and never work again, or he'd drop back into first season HunterXhunter lobotomy style and frankly if he's not allowed to be himself I'd rather he didn't touch it.

Yamashita is a glorious choice; he's got the symphonic chops, he can orchestrate LIKE A BOSS, but he's a lot more traditional than Hirano - he's not going to put in some challenging bitonality, grating dissonances, and experimental orchestral chaos that will scare the 70s Yamato fans away immediately. It's going to be an approachable, traditional space opera score. I can live with that. Yamashita can do something genuinely wonderful and at the same time not piss people off.


By the way, I don't expect it to surpass Glass Fleet simply because it's a Yamato series. There's no way the producers are ever going to ditch Miyagawa's themes.

I don't think they would either... but by moving from Akira Miyagawa to Yamashita, they're sending a clear signal about what sort of direction the score will take: It's not going to be wall-to-wall 70s pastiche. It's going to be a proper, integrated score by Yamashita which will invariable feature the famous Yamato theme and will probably allude to various sub-melodies throughout... but it's going to be its own beast.

Yamashita recorded half an hour with the Tokyo New City Orchestra for Fukkatsu Hen Director's Cut, of which less than half is totally original Yamashita cues, with the rest taken up by a few variations on Mahler and some fundamentally-Yamashita cues that substantially feature Miyagawa's melodies.

I think we'll see that kind of trend reproduced here; yes, there will be recourse to those old tunes we're all familiar with (and probably more than necessary) but they will feature as raw material inside Yamashita's own score. There will also be a fairly substantial chunk of score in which those old melodies don't show up at all.

Listen to "Space Battleship Yamato 2009 Orchestral Version" off the Fukkatsu Hen Director's Cut soundtrack. It's 3:36 and credited to Hiroshi Miyagawa... but you only have to listen to it to know that it's Yamashita's piece all the way, merely quoting Miyagawa's themes.

I'd love something all-Yamashita... but I still think this could be something really, really glorious. :)

So, FF15 gets a short anime series and a film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FBP27zcQgE
Ep1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsVhwsUFaDE

The series has music by a couple rookie composers, Susumu Akizuki & Yoshihisa Inoue. Tommy Kikuchi (London guy) is credited as producer and Shangri-La (employs Sachiko Miyano) is credited for co-production. I would assume the orchestrator is Miyano based on the company credit, but it doesn't list anyone by name.

The film will have music by American composer John Graham (main theme by Shimomura). I guess they felt the need to go Hollywood for this one.

Got the opportunity to sit down and Emily Reese​ (of Top Score fame) about The ETHEReal String Project​ with my friend and collaborator Andrew Steffen of ETHEReal String Orchestra. We talked about orchestra music, our passions/backgrounds, and in depth string talk :). I even discuss The Travelers album which is my next production featuring all new arrangements from me as well as arrangements from other great arrangers and performances by some of the best talent around! It was an honor to talk about the music that I am so passionate about! You can support Emily on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/Level?ty=h.

And you can buy/listen to The ETHEReal String Project at the following places:

Loudr: https://loudr.fm/release/the-ethereal-string-project/T26Eu
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-ethereal-string-project/id1094529448
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1qnAmy36acBcrJ09F37jSV

Please support us by purchasing so we can make bigger and better projects!

So, FF15 gets a short anime series and a film. [snip] I would assume the orchestrator is Miyano based on the company credit, but it doesn't list anyone by name.

Intriguing! The orchestrations sure sound like Miyano and the score itself is rather interesting. A small orchestra and a small chorus but some real effort being made there! :)

A Herr Salat / Tangotreats Co-Production

VARIOUS ARTISTS (including 16 year-old Michiru Oshima)
International Electone Festival
1977 Grand Prix Album



My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. Full scans of the album cover, inner booklet, and vinyl itself are included. Tracks are tagged in English. If you ask for an EAC log or cue, I will freeze you in carbonite and hand you over to Darth Vader.

FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!R1BClZiJ!KPjASyF9LCfZcC4aJnbwF0NuzAajarRuP_a9vqNScbQ

Herr Salat sent me this ages and ages ago. I don't know how I managed to lose track of it, but a discussion about Oshima in another thread made me remember it and so here it is... better late that never... Hopefully Herr Salat will forgive me.



So, you're reading this and you have two questions:

A) What the hell is this?
and
B) Why are YOU, the "orchestra fascist", posting seventies synthesizer music?

They're good questions. This is an album of prize winning pieces composed for and performed on the Electone, an early Japanese (where else) synthesizer. I take an interest in it because the album contains two pieces written and performed by none other than a sixteen year-old Michiru Oshima. Whilst most prizewinners at such a young age disappear into obscurity, Oshima, nearly thirty years later, enjoys an international career as one of Japan's finest composers. This is where it began.

Oshima won the Grand Prix prize at this competition with the piece "Gloria" which opens the album - a piece that has more in common with Tchaikovsky than contemporary Oshima. The album ends with Oshima's "Improvisation" which is, again, not by any means "classic" Oshima but is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into what went through her mind so early in her musical career.

The other pieces on the album are quite interesting and very unique in their way; Niznik's and Van Rooy's pieces are both funky crowd pleasers, Nanbu's and Haba's are tone poems more rooted in the classical world, Tjahyono's is experimental and filled with effects and mysterious sounds, Ocampo's is textural and jazzy. (As a side note, Oshima is the youngest performer at 16, Tjahyono and Niznik the joint eldest at 26.)

Today, this is mainly a cultural curiosity. Get it if you're a fan of Oshima, for this is her earliest known music. Get it if you like crazy seventies synthesizers.

My usual rambling notes on the vinyl transfer and subsequent restoration...

This is by far the most problematic Japanese-sourced vinyl record I've ever tried to transfer. In contrast with by far the majority of Japanese LPs I work with, it wasn't in mint condition. To complicate matters further, the sound of early synthesizers is often harsh and angular - meaning automated noise reduction often does more harm than good. Accordingly, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time working on this one - performing a very, very light automated noise reduction and then going in for manual repair work. The end result is very pleasing.

The odd thump and click remain where repair work would have caused artifacts. There are also some unfortunate examples of vinyl's shortcomings at reproducing particular types of sounds - mainfesting most conspicuously in "Impression on Sunset '77" as unpleasant white noise distortion. It occurs only a handful of times on the album and in every attempt to make it better, artifacts ended up making it worse... so I left it alone.

Otherwise, the sound is really quite sumptuous. Obviously, both music and instrument are highly dated so my advice is to run for the hills if you have the kind of brain that recoils in horror at the merest mention of 1970s electronica and synthesizers that were, at the time, highly sophisticated but compared to the equipment of today are hilariously basic. That said, this is a glorious taste of the 1970s and I actually find some of the music very good.

Hands together for Herr Salat, folks - thank you, and enjoy. :)

TT



This is glorious...not only a wonderfull piece of trivia regarding Oshima but such a rare artifact of her musical history...bloody god damn bloody good, damn bloody good, god damn bloody damn bloody good and bravo!

Toshihiko Sahashi
SAINT SEIYA: soul of gold
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!Klg2QRZb!yPSUikKAtb1cAkOYYo6v9-tw6YX4x4rVyOrKVbf6UR8)
FLAC / 40 Tracks / 52min


Big thanks to alexandrabruno for making this happen

*now with official track titles*


About the score: All I can say is that Sahashi is finally back, baby. Killer theme, soprano, smashing rock, goose-bumping action, all back. Took him long enough I say.





Go Sakabe
DATE A LIVE
Score Collection



Download (https://mega.nz/#!alBT1QaQ!LNDRwZfU1BcJLK5FwA7I79uYvO_hViZ7md_FZ26XnQk)
MP3/ 320kbps / 46 Tracks

*A 90 minutes revised score arrangement from all soundtracks*

DATE A LIVE remains not only Sakabe's best to date but it was also a nice Sahashi-esque substitute score when he was out of the game for a while. Most of my favorite japanese composers are already working on new projects right now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Sahashi and Sakabe will appear this year as well, big time.

I could get all the official track titles for you. But there's like 80+ and I'm not sure which tracks you selected for this compilation.


Intriguing! The orchestrations sure sound like Miyano and the score itself is rather interesting. A small orchestra and a small chorus but some real effort being made there! :)
Yes, it's probably just the same orchestra Miyano has been using recently: http://vgmdb.net/artist/16185


Edit: Was surprised to find this nice cue on a short slice of life anime I was watching - http://picosong.com/N95A/

Low budget but he makes it sound pretty decent. The composer doesn't really have any other works aside from random anime songs.

Thanks!

nextday: I cut nothing this time, this is everything from all six cds, just better than six small volumes with six tracks. I still have the original volumes so I can easily adjust the titles if need be.

Kaoru Wada's score for the Ace Attorney adaptation is sounding good so far, I like these small nods here and there to the game series (even though, I haven't played that much of it to know), I'm glad they decided to go mostly orchestral with every piece here for now. :D

In regards to Go Sakabe, I may have misjudge him way too quickly due to the atrocious cheap library sample score that was Digimon Tri. You'd think with a franchise so popular they'd give him the resources to score as Date A Live (it still has some of it's annoying fake brass into it, but not as overwhelming as DT). I can hear some Sahashi into it, and in others, were pieces like "Light blue", reminds at times of Hamazu's overuse of the violin and piano, except this guy seems to know how to handle an orchestra in comparison to whom I previously mentioned.

Also, glad to see Sahashi kind of back to finally score something that isn't completely synthesized or with barely 2-4 of orchestral material in between so many cheap samples.

nextday: I cut nothing this time, this is everything from all six cds, just better than six small volumes with six tracks. I still have the original volumes so I can easily adjust the titles if need be.
Weird, there's 85 tracks registered on JASRAC. Maybe some got cut from the official release. I'll look into the titles from the six CDs for you.


Kaoru Wada's score for the Ace Attorney adaptation is sounding good so far, I like these small nods here and there to the game series (even though, I haven't played that much of it to know), I'm glad they decided to go mostly orchestral with every piece here for now. :D
He wrote 45 original pieces for the show and arranged 5 pieces from the game. He recorded everything with a full orchestra like he did with Kindaichi.

Other anime thoughts: Endride sounds pretty alright from what I skimmed. Definitely some classic Tanaka compositions in there. I didn't hear the main theme in episode 1 though (they played it at the AnimeJapan livestream and it sounded pretty grand).

Hmm... I converted from bin files and the number of tracks was indeed 80 but the cue files only listed 40. Every second track also didn't have audio information. You also don't need to bother with the titles, some kind soul already put up a list.

The Ace Attorney anime soundtrack seems like it's gonna be a very good one, then. I can't wait til it's eventually released.

I'm really surprised to see Wada appear in Ace Attorney. It seemed as though he only got the recent Kindaichi job because he worked on the previous series - making me wonder if he was still "in the game" any more... but it looks like he is! Naff all worth hearing in the first episode, but this is to be expected.

Endride... the first fucking sound we hear tells us what we need to know... good sized orchestra and Tanaka doing what he does best. Again, very little in the first episode that's specifically exciting to me, but there's enough for me to expect really wonderful things from this one. Between the snippets we have today and Tanaka's own comments about the score, it's got the potential to be really brilliant.

Not a bad April so far. :D

Wada might very well be returning for the new D.gray-man anime later this year too. The PV had orchestral music, at least.

I'm still trying to determine who else is working on Endride with Tanaka. The only other composer who has mentioned being involved so far is Hiroshi Nakamura.

I would've said "no way" but suddenly the guy is back, so here's hoping! I'd be lying if I said Wada was my favourite composer - he's not even in the top ten... but nobody sounds like him and he's massively talented.

As far as Endride goes... I was going to suggest maybe the opening titles for the show would help but I just watched them again, and they don't - all they say is "Music By Kohei Tanaka & IMAGINE PROJECT" which we already knew. Presumably it's a principally-Tanaka score and these other guys, whoever they are, will only have a few "filler" cues. That's the way it usually goes down... :)

I've always meant to ask what it is about Wada's orchestral writing that doesn't ring your bell.

I would've said "no way" but suddenly the guy is back, so here's hoping! I'd be lying if I said Wada was my favourite composer - he's not even in the top ten... but nobody sounds like him and he's massively talented.

As far as Endride goes... I was going to suggest maybe the opening titles for the show would help but I just watched them again, and they don't - all they say is "Music By Kohei Tanaka & IMAGINE PROJECT" which we already knew. Presumably it's a principally-Tanaka score and these other guys, whoever they are, will only have a few "filler" cues. That's the way it usually goes down... :)
Ah, well I was thinking that One Piece is a principally-Tanaka score but there's still some nice tracks by Hamaguchi and the other guys.

It would be nice if Hamaguchi showed up here considering he mostly composes slice-of-life and drama these days.

I've always meant to ask what it is about Wada's orchestral writing that doesn't ring your bell.

I wish my reason was more nuanced but honestly... it's just not to my particular taste. There's just something about it that makes me wish I wasn't listening to it any more. You know when you're sick and you have screwed up repetitive dreams? I actually dreamed the main theme to Inuyasha, again and again and again, and woke up breathless at 4am in a pool of sweat. I don't know... maybe it's just one of those things. :)


Ah, well I was thinking that One Piece is a principally-Tanaka score but there's still some nice tracks by Hamaguchi and the other guys.

It would be nice if Hamaguchi showed up here considering he mostly composes slice-of-life and drama these days.

Yep, true - Hamaguchi got quite a few of the "big moment" cues in One Piece.

And I agree with you... I bloody wish he would work more. He's been typecast off the face of the earth. They'll call him for "Schoolgirls With Big Breasts Become Good Friends", and "Pepto Bismol-Coloured Talking Animals Frolic In The Countryside" but never for "Epic Spaceships Shoot At Each Other In Intergalactic War", "Giant Robots Battle To The Death", and "Something Mysterious And Life-Threatening Changes The World"... I mean, look at what he came up with for two more recent projects "Sexy Girls Ride Around In Big Tanks" and "Sarcastic Otaku Write A Comic That Takes Off Kancolle" - he can orchestrate like nobody's business, he's got a wonderful sense of melody, and he's even proven that he can handle the likes of the Warsaw Philharmonic with his eyes closed. Why is he scoring Haruchika?!

I absolutely adore Shiro Hamaguchi's work, too. I love his work for Shin Chan. Beautiful cues right there.. and most of his arrangements for Final Fantasy are good, too. I also wish he'd go on to do epic orchestrated stuff, but if you ask me, his slices of life are also really good, too.

I wish I had Crayon Shin Chan's Movies BGM CD in FLAC.

I actually dreamed the main theme to Inuyasha, again and again and again, and woke up breathless at 4am in a pool of sweat. I don't know... maybe it's just one of those things. :)

Well, it is very, very catchy, no doubt about that. NP: Hanyou Inu Yasha ;)

If I can't sleep tonight I will hold you personally responsible. ;)

I absolutely adore Shiro Hamaguchi's work, too. I love his work for Shin Chan. Beautiful cues right there.. and most of his arrangements for Final Fantasy are good, too. I also wish he'd go on to do epic orchestrated stuff, but if you ask me, his slices of life are also really good, too.

I wish I had Crayon Shin Chan's Movies BGM CD in FLAC.

Agree. I don't think he's ever written a bad note... it's just frustrating to see him freewheeling in genres which don't really give composers the best opportunities, when you know what he's got inside him.

Shin Chan... funny you bring that up because I was listening this afternoon and thinking that Hamaguchi's cues are usually the best of the lot. :)

While I understand your point, eh, personally his slices of life aren't bad, I liked Shirobako and Tari Tari. But yeah, he's got talent and he needs to be given oportunities to go full symphonic. As for Shin Chan, it's literally just where I met his music. The music for the movies. Yeah, he's got the most prettiest of the songs for the movies (example, the ones featured in the 2001 movie) but I think the other two guys, the one I cannot name because I mistake with the Sailor Moon guy in the name, also Shinji Miyazaki did some nice cues for the movies of 1997 and 1998. But the main Shin Chan composer whose name I cannot recall also did some good scores for the movies, too. I'm glad that we have the 2003 Movie BGM disc, wish they would release a super complete release, many good cues left! Or better yet. A CD release with the BGM music of the show.. so many cues I remember and can hum (childhood) yet have never seen the light of day!

Also, what's with Japanese people liking to put orchestrated scores in their anime so much? I mean.. it's weird for me because I'm not accostumed for TV shows to have such scores in the western, at all. They're most computerized simple scores. But woah, almost every random anime I find has some good sounding orchestral score, and I keep hoarding and hoarding without having seen the anime at all. For example, I just found out about Nichijou's score by Yuji Nomi which, given how much beautifully orchestrated and composed it is, I bet some of you know about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKubxKpWXf8. It's so good, someone would wonder why there's a score like this in a slice of life, but.. then given the fact that this slice of life relies on heavily random and funny gag, I guess it fits that the music would describe just that perfectly.

Well, as I said, I don't think he's ever written a bad score... but some genres give better chances to composers than others.


Also, what's with Japanese people liking to put orchestrated scores in their anime so much?

It's a very strange phenomenom - one which is keeping a lot of people interested in film scores who by now would have completely moved on. The art of film music is in a teriffic decline in the West and is already many years dead in mainstream Hollywood. The Japanese tendency to treat music with such reverence creates a hilarious (and highly depressing) situation whereby we routinely hear infinitely superior music cropping up in naff Japanese cartoons than we do in "serious" Western cinema.

Nichijou is a wonderful example. They didn't have to go to all that trouble. Nobody would've noticed, and the show would still have been popular. As a slice-of-live, people-oriented comedy nobody would have expected it to have any kind of noteworthy score. And yet it finished up with a full-sized symphony orchestra, an overseas recording, and the compositional talents of one of Japan's most venerated composers. The score becomes a very expensive and highly sophisicated part of the humour of the show. It takes to its logical conclusion the old technique of scoring comedy - play it completely straight: don't write "funny" music or make winking asides to the audience... take it seriously, treat it with respect, and write good music.

It's really funny when even a simple anime that is made to promote toys or anything, get orchestrated songs too, it's weird, but I like it, I guess. Nichijou is a wonderful score, too. Really. It's so DARN good. And you know what? There's SO MUCH epic, serious symphonic cues in a show that is very random and comical - I'd even think that the whole epic orchestra songs are also part of the comedy, really. You know, when there's a real normal situation that turns into a very exagerated dramatic moment for the sake of comedy? The full orchestrated epicness of some cues kind of helps add to that comedy, know what I mean? When you hear very adventurous, epic music that could come from an epic, big blockbuster - but the moment is actually something really simple

My favourite part of Nichijou is at the front of Episode 7, where we get this wonderful, extended, and completely irrelevant story about where Mio's hair cubes come from. It's a delicious tale about an evil despot named Dolph who threatens King Albert and the princess. She flees in desparation, running through the corridors of an airship, pursued by Dolph's henchmen who want to get their hands on her wooden cube. Dolph explains that when combined with Albert's counterpart cube, an "ancient weapon" can be resurrected leading Dolph to become king of the Fey Kingdom. Dolph trips, and falls to the floor dead. There is a tense standoff between the princess and the henchmen - they pledge their allegiance to her and take the princess to King Albert. One henchman who remains realises that Dolph has dropped Albert's cube and the princess has dropped hers, leaving him in posession of both cubes. He realises that with both cubes, he could become king. He stands by an open window, smoking a cigarette while he mulls over his options. He burns his finger on the cigarette, jumps, and knocks the two cubes out of the window. He looks out the window dumbfounded and horrified, standing open-mouthed, howling in despair as they fall... they land on Mio's head. And we're back in the schoolroom with Mio and her classmates.

It's an eight minute long joke which is completely scored to picture. It's just glorious.

I love that show. :D

I haven't seen it much, so I didn't know if my theory of the epic orchestrated score being part of the joke too, was actually true, but given that description.. I was damn right! haha

Well, Macross Delta's music is crap. Seems like Kubota only got to score a few "daily life" cues. All the big cues are by the other composers with a 100% synth orchestra.

Now to wait for the next anniversary and hope for Kanno.

Ffffffffff what?! I thought Kubota would get the lion's share... BUGGER.

I mean, the episode that aired is pretty much the same as the preview that aired back in December or whatever. But I think the verdict is clear since none of the synth music was recorded with real musicians in the time since that preview aired.

I hear some real musicians in there, but what the hell are they playing at? SURELY something better has to be coming in later episodes. Mina Kubota is a bloody genius.

:(

Was prowling around and found this sample for an old album by Keisuke Shinohara. Sounds absolutely lovely but I can't find it anywhere on the net.

http://www.tudou.com/v/-UwAI1Rg7Rw/

Edit: Found on some Chinese forum. Trying to gain access.

Thanks Vinphonic for the recent shares. I'm excited to see if I have a different approach to Date a Live music when it is arranged in your usual fantastic highlights manner.

Keisuke Shinohara
and his Aeolus Orchestra



Sample: The Air (http://picosong.com/NgPS/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Download: https://mega.nz/#!MUs1yAQS!r2eUNElpBc5SQO8m9vqHSbn4_DlDbjFRmsjQeWlFZt8
Note: the last track on disc 2 isn't an instrumental track - it has voice recorded over the music.

This is an original album by the late Keisuke Shinohara, composer of a couple anime (Thread 57893) films (Thread 57893) and an NHK special (Thread 138996). It is relaxing music for strings and solo instrument (piano, oboe, sax, etc.).

I see it as could-be-soundtrack music for one of those summer time slice-of-life shows. Makes me wonder why Shinohara only scored a few works in his lifetime.

Wow just the first track and already I'm hooked. Many thanks for sharing the music Nextday.

It caught me off guard, at least. This is the kind of loveliness I'd expect from Oshima or Iwasaki.

I still wish to find more of his works but they're very obscure. His Japanese Wikipedia has some interesting entries but there's no sources and nothing to indicate they were ever released.



FLANOVA (Manchester Chamber Orchestra)
ROM1 (London Symphony Orchestra)
Symphonic M�rchen "Momotaro" for Orchestra (Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra)
Photon (Tokyo City Philharmonic)


His last work released on CD that I know of is a piece titled "On the Way to Somewhere" released on classical CD (http://www.ashbunny.com/cd/index.php) by his management company.