It seems Bear McCreary will be scoring God of War now. This is quite a surprise, but the music in the gameplay trailer at E3 was really nice and honestly I didn't recognize it as Bear's music. Apparently he conducted the orchestra for that segment too.

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA is a nice debut soundtrack from Takuro Iga.

A rip hasn't surfaced on any public sites yet but I found someone uploaded it to Nicovideo: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm28925360

I quite like your piece Josh (and bought it).

The only thing missing I think was a little sax line to support the piano in the middle and the drums at the end, either solo or full section mixed to the left to complement the bone(s) on the right. And the lyrics were a bit too repetitive in parts for me but other than that it's a fine effort. I would like to hear more :)

I quite like your piece Josh (and bought it).

The only thing missing I think was a little sax line to support the piano in the middle and the drums at the end, either solo or full section mixed to the left to complement the bone(s) on the right. And the lyrics were a bit too repetitive in parts for me but other than that it's a fine effort. I would like to hear more :)

Thank you! I really really appreciate the buy! Yeah I thought a sax line would have been good too and I originally planned to put one in but I couldn't get a musician lined up for it. I won't go synth so since I couldn't get a live musician I had to pass on sax. The lyrics (since I am not good at lyrics :P) are the same as the original. I even cut out a couple of sections since the original was like about 6 minutes and very repetitive but I think that is because it is electronica styled.

Anyway, thank you for your support and there will be more jazz sounds to come soon ;). I am milling around the idea of doing more Sonic R pieces like this too. I will definitely add some sax if I can!

LWA is getting a TV animation. How unexpected. More Moscow Oshima... hopefully?

Oh baby, the good news just don't stop no more :D

If she is coming back with a Moscow recording I hope for full concert arrangements of her ideas for the two films and then some more. LWA1+2 is among my top 10 Oshima scores and just the possibility of perhaps 90 minutes of score of similar quality, that could sit right alongside Harry Potter, makes me shiver with excitement.


Also, if The Ancient Magus' Bride's new pv (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6LTSfyXFRU) is not trailer music but instead the real score... damn that could be something.

Popin Q's new pv (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL_cKZ5WgUQ) has a promising mock-up that hopefully will be performed by a large orchestra. I really liked Mizutani's "Kurumiesque" Ore Ga Ojou-sama so I have good expectations. His score is at least worth a listen: sample (http://picosong.com/x9ne).

So Iwasaki just posted a handful of videos of himself playing some piano duets of his older songs. It's really nice to hear his melodies in their most basic form. And the joy on his face is priceless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNtSw27Q-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTP7BckduEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_xEOX-NsE8

Speaking of Iwasaki, has anyone else here heard his work on Bungo Stray Dogs yet? The soundtrack just came out. It's typical Iwasaki, which means a lot of electronic fare, but there's a handful of gems in there like "KOKORO FURUE KERI", which is a mesmerizing combination of his orchestral skills with Inco Saito's angelic voice. Strangely enough, the entire song is sung in normal Japanese, which is unusual for Iwasaki since we all know how much he likes his English and German.

Thread 206364

I wish a recording of Iwasaki's piano concert would be released in some form but I guess those short videos are all we're going to get.

Junichi Nakatsuru, Keiki Kobayashi, Ryuichi Takada, Hiroki Kikuta, Shiro Hamaguchi, Tomoki Miyoshi , Andrew Aversa, Cris Velasco

Soul Calibur: Orchestral Selection

Eminence Symphony Orchestra & Eminence Symphonic Choir
Japan Studio Orchestra (Trumpet: Masahiro Kobayashi)



Download (https://mega.nz/#!ShhDFDqb!TINMNpkNN2OPu365rQI4L1t_eVVpuU5EJUczE7LVayM)
MP3 / 38 Tracks / 90 min

As I've grown older and my music collection ever larger I feel like there's too much game music that is just taking up space and is not worth a listen anymore. Particulary 4-5 disc soundtracks of various Japanese games, made worse by the fact that a long running franchise may have over 20 discs worth of content. From my point of view an orchestral score should not be longer than two hours, ideally 80 to 90 minutes. My favorite orchestral scores fall right into this time frame. So I've recently trimmed my massive game collection down to a nice chunk of quality music I would like to listen to again and that would fit nicely on a single disc. Soul Calibur falls into this category, hundreds of minutes of game music written and produced for over five games and the worthwhile stuff could actually fit on just one disc. So I made this orchestral selection from Soul Calibur II-V with pieces that were performed live and divided it into two parts, you could say the first part is a typical japanese orchestral score while the second part goes into bombastic Hollywood teritorry. Soul Calibur has some pretty good orchestral pieces and I hope that if a new title is made they make the extra effort of focusing on quality orchestral music and less on a potpourri of composers with dozens of discs of content. Soul Calibur is one of the few fighting game franchises were there's a certain amount of ambition when it comes to the music, going for a Hollywood sound, hiring Hamaguchi for a symphonic suite, hiring a full Symphony Orchestra & Choir etc. I hope this trend continues.

Thanks for this. Sounds like a good idea. You're right, often you have to pick your way through to find the decent stuff.

If anyone ever wonder what's the type of music performed by an orchestra that I really like, here's a few examples.

Opening Cutscene (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCd...3SCdxO&index=2
A New Journey (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UI...3SCdxO&index=3
The World Adventure (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFE...SCdxO&index=27
Cutscene - Opening (Sonic Lost World) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOw4PYCk1w

And a last good example..

Shenmue Orchestra Album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWm8Gml8w4w

Love it! Glad to see you have continued to share your trimmings with us. That is how I got around to making Loveliness, Elegance, and Nobility after all. So many anime soundtracks that don't really need to be listened to repeatedly in full.

Also The Rocketeer is really out in 2CD form from Intrada. So glad to see one of Horner's finest scores given the complete treatment and Intrada's meticulous remastering.

If anyone ever wonder what's the type of music performed by an orchestra that I really like, here's a few examples.

Thank you so much... but these are all broken links... :(

Thank you so much... but these are all broken links... :(

Oh geez.. but you at least know or have heard the songs I'm talking about, right?

I'll get some corrected links in a minute. But before, let me give you this; the songs (Specially the third) remind me of the type of thing that you'd heard in a classic Shin Chan movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQP3jmZ3T8

So Masashi Hamauzu is composing the music for Classicaloid, that upcoming anime where Beethoven and Mozart battle giant robots (or something like that).

If Hirano or Kameoka are orchestrating, then I'm already in, otherwise he has to work really hard to make me care. Given the subject matter it should not be hard to write your classical pastiche but to truely incapsulate the spirit of the classical period and the romantic era is a whole other matter. Hirano has that talent, Oshima as well, same for Sahashi, Takaki and Yamashita... but I do not get that impression from Hamauzu at all. But who knows, maybe he can suprise us all. Still, that only remains true if the score will even be orchestral. Japan works in mysterious ways afterall.

Well, Endride is out... and it's a penny pincher. Synth brass all over the place. What a major, major bummer.

While it seems that the real trumpet sections are able to sustain the brass quite well in some tracks (Brass section had 4 trumpets, 6 trombones and 1 tuba, no french horns), others have that painfully obvious fake brass "drone-y quality", including the full synth ones. What a shame, Tanaka seemed to got the Sahashi treatment as well (but hey, at least he's not stuck with the bonus cd's bullsh*t that he previously had with Hyouka).

Music wise, Tanaka delivers greatly for me: the main theme is as glorious as I heard it playing in the anime, great Debussy-esque passages like the second track, though kind of disappointed that the epilogue had such a simplistic conclusion. Hayato Matsuo did nothing for me except for the 23rd track, not a fan of his synth work at all, better off when he's given a full ensemble to unleash what he does best. I was a bit worried that three quarters of this work were going to be fully cheap sample tracks, considering that later episodes of the series had an overwhelmingly increase of it, but thank god I was proven wrong to see that almost half or more were performed. Is it the best score of this season? I'd go for a weak yes, considering I also liked Mina Kubota's work in Macross Delta.

Masashi Hamazu, considering what he could do by himself in Typhoon Noruda, he's going to need indeed a great orchestrator to pull this one off, that, or he'll just be the usual Hamazu in Binbō-gami ga!

Well, Endride is out... and it's a penny pincher. Synth brass all over the place. What a major, major bummer.
There was a real brass section but it was only used in a few of the tracks apparently. Not sure why you would hire a group specializing in orchestral scores and then not give them a budget. Seems like a common occurrence these days.

Well, at least Keiji Inai continues to succeed at assembling a full orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq3YB_ueHdo

Anyways, here's a share:




Koji Endo - NHK Morning Drama "Toto Nee-chan: Fatherly Sister" Original Soundtrack
Orchestrated by Sachiko Miyano



Ripped, translated, etc. by nextday.

Tsuneko's Road (Main Theme) (http://picosong.com/xEX4/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Download: https://mega.nz/#!cNFWyCgT!BPBAMwSGbd80veKa20eBEP6WujBzZf3UqAhWpm1Zf38

Grabbed this soundtrack because you can't go wrong with NHK + Sachiko Miyano. There's over 70 musicians credited in the booklet so it's a pretty high quality production.

The music is a nice mix of folksy orchestra and jazzy dance music in various styles, opening with the playful main theme and ending with big band jazz.

I enjoyed this score but not sure if I'll be purchasing the second volume since the producers tend to put the best tracks on the first volume.

It makes absolutely no sense. You can afford real brass players... so instead of saying "OK, I can afford eleven players - so I'll have four trumpets, three horns, and two trombones" they hire a shit-tonne of trumpets (high) and trombones (low) and even a tuba and then fill out the mid range with shit synthesizers.

Lesson ONE in writing for a small orchestra - if you can't afford someone to play a particular instrument, JUST DON'T SCORE FOR IT.
Lesson TWO in writing for a small orchestra - a slightly smaller string section is worth the sacrifice if it enables you to pay for more woodwind and more brass.
Lesson THREE in writing for a small orchestra - if you absolutely HAVE to save even more money, throw away percussion instruments first - timpani, snares, bass drum, celesta, cymbals, celesta, piano... because these are the easiest to adequately sample and if they're used judiciously they are pretty much indistinguishable from live players.
Lesson FOUR in writing for a small orchestra - one pianist is worth two basses and a tuba.

Summary: Write to the strengths of your ensemble, and understand that putting conspicuously synthesized instruments in stupid places devalues the live players you DID manage to get.

I wonder if Japanese composers even have a say in what ensemble will be selected. It's just striking when you look at Gate, Kantai or Endride, there's no way Tanaka, Fujisawa or Kameoka don't know about orchestral balance. That just can't be possible.
So I suspect, given the incredibly split up production process of anime, that they just write the score firsthand, then a contractor tries to rent a recording place while another tries to hire live players (and that contractor is most likely not musically educated) and if they want the composers can then oversee, play an instrument or conduct at the recording session. Then you have to factor in the technical limitation of the typical japanese recording studio.
For example Girls und Panzer was done in separate sessions for different instrument groups because the room it was recorded in just isn't suited for a full (small) orchestra. You can imagine the sheer claustrophobia of such a room with the Super Mario Galaxy recording videos.




In other news they are really stepping up the game for PriPara, possibly turning it into the next Precure: What a fantastic Henshin theme! (http://picosong.com/xErV)
Also great to hear that Inai is returning in full force and that Berserk is having Amano on board while also having an enjoyable Sagisu so far. I also like that they are expanding on the film scores.


News from the Hollywood front: Talk about unexpected. Desplat's The Secret Life of Pets is just full of wonderful moments and surprisingly jazzy (in a good way). I think it falls in line with his Rise of the Guardians and I enjoy it a great deal.

I have to think they have a pretty good idea ensemble they'll be working with; at the point of orchestrating the score (which Japanese composers often do themselves) you really need to know. At some point, somebody has to prepare parts for each individual member of the orchestra and at that point you need to know the minutiae - how many of each instrument do I have, will there be doubling, etc? (If you have one percussion player, you can't have a cymbal crashing at the same time as a timpani roll, for example - and you need to give the players time to physically put down the first instrument and pick up another. You just can't make those decisions until you know exactly what the composition of your ensemble will be. What would be the point of busily orchestrating for an 18-piece brass section just to be told you're got one trumpet and you've got to fake the rest?

Also, there is the occasional score like Book Of Bantorra which has a particularly strange balance of instruments and has been obviously written with that balance clearly in mind. Bantorra isn't an orchestral score with half the players missing - it's a score written for the very particular ensemble of strings, piano, saxophone, recorder, trombone, soprano soloist, and percussion. Hirano's ensemble is string-dominated, so the score is string dominated.

If anyone ever wonder what's the type of music performed by an orchestra that I really like, here's a few examples.

Opening Cutscene (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCd...3SCdxO&index=2
A New Journey (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UI...3SCdxO&index=3
The World Adventure (Sonic Unleashed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFE...SCdxO&index=27
Cutscene - Opening (Sonic Lost World) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOw4PYCk1w

And a last good example..

Shenmue Orchestra Album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWm8Gml8w4w

Have you heard the Kid Icarus: Uprising soundtrack? I think you'd really like it based on those Sonic bits you tried to link (the links have "..."s in them that obscure the actual original link).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts91h-WzVG4&list=PLD267B8CC48D06DF5
Thread 119627

Also, thanks for introducing me to the Grandia soundtrack :)

I have! I actually have it in my HDD. I heard it once and I loved it, it's heavily performed by an orchestra! Thank you for the suggestion though. And a pleaure to introduce you to Grandia :)

Go Shiina
GOD EATER 2: Orchestral Selection
Japanese Symphonic Orchestra & Beijing Symphonic Choir
Orchestrated by Sachiko Miyano
Remastered by Vinphonic



Download (https://mega.nz/#!WhxzFCqT!7gnpaeObSFmJljNFNiWmEJS_a5ZDEQlRS0lhEc10aO0)
MP3 / 32 Tracks / 90min


Another victim of my trimming, I also tried what I could in making the sound more pleasing to the ears. Still, despite atrocious mastering and the annoying eletronic effects this is the kind of bombastic score I actually like. Sure Miyano is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here and saving what would otherwise be a pretty juvenile effort but I forgove Shiina for moments of pure Hollywood and incredibly powerful operatic ballads. The man certainly got the talent for larger than life moments and I prefer his work to the likes of Sawano and Zimmer.

Enjoy

THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA PLAYS SEZEN AKSU
Music by Sezen Aksu
Orchestrated by Erdal Kızıl�ay
Conducted by Marcello Rota



My rip at FLAC Level 8. Tagged in Turkish. Full scans, including Turkish booklet notes, included.

Link updated 03/07/16 with missing scans added to archive:
https://mega.nz/#!h9ImEZxb!z_oCDG4sALrMbdeAg4fZ51b9qm5j6WlE_H0NVsWxhOk

I get a lot of imports from Japan, the US, and around Europe... but this is the first time I've ever imported a CD from Turkey! I took a punt at this one; browsing the RPO's recent discography, this looked particularly interesting and, to cut a long story short, here it is.

Sezen Aksu is Turkey's super-diva mega celebrity. Her career began in 1975, and at the age of sixty-one today she shows no signs of letting up.

Now, Turkey is probably the last place in the world you'd ever think would decide to do a Japanese-style "symphonic" album (particularly twenty years after Japan gave it up) but never judge a book by its cover, because this is actually good. REALLY GOOD.

Quite how the RPO becomes involved in projects like this, I don't know - the booklet notes are provided only in Turkish, and attempts to turn up information about this album online have proven largely fruitless... but let's see what we have.

Variety is the name of the game, here. Whether you like traditionalist symphonic interpretations, or wonderfully imaginative orchestrations driven by a battery of middle-Eastern percussion, or virtuoso solo performances, it's all here - and it's completely convincing. There is a chorus, used sparingly - Hollywood composers who drop in votox choirs hollering "AAH AAH AAH AAH" in every single cue take note; less is more. The traditional Turkish instrumentation is genuine and classy; there's no repetitive banging taiko drum, here - when the percussion appears, it's superbly poised and complex.

Sikidim, in particular, stands out for me - it's one of those songs that just screams out eroticism - the western-style orchestra blends with Akatay Ritim Grubu's darbouka and Goksun Cavdar's seductive clarinet solo which oozes with middle-Eastern flavour. I just love it. I am normally not a fan of "crossover" classics which is usually embarassing to all involved parties... but this is an intelligent and original merging of techniques - and I find it very addictive.

Enjoy! :)
TT

I assume this is from the same album you just posted Tango. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QTYUUHv6pE
Nice short sample for those wondering what it is going to be like even after your lengthy description. I'll check it out for sure.

Thanks for the album. Good stuff.

Well that was unexpected... and pretty great. Thank you very much for this Tango.

Regarding the percussion, it's really miles away from something like Gods of Egypt. When your instruments don't stay fortissimo the entire time and instead move in the opposite direction and are not playing constantly, especially percussion, you get infinitely greater possibilities of tone colors and effects. For example, just a soft mallet slightly touching a snare, a timpani or a cymbal can give a magical touch to your strings and winds.

How did we not hear about this one? Kosuke Yamashita on Puzzle & Dragons, which premiered today!

A real orchestra is present, not a massive one, but Yamashita gives it a pretty good workout - a few good cues in the first episode... meaning I am going to have to keep looking at this dumb shit anime! ;)

What does everyone here think about the BFG soundtrack? I haven't yet warmed to it after a few listens in part I think because of the clear similarities to Lincoln. It's not a bad score but it doesn't immediately grab me either.

Absolutely adore it! I can't believe it hasn't been discussed in this thread yet!

The film bloody well shouldn't have been made, but the score is another matter.

Granted, Williams is now the ONLY game in town, but he doesn't let up. The theme is just glorious - in roughly the same ballpark as Harry's Wondrous World but with a lighter touch, a tinge of melancholy, and some flighty Debussian impressionism... and some lovely harmonies that recall ET.

Speaking of ET, "Dream Country" may be Williams' finest ten minutes since "Escape and Chase" - most composers can't sustain an idea for sixty seconds, but Williams does ten glorious minutes in a piece of music that immediately and unquestionably belongs in the concert hall.

And "Sophie and the BFG" - another generous-length Williams concert piece that makes you cry out with joy that music like this is still being written; even if it is by a composer who learned his craft sixty years ago.

It is my favourite Williams score since Artificial Intelligence.

There is a certain technique with flutes that he uses in the score that takes me out of the score for some reason. It makes it sound more like a piece of classical music than a film score. It shows up heavily at the beginning of the overture.

Wonderful music, thanks for sharing these Turkish melodies TT. If you like Sezen Aksu, you may like the similar-style music of the famous Iranian-Azeri singer Googoosh, whose orchestrations are equally fabulous (ie Ayriliq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6llNfRorb0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMARiD7zZvs).

Has anyone heard the new Hirano? I liked The BFG too, but I liked The Force Awakens even more.

monkey king 2 will propably be intradas next release.liked the first one but hear nothing but praise about the sequel, both movie and score.also john debney is next in the "western composer scoring chinese fantasy epic" club.league of gods is the name of the movie.fingers crossed for something big.

Alderamin - so far - makes me very, very happy.

That said, I've had "Oh, my God, that's WONDERFUL!" reactions to Inai scores in the past and then discovered that there's only five minutes of good music in the whole show... so I will reserve proper judgement. A few things are clear; firstly that Inai will, sooner or later, get the right combination of project and budget and when he does, he will produce something that will stand with any of the most noteworthy orchestral scores. No other up and coming composer can currently match his combination of melodic sixth sense that could in time challenge Hisaishi's, mature, motivic, theme-driven compositional style, and stunningly meticulous, traditional, confident, colourful orchestral flair.

Last year's Familia Myth and Heavy Object don't even begin to scratch the surface of what this guy can do.

Alderamin takes us, I think, further than we've been before but we will have to resume waiting for the Inai score that makes everybody go "Oh, wow..."

Alderamin - so far - makes me very, very happy.

That said, I've had "Oh, my God, that's WONDERFUL!" reactions to Inai scores in the past and then discovered that there's only five minutes of good music in the whole show... so I will reserve proper judgement. A few things are clear; firstly that Inai will, sooner or later, get the right combination of project and budget and when he does, he will produce something that will stand with any of the most noteworthy orchestral scores. No other up and coming composer can currently match his combination of melodic sixth sense that could in time challenge Hisaishi's, mature, motivic, theme-driven compositional style, and stunningly meticulous, traditional, confident, colourful orchestral flair.

Last year's Familia Myth and Heavy Object don't even begin to scratch the surface of what this guy can do.

Alderamin takes us, I think, further than we've been before but we will have to resume waiting for the Inai score that makes everybody go "Oh, wow..."
I agree that Keiji Inai is one of the only new composers that has that traditional sound. Hoping the first episode is just a prelude of what's to come.

Also this season, Kaoru Wada is in full throttle for D.Gray-man. A different sound compared to his last two scores.

Also, Ange Vierge has an orchestra score by rookie Takatsugu Wakabayashi. The official website proudly advertises that the music was recorded with a 58 piece orchestra.

Well this season certainly is strong:


There is a Warsaw score for Berserk and judging by the little 10 to 30 second excerpts and considering 24 episodes we should have about 60 minutes of Amano. Not bad :D

Alderamin certainly sounds promising and I heared a big showpiece in the pv that has yet to appear so I think this time Inai is not restrained and may deliever something wonderful. Also very Golden Age orchestrations this time.

Ange Vierge: Fascinating to see an orchestral score being promoted as a selling point... and what do you know, it's good so far. For a random dumb commercial with cutesy lesbians it very much feels out of place but I guess with all the Star Wars references they at least try to aim for the Hollywood sound (seriously, the lightsaber is one thing but what is Jabba's Palace doing there?).

I also like this new D.Gray-man score much more than the others which I found pretty boring. In recent years Wada actually seems to give a shit for once. Quality stuff so far.

Arslan 2 and Soma 2 both feature one standout cue so far so I'm pretty sure there is good stuff on the soundtracks.

Love Live Sunshine is already among Kato's best, far more traditional than I expected and when he stops his emphasis on rythm there is much more to enjoy.

91 Days also starts very strong (and what a classy opening on top), let's see if it turns full noir.

Puzzle & Dragons Cross is a very good Yamashita score so far, hopefully more traditional than his recent scores.

Regalia also shows some promise but all the RC references worry me.

Amanchu and Art Club both feature some cute string & wood pieces, very much in style of Ruka Kawada and Mina Kubota. I have good feelings that they will turn out to be great afternoon scores.

And finally, I don't know if it counts but Final Fantasy Brotherhood continues to be very good, how could it not, with Kameoka involved...



All in all already MUCH better than last season and now the gamble begins what gets an official release and what will be butchered by 12 Mini-Discs. At least I hope Alderamin, D.Grey-man and Berserk get spared.





Oh and I recently checked my japanese iTunes and brought something back:

Naoki Sato
Man of Keiseisaimin (Main Theme & variations)


Download (https://mega.nz/#!H0oDCZ4J!Yw7AN3Z79bbAxOg3eCrSH-zEQf-SqnlhG5pGJbz4U3M)

Very much reminiscent of John Barry, John Dubar in particular.

And finally, I don't know if it counts but Final Fantasy Brotherhood continues to be very good, how could it not, with Kameoka involved...
Fairly certain it's Miyano since her production company is listed in the credits.

Kameoka's website says she was co-producer but that doesn't mean a whole lot based on her other co-producer credits (on none of her co-producer credits was she involved as an arranger).

By the way, looking on Kameoka's website I found this concert:

One Piece, arranged by Hamaguchi: https://youtu.be/qduIbNd8Lc8?t=49
Genesis of Aquarion, arranged by Kameoka: https://youtu.be/qduIbNd8Lc8?t=445
Medley - Euphonium ~ Osomatsu-san ~ Attack on Titan, arranged by Kameoka: https://youtu.be/qduIbNd8Lc8?t=809
Madoka Magica, arranged by Yamashita: https://youtu.be/qduIbNd8Lc8?t=1277

Interesting seeing Tanaka co-hosting the concert and even playing Kanno's melodies. That reminds me, I never asked and I'm not sure if it was ever shared but does anyone have Tanaka's 20th anniversary concerts (20 Shuunen Na Yoru & Sakura na Yoru) by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in flac or at least hq mp3, the only thing I found was a shitty rip on nicovideo.



EDIT: Recently old Ultraman series have been getting complete remaster boxes. I'm sort of tempted to buy the Gaia complete box because it's one of Sahashi's finest but 100 euro is a bit much. Anything up to 60 would be reasonable considering it would be an upgrade to the 192k rip but these prices are just insane.

Interesting seeing Tanaka co-hosting the concert and even playing Kanno's melodies. That reminds me, I never asked and I'm not sure if it was ever shared but does anyone have Tanaka's 20th anniversary concerts (20 Shuunen Na Yoru & Sakura na Yoru) by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in flac or at least hq mp3, the only thing I found was a shitty rip on nicovideo.
I just noticed that the opening theme music is a new piece by Hisaishi too.

It seems to be one of the world's most longest running music-themed television programs - running since 1964.

In 2016 there has also been a FF concert hosted by Uematsu and a classical concert hosted by Hisaishi (opening with his original piece). Will be interesting to see if they continue doing these special episodes.

Well this season certainly is strong:

And here is an alternative miserable bastard appraisal of the new season. ;)

Berserk: Is Warsaw confirmed by a news source? Because I don't hear *any* Amano in episode 1, and definitely no Warsaw. I hear a lot of crappy synth and recycled cues from the movie scores.

Ange Vierge: Big-ish orchestra wasted on a crap show and a crap composer.

Arslan 2: Taro Iwashiro 1% better than usual.

Soma 2 and Love Live: Big-ish orchestra wasted on a crap composer.

Regalia: Uniformly terrible.

D-Gray Man: Could turn out to be pretty good. Any season where a Kaoru Wada score for a reanimated corpse of a ten year-old show is one of the best games in town... Is not going to go down in history as fantastic.

Final Fantasy Brotherhood: Absolutely nothing interesting in episode 2, a few minutes worthwhile in episode 1.

91 Days: <STRIKE>Taku Iwasaki</STRIKE> Shogo Kaida is not going to give us a solid orchestral score. At best, there will be a few cues that aren't too bad.

In short... a thoroughly disappointing season rescued from complete disaster by a *potentially* good score by Yamashita, a *potentially* good score by Inai (both of which will turn out to disappoint) and a Wada sequel.

91 Days: Taku Iwasaki is not going to give us a solid orchestral score. At best, there will be a few cues that aren't too bad.

Taku Iwasaki? I thought it was Shogo Kaida who was scoring for 91 Days.

About Berserk, was gonna say, there's alot of recycling around here, and that Warsaw-y cue from 6:25 of the second episode sounds like "L'Av�nement (Orchestre 'Soulagement')" from the third movie. There is however some new material, but can we please stop overusing those crappy symphobia clustering string samples!? Seriously, and I thought Yugo Kanno jump the shark with that one at JoJo.

Still got to check on Yamashita's P&D and curious about Kato's LLS.

Already watched Alderamin, and so far, I'm really liking it, though I'll be a bit more skeptical this time around, not want to get fooled again like Heavy Object (Then again, this is a Madhouse production, so there's field for Inai to really stand out).

Shokugeki No Soma S2, you know, half of these tracks could be potentially "better" if Tatsuya would drop those beats off (no pun intended).

Oops, you're quite right, my apologies! There IS an Iwasaki score in this season (Qualidea Code) and somehow I got the two shows mixed up.

I think Berserk is going to turn out to be completely recycled. There is no way in bloody hell they're going to do an expensive overseas recording for a series that already had three movies each with expensive overseas recordings. We'll get 90% stuff from the movies, 5% offcuts from those sessions, and probably 5% original "connective tissue" which will be either completely synthesised or a small domestic ensemble. I will go out, buy a hat, and eat it on camera whilst wearing a "I love Hiroyuki Sawano" T-Shirt whilst listening to Aldnoah Zero if I'm proven wrong and Berserk winds up containing any substantial orchestral music we haven't heard before.

I like to think this is going to be Inai's breakout, but as you say, we've been there before. I do think, though, that it's only a matter of time. Unless he does something horrible that ends his career or there's a huge shift in Japan that effectively ends the orchestral score entirely, sooner or later he's going to get his big moment - one of those magical scores where you get just the right person at the right time on the right show with the right budget and the right director. He's got the chops and then some. When the time comes, he'll knock Kameoka's Kantai into a cocked hat. Keiji Inai has a Fractale in there somewhere - I just know it. The day somebody says "Hey, Keiji - score my new 50 episode sci-fi show, do something big and traditional, you've got a 70 piece orchestra!" we'll get to hear it.

Yamashita's P&D will probably turn out to be a cheapy - this isn't going to be Garasu No Kantai 2, not by a long shot - though stranger things HAVE happened...

Sagisu always does overseas recordings. He is based in Paris and does the majority of his recordings in London. He has said he doesn't spend much time in Japan these days.

That said, I don't hear much of interest in his new Berserk. Much more interested in the upcoming Godzilla.

Edit: anyone catch Re:Zero this week? The episode was a turning point for the series and featured a lengthy new piece. It even played over the end credits in a cinematic fashion.

Just saw it and Kenichiro Suehiro is definitely improving with Re:Zero. So much so that I suspect more than one session. I also like how the people making it seem to understand that a score should first and foremost be an emotional AND narrative tool, so much so that I suspect some scenes must have been scored to picture. A shame we probably have to wait till december, unless an OST gets announced which I doubt.





EDIT: D.Grey-man continues to be excellent and if Wada keeps up the momentum it might be among my favorite scores of his. Glad to know it's getting a soundtrack release relatively soon.

Just saw it and Kenichiro Suehiro is definitely improving with Re:Zero. So much so that I suspect more than one session. I also like how the people making it seem to understand that a score should first and foremost be an emotional AND narrative tool, so much so that I suspect some scenes must have been scored to picture. A shame we probably have to wait till december, unless an OST gets announced which I doubt.
There was another session a couple months ago where he recorded new music for the second half of the show. I'm sure there will be some good stuff on the August soundtrack but waiting until December for part 2 is going to suck.

Monkey king 2 is indeed the next intrada.and if you enjoyed the first score as i did, this one is even better.hope he delivers in the final third movie as well. that would be splendid.a great musical trilogy.its been a loong time since the last one.

Wow nextday, you wouldn't have saved the Final Fantasy concert by any chance because the youtube account is down now 0_0

I managed to save the anime concert however:



The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Orchestra Concert - Anime Songs
Arrangements by Shiro Hamaguchi, Natsumi Kameoka and Kousuke Yamashita



Download (https://mega.nz/#!e54HFA7T!wVBmar4iYy0kGSGVjR2fH-4lynu8NT_j3r9dUq116uw) (720p Video)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!rt4C2J6J!mlRHs2AQ3eZXQLoyy1Es4IGLnSB41zjcHZCqlEaUzVg) (MP3 vers.)

Tracklist:

I. One Piece ~ We Are! (arr. Shiro Hamaguchi)
II. Sousei no Aquarion ~ Theme Song (arr. Natsumi Kameoka)
III. Medley ~ Hibike! Euphonium, Osomatsu-san and Attack On Titan (arr. Natsumi Kameoka)
IV. Madoka Magica ~ Connect (arr. Kousuke Yamashita)

Shomuni Season 1 and 3 have already been shared. So here are the missing 2 volumes (I recall seeing the cover for Season 4 posted, but can no longer locate it, so apologies if I am repeating a post of Season 4):

SHOMUNI SEASON 2 & 4: Thread 207312

Yeah, I shared the Season 4 soundtrack a while back. But not in lossless, so thanks.


Wow nextday, you wouldn't have saved the Final Fantasy concert by any chance because the youtube account is down now 0_0
Damn, what are the odds. Went down right after being posted - good thing you saved it.

Someone else uploaded the FF one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2PqdDxar-A

It was performed by the Siena Wind Orchestra. The arrangers previously worked on the Final Fantasy Brass de Bravo albums:
Hideaki Haginomori (1), Rika Ishige (2,5), Yasumasa Sato (3,7), Yohei Kobayashi (4,6)

Edit: did you download the HD video? If I recall correctly, YouTube encodes HD audio at 192k but the files you posted are 128k.

I'm quite sure I did but then I just converted it in foobar and edited it with GoldWave, there shouldn't be a quality loss. I did not analyze it so I'm not sure. The only video I still have on my drive is a 720p version downloaded by accident (talk about lucky). I will add it to the download.

Thanks. I checked and there was nothing wrong on your end. Either YouTube has gone back to 128k or the original upload had 128k audio.

I'd be disappointed if they went back to 128. I mean, if they have no problem streaming huge 4k videos then why would they still need to compress the audio so much?

I might getting worried now Tango, three new Warsaw pieces so far and the solo flute sounds like it was recorded in the Filharmonia Narodowa... In episode 3 there's a new piece at (08:09) and especially after the credits (20:13) things go really off the charts where even Amano's mayor motif of the Eclipse appears and the Sagisu hybridpiece at the end is also backed-up by Warsaw.

I suggest "aldnoahOrch-adlib" for a possible serene evening appetizer ;)

I only hear one Warsaw piece in episode 2 (and there is no way they'd record a single solo flute in a big concert hall) with another cue barely 15 seconds long near the en, and a lot of recycled music from the movies.

Nonetheless... I might need to get that hat and t-shirt ready. :O

Now on to something truely unique:



Isao Tomita
SYMPHONY IHATOV
Japan Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Naoto Otomoa




Download (https://mega.nz/#!fpBFUAAR!LquzR12UOsV7d135k_UEoaKZOejsmT7CBLvzRyJO3_0)
FLAC / Level 8 / 6ch

This is without a doubt one of the strangest symphonies ever performed, mind you, not the weirdest I've heared, but it's up there. Because this time a famous vocalist made her debut in the Orchestral Concert Hall... and her name is Hatsune Miku. Yes, you heard that right. She appeared during the concert as a holographic projection... and they were playing it straight: the orchestra, the conductor and even Tomita interacted with her like she is actually real. I believe there was also an interview with the Diva herself (appearing as a hologram) and how is this picture not endearing:



Unfortunately Tomita died this year, on May 5th. He was mainly known for his electronic reinterpretations of classical works but he also composed traditional works as well of which Ihatov might be his best.

The concert was performed in the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall on 23rd Nov 2012 by a truely gargantous ensemble of over 300 musicians. The symphony is based on the fairytale Ihatov by Japanese poet and writer Kenji Miyazawa.
It takes a while for the Diva herself to appear but when she does I find it strangly intoxicating. Some might write it off as cheesy nonsense but I find it loveably cute. It's just the right amount of Japanese weirdness mixed with enormous professionalism, what's not to love. There's also a fair share of orientalism and some esoteric moments mixed with traditional divine choral writing. Also the fifth movement has a direct reference to Rachmaninov's second symphony.


SAMPLE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsFUNkgKtUI)

wow thank you for flac Isao Tomita!

Tomoyuki Asakawa
From a Sheet of Scenery



Ripped, translated, etc. by nextday.

Theme: From a Sheet of Scenery (I) (http://picosong.com/t87k/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Download: https://mega.nz/#!FI9nFSrL!waoiGi99B-ivmbHbIEuwOLRAFw6Cc3yZr4ivt_wxmk8

Here's a rare soundtrack by everyone's favorite harpist Tomoyuki Asakawa. The music was used in an NHK special to accompany Mitsumasa Anno's paintings of a peaceful European countryside.

It is a wonderful classically influenced score for strings, harp and flute. A nice soundtrack to listen to on a relaxing afternoon - I hope you'll enjoy it.

Isao Tomita's Symphony Ihatov (FLAC 6ch)


TOMITA's Symphony "Ihatov"
YouTube Live Stream (23.11.2012)



MKV, 1 video track, 1 audio track, 1:24:41, 30p
1: h264/AVC, Japanese, 720p30 (16:9)
2: AAC, Japanese, 2.0 channels
// Overall size: 1,15 GB

Source: ъыь (Nyaa)
�Sorry for some frame loss, it's was a quite difficult to capture youtube live stream. No reencode - original stream!� ---ъыь

anon.click/rihey78 (https://anon.click/rihey78)
(Mega.nz Behind Capcha)

<hr>

Music and Lyrics (Chorale, Radio) Written by, Album Co-Produced by
Yōko KANNO
Magnetic Rose/Memories (1995)
OST + Unreleased Music with SFX



Musicians:
Kaoru Nishino (soprano), Members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (cond. Mario Klemens), Prague Philharmonic Choir (cond. Pavel K�hn), Yasuaki Shimizu (sax), Keishi Urata (sound architect), et al.

OST Tracks Incl. Puccini Music:
04. Madama Butterfly ("Un bel di vedremo", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 2:00
07. Tosca ("Non la sospiri la nostra casetta?", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 2:04
08. Radio~Mad Butterfly ("Un bel di vedremo" / "Tu tu... piccolo Iddio!" / "Butterfly!", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 5:25
10. End (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJubMfWTRk&feature=youtu.be&t=3&gl=CA) ("Tu tu... piccolo Iddio!" / "Butterfly!", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 3:25

Unreleased Music with SFX Incl. Puccini Music:
Tosca ("Non la sospiri la nostra casetta?", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 2:00
Piano ("Un bel di vedremo", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 1:51
Murder ("Vissi d'arte", arr. Yoko Kanno) | 0:45

I edited the OST track names somewhat with my own judgement. Specific arrangement and Puccini credits are not present in the booklet.

Vinphonic's share of Symphony "Ihatov", music combined with an hologram, made me think of Yoko Kanno. The series Macross Plus and the short film Magnetic Rose both deal with hologram singers and both have scores written by Yoko Kanno. Magnetic Rose gave Kanno the element of opera to work with, plus having to score to picture with the length of only 43 minutes (according to trivia, the orchestral score was played/recorded to along a movie projector). Some eclectic styles are present, like the opening/closing Early Music chorale featuring a saxophone. But at the center is opera. The short features an opera singer whose backstory alludes to diva/soprano Maria Callas. Puccini's music from Madama Butterfly and a little bit of Tosca is incorporated into the score. For the film, new recordings were made with a soprano named Kaoru Nishino. The misinformation, Callas recordings are used in the film, are probably due to the Callas diva-like character in the film and the strong connection between Madama Butterfly/Tosca and Callas.

"Un bel di vedremo" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aat2X-8-JdI) serves as a leitmotif in the film (also in the opera itself later on in Madama Butterfly's act 2, like in the flower duet/"Una nava da guerra"). In the beginning it's abridged but still the familiar aria. Later, there's an instrumental arrangement for diegetic use consisting of a really abstract quiet piano rendtion of what's supposedly the aria (for something similar, check out Kanno's abstract trumpet rendition of, I think, the military theme from Turn A Gundam on the track "X Top"). Eventually, the aria of love has now been transformed into an aria of revenge. Like the titular character in Madama Butterfly, the opera singer is hopeful for her lover to return. But this desire has been corrupted. The ironious title of this aria of revenge: "Mad Butterfly". Immediately tacked onto this (and one more time at the end of the film) is the end music of Madama Butterfly when the title character commits suicide. Only here, Kanno adds an Orff-like choir for an original bridge before the choir sings along with the death/suicide music. The "Mad Butterfly" track is a summation of the opera Madama Butterfly in 4 minutes while also serving the film sequence of destruction it's written.

Sources:
Memories 1996 OST by Victor Ent., FLAC by Van. (BakaBT)
Lossy? FLAC 6ch 24 bits from a BD encode by AfroDistro (Nyaa)

FLAC 2ch // 554 MB, incl. video clips with the unreleased music (with SFX). Also clips with 6ch audio, in case something's wrong with the 2ch downmix.

anon.click/zutey51 (https://anon.click/zutey51)
(Mega.nz Behind Capcha)

You called Herr Salat :D


The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Yoko Kanno
The Orchestral Scores for Animation





Part I – Fantastical Machines (https://mega.nz/#!0kBxwACL!jsOmOyAMHBhcVFFsilPbFJZTEb45aC4FILb1MVyKt8I)

Part II – Tidal Brain Waves (https://mega.nz/#!I5gynCaR!7xLTWPWjJgWfXN2tOtz20eYoSpp9Znjh5yF3H0hMP-s)

Part III – Macross Twins (Macross Plus also contains music from Ragnarok Online) (https://mega.nz/#!4oBl3ZYS!aTpiFzgPxEs9jaELDqMQk_ATmJ0u0yqGK5T4-1tS8MI)

Part IV – Nature of Man (G.i.t.S. also contains music from Earth Girl Arjuna & Escaflowne) (https://mega.nz/#!IhpihbgR!WyhBbxOI6g-2BfkFwh5FaT9iCw5QE4rDxRpUa_YFZNk)


The Japanese composer Yoko Kanno wrote perhaps the best scores ever written for Japanese TV-Animation and they are easily among the greatest orchestral scores ever written for any media. Every single project Yoko Kanno was involved with had a fantastical concept or expressed philosophical ideas that made the producers care enough to hire Kanno and give her a big budget to record the orchestral music overseas for the best possible sound quality. And each and every time the orchestral score far exceeds the ambition and quality of the show it was written for. Her orchestral work is highly classical, rooted in the modern era and downright operatic in many ways. Taken from the soundtracks and arranged in a Film Score manner really brings their quality to light. The various cantatas and scherzos form a symphonic body that would work well enough as full-fleshed symphonies. These eight scores should be in any score enthusiast’s collection as well as every aspiring orchestral composer’s repertoire. They are great examples of the power of classical works combined with a collage of Hollywood’s legacy. Don’t miss them. Of course everythings in FLAC if possible.



Composer profile: Yoko Kanno



Trademark: Prodigy, Ecclectic, Collaborateur, Master Thief
Inspiration: Prokofiev, Stravinsky, John Williams, David Arnold, James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal
Music Education: Piano since Age 3, Waseda University of Tokyo, Band Keyboardist, Songwriter, Singer
Worked with notable Orchestras: Israel Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic (Played an instrument or conducted)
Most known work: Macross Frontier, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Orchestral Skill-level: Very High
Melodic Sense: Very Good
Style: Modern Opera, Ballet
Score Cohesion: Low (unless fan made)
Similar western composer: 80s James Horner



Some trivia: The only recent custom cover I made is from Macross Plus, please excuse the quality of the others. I also find Brain Powerd and Macross Frontier pretty underrated by many. (I also like the Pop songs… shoot me!)

Excellent share! I keep discovering new interesting things in these compilations, even for composers from whom I maintain a healthy collection.



I also like the Pop songs[/SIZE]


I do not understand why certain genres are so frowned upon in public. To me the only thing that matters in the entertainment industry is what pleases you and you only, not what others think of your interests. I too love the pop songs in Macross series - even those that from Delta - even if they're nowhere up par with Kanno's.

It's funny to hear Hayato Matsuo with an orchestra for some terrible looking fanservice show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFn4SJu1SA

That means he's doing two shows this October. The other one being Drifters, the new anime by the creator of Hellsing (though I don't expect another Warsaw score).

EDIT: And Kan Sawada is in full force for the new Doreamon movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arPtWLzIt5A


I do not understand why certain genres are so frowned upon in public. To me the only thing that matters in the entertainment industry is what pleases you and you only, not what others think of your interests. I too love the pop songs in Macross series - even those that from Delta - even if they're nowhere up par with Kanno's.
Yeah, there's no shame in loving Kanno's pop songs. She's a jack of all trades, creating top-notch music for orchestra, pop, and any other genre you can think of. I'm still sad she didn't return for Delta. She's been much less active in recent years.

Imagine if this had a full orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a80ldTPVl04

Imagine if this had a full orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a80ldTPVl04

That'd be pretty awesome..

SERGEI PROKOFIEV
Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78 (Cantata)



BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Olga Borodina, mezzo-soprano

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Recorded live at the First Night of the 2016 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on Friday July 15th, 2016

Audio Only: https://mega.nz/#!5p5gBQwb!PRk0bIuWgZeH9_Tr1Cafr3PNdh_zInPOur_5Z7VI-Q0 (FLAC derived from AAC @ 320kbps) - 172.4mb

Video: https://mega.nz/#!dxxTmICZ!AiUon41ll_K0xDMj1FOasN7DLFqn5JzdEcfwEKhwQgo (MKV - video is 720p H264 direct from the BBC's iPlayer feed, sound is FLAC derived from AAC @ 320kbps.) - 1.51gb

For anybody serious about classical music and living in London, July can mean only one thing; it's Proms time again. The season got off to a ravishing start with Tchaikovsky, Elgar, and Prokofiev... and it's the Prokofiev I'm presenting in this post. This particular piece (and most of Prokofiev's music in general) drives film score fans crazy, because it's stuffed full of uncomfortable truths about where James Horner actually gets his ideas. Horner, rest his soul, was a superlative composer and undoubtedly one of the most talented musicians who ever worked in cinema, and he was also an inveterate plagiarist.

If you like 80s Horner (think Star Trek II and III, Brainstorm, and Krull) this is where a lot of it comes from - you will recognise entire pages of music Horner uses almost verbatim, rubbing shoulders with more subtle ryhthmic, choral, and stylistic ideas. It's not the only piece of Prokofiev that Horner plundered to be sure, but it's as good a place as any to start... AND it's a Cantata extrapolated from Prokofiev's score to the film of the same name, one of the most famous and well regarded film scores in the history of cinema.

This is a red hot performance, too. I personally enjoy it at a slightly more brisk tempo (particularly in the Battle On The Ice) but this is nonetheless first rate. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is really at the top of its game these days, thanks to the efforts of Jiri Belohlavek and incumbent principal conductor Sakari Oramo, who have undone the damage done by Leonard Slatkin between 2000 and 2004. The massed chorus (a combination of two full-sized choruses - the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC National Chorus Of Wales) has got that throaty Russian aggression just right, the orchestra swaggers through Prokofiev's grand orchestrations, and Olga Borodina adds some real Slavic authenticity in the penultimate movement.

For the first time in twenty years, I didn't make it to this First Night concert this year as I was away in Switzerland on business... but watching this broadcast is the next best thing. :)

The sound quality is literally as good as you can physically get without access to the BBC digital masters. The video downloaded from the BBC website is excellent quality, but stuck with 96kbps AAC sound, so I have edited the BBC Radio 3 recording of the same concert and united it with the video, giving the best of both worlds. The Radio 3 stream, which is AAC at 320kbps, is award winning and whilst it may indeed be lossy, the concept of a broadcaster offering classical music free-to-air at this sound quality is simply mind boggling.

Enjoy! :)
TT

Yoko Kanno was greatly influenced by that piece as well (also some of Prokofiev's other works, such as his Scythian Suite). Escaflowne and Aquarion come to mind.

I'm sure you've mentioned it before but it's probably relevant considering that Kanno collection Vinphonic just shared. :)


Edit: btw Vin, I saw this in the news today - http://sp.wmg.jp/mikusymphony/

The catch is that it's mainly going to be an instrumental concert.

Is it already confirmed who is orchestrating and arranging the pieces?
But man, Japan is really firing all guns this year. I hope the sheer number of appearing symphonic projects this year is not purely a coincidence but a genuine effort by a lot of influental people to bring back the glory days of the symphonic genre.


@Tango: Thanks for sharing. I already mentioned it before but one cannot state enough how the Teutonic Knight motif is the quintessential blueprint of an effective villain motif.

Is it already confirmed who is orchestrating and arranging the pieces?
But man, Japan is really firing all guns this year. I hope the sheer number of appearing symphonic projects this year is not purely a coincidence but a genuine effort by a lot of influential people to bring back the glory days of the symphonic genre.
Daisuke Ehara and Kayoko Naoe tweeted about their involvement. They were the main arrangers of the KanColle concert earlier this year.

There hasn't been any news about the planned CD release for KanColle yet. The concert is getting a second run (with a few new pieces) in September so maybe after that.

Funny, I've never been able to pick up the Horner passages in Prokofiev no matter how much people tell me it is there. But it is always good to give a classic piece like this another listen either way.

Have you heared the full film score version of Alexander Nevsky by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra & Choruses by Yuri Temirkanov?
Because in this version it's far more obvious (and I prefer the film score to the arranged Cantata).
Granted it's not as obvious as the melody of Ivan the Terrible he blatantly used as the Main Theme for Glory (here) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkLUY7z5FjY) or "Schumann's Willow" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyVUv3A_II4) or his infamous "Danger motif" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTdhVl5M11Y) but you can hear many devices he used constantly in his scores...

and things that are not defendable in any way, he lifted complete pages of Prokofiev's scores UNCHANGED. If you ask me he was easily on the same level as Amano but I don't mind that as well for the gems he wrote in the 80s and 90s and bringing the full classical repertoire to the big screen (much like Yoko Kanno). Mind you he was not universally loved in Hollywood either. He was disqualified from the oscars many times because of his practices, some of the people he worked with considered him a pretentious prick and if you listen to his interviews he really comes across as arrogant considering he never credited his sources. And if I'm honest many powerful moments in his scores were lifted from classical works.

Take one of my favorite concert works: The storming of Kazan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QPbWVqLTi4)
This piece alone is present in several Horner scores, not only Glory but Star Trek II and the Rocketeer as well.


There's also this mystery: In early 1995 (or 1994) Kaoru Wada composed this little piece (http://picosong.com/tUiH) and in 1995 Horner also scored Braveheart. Coincidence?


Oh and just for the record, Poledouris was also greatly inspired by Alexander Nevsky when he wrote Conan and Michiru Oshima based her entire career on Peter and the Wolf :D
Straight out of an Oshima score (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe4yTxbOTi4)

Well I found a version with Berlin Radio Symphony conducted by Frank Strobel on Spotify. Should be good enough to get into the full version. Sounds quite good and doesn't have the artifacts many classical pieces on Spotify tend to.

Funny, I've never been able to pick up the Horner passages in Prokofiev no matter how much people tell me it is there.

Are you serious?

Preview of Benny Oschmann's new score "The Dwarves": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC6nAKLZ4I8

Wow, Carmina Burana minus originality, minus memorable melody, plus Alan Silvestri chord progressions, plus John Williams late era percussion.

The unthinkable occurs; Oschmann gets worse...

To cheer you up Tango, the recent "Level-5 Vision 2016 -New Heroes" event is full of classic Hollywood scores.

A new Inazuma Eleven anime with a big studio orchestra (sounds like Mitsuda/Kameoka again): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtJI-OgfKA

Otome Yusha is yet another smartphone game with an orchestral score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9tBMlP9yTo

The third Yo-kai Watch Movie sounds really big (London or Hollywood) and is most likely a collaboration with a western composer again (or Naoki Sato): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=146&v=e7OxqAzSKKs

Megaton Musashi sounds very Sahashi-esque in parts but I'm certain it's not him (perhaps Go Sakabe or the same composer who scored the new Super Robot Wars): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc6wizOh36A

I wish more Crayon Shin Chan BGM would get in CD, wether movies or anime.. but I really want more.. it's been long since 2003 that we got nothing else.

Crayon Shin Chan got good music.

Wow, Carmina Burana minus originality, minus memorable melody, plus Alan Silvestri chord progressions, plus John Williams late era percussion.

The unthinkable occurs; Oschmann gets worse...

That's about the happiest Dies Irae I've ever heard. Makes me feel the apocalypse won't be all that bad (unless I have to listen to more of this)!

Has anyone the 19th Pokemon movie?
Nevermind, just realized it came out yesterday.

I have the three Doraemon SoundTrack History. I thought you guys would have interest specially in the second and third which are from the newest movies and are a bit orchestra heavy in most of the tracks. Would you like me to upload those two?

Pok�mon the movie XY&Z: Volcanion to Karakuri no Magearna Music Collection
FLAC/cue/log
https://mega.nz/#!xdcGHASA!b1npAuk82rRMhU1dIuYa6CZ0U41YNpPcMf8T8qnZspk

Samples for Sagisu's Godzilla are up and, well, there's not much there.

At least 10 of the 32 tracks are copy/pasted from Evangelion. Another 8 of the tracks are old Ifukube recordings.

Looks to be wholly unoriginal.


Edit: @Vinphonic: video credits = Mitsuda (without Kameoka) for Inazuma. Kenichiro Saigo for Megatan Musashi. Rei Kondoh for Otome Yusha.

Anyone else think Pokemon Movie 19 is better mixed than movie 16-18?

I have the three Doraemon SoundTrack History. I thought you guys would have interest specially in the second and third which are from the newest movies and are a bit orchestra heavy in most of the tracks. Would you like me to upload those two?

Yeah, go for it!

Whatever happened to Yamashita's Hikawamaru Monogatari? I was really, really looking forward to that. Did the film ever get released?

Are you serious?

Ditto.

Considering we're getting Watanabe's new Space Brothers score two years after the film aired I would say it's not unlikely it will turn up in 2017.


And of course the best score of the season gets no official release again and is only complete in six months. Such a shame, I would pay for an Alderamin 2CD soundtrack in a heartbeat but this way they're not getting any money (not that they care anyway). I sure hope the show is a success, otherwise nobody will care in January. I also hope there's a couple more Warsaw tracks for Berserk to make up for that.


EDIT: Here's the recording session for Girls und Panzer der FILM and finally the answer to your Shirobako question, Tango, it seems like they did not forget to draw the brass at all, the average japanese studio is simply not large enough for a whole orchestra, so they often do split sessions for strings, brass and winds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1xYymjOjFc

Space Brothers: BLOODY HELL, that took its time! I wonder if I will get to see the actual film eventually??!

Panzer: Bloody hell, that's depressing. Listen to the raw sound in that studio as well - dry as a bone.

I have, in the past, seen footage of a "full" orchestra rammed into that studio all at once - now I begin to understand a little more about how bad those studios really are. How is it that the one country in the world still flying the flag for the orchestral film score is also the one country that seems to have almost no suitable venues for recording them? Why has nobody in Japan ever said "Hey, we keep recording all this orchestral music but every time we want to make something with reasonable sound quality we end up going to Warsaw or London! Why don't we build a proper studio in Tokyo? Or at least do something with Sound Inn?"

To cheer you up Tango, the recent "Level-5 Vision 2016 -New Heroes" event is full of classic Hollywood scores.

Thank you. :)

There's some things there that are potentially interesting, even if...

Inazuma: Without Kameoka, this is going to be a step down. Mitsuda is good at a lot of things; orchestral music isn't one of them. Somebody competent has to be helping out here. The ensemble sounds like the same shockingly large and woefully underemployed 70 piece orchestra they played on previous Inazuma series' except Go.
Otome: Sounds terrible. Reh Kondoh is crap.
Yokai: Definitely not London or Hollywood. Sounds like your typically thin Japanese ensemble mixed with too much reverb to me. Music is occasional fragments of good stuff that sounds like Naoki Sato, but the two preceeding Yokai movies were scored by Saigo, so who knows?
Megaton: Fourth rate Sahashi, potentially interesting, I won't be holding my breath. (Shiho Terada = second rate Sahashi, Go Sakabe = third rate Sahashi.)

There are genuinely great composers in Japan and the projects with a budget are suddenly going to these idiots. Why? Yamashita, Hamaguchi, and Takaki are wasting away on cheap, shit kids shows; Sato is doing crap dramas and the occasional movie that sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean; Hirano, Sahashi, Akifumi Tada, Kan Sawada, Yuji Nomi, and Yoko Kanno are doing almost completely bugger all, Souhei Kano is doing a handful of orchestrations every couple of years, Amano is almost retired only coming out as an orchestrator to dress up the sow's ear that is Shiro Sagisu, Oshima has had a good run this last five years but currently has nothing new on the radar, Asakawa's last anime score was sixteen years ago, Tanaka is working sporadically but is rarely given enough budget for a full ensemble these days, Hattori and Senju barely work and when they do it's mostly crap, Kameoka scored two animes and only one of them was a full orchestral score and we haven't heard a single sodding note from her since early last year, Joe Hisaishi has almost completely disappeared from the scoring scene and is now just releasing CDs of recordings of the same music over and over again, Hayato Matsuo has done nothing worthwhile in over a decade although he does have a couple of scores coming up so they might be OK... And where is Misa Chujo, Shiho Terada, Conisch, Ryuichi Takada, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and countless other genuinely great talents who seem to have recently vanished without a trace?

But they can still find the budget to give Yasunori bloody Mitsuda - a man who is barely coherent orchestrally - an ensemble three times the size of Hirano's Driland orchestra for a stupid show about kids playing football, and all these other idiots get prestige projects with reasonably-sized orchestras? And Shiro Sagisu can go to London every three days to record more Evangelion knock-offs? And bloody Tatsuya Kato seems to score a dozen shows a year and has an orchestra pretty much for all of them, despite having no idea how to use an orchestra? And Taro Iwashiro gets the Tokyo Philharmonic for every single note he writes even though it's been downhill since Red Cliff?

Has anybody heard Godzilla yet? Jesus Christ, what a crock of shit. Nextday's right. There IS some original material (not much - five, perhaps ten minutes of tolerable score) but most of the CD is either atrocious crackly mono recordings from Akira Ifukube's vintage scores (re-using his music is one thing, but they couldn't even be bothered to re-record it) and piss-poor synth renditions of tracks from Evangelion. WHAT. THE. HELL?

everyone should check out richard harveys oratorio plague and the moonflower on spotify.spectacular.

Hattori

Speaking of which, here's another recent score from Hattori. I only managed to find an AAC version but here it is; Credits to the uploader.


Hattori Takayuki
SANADA MARU VOL.2




Format: (AAC) 256kbps


Tracklist
1
SANADA MARU MAIN THEME
真田丸 メインテーマ
2
MAIN THEME EPILOGUE
メインテーマ エピローグ
3
JURAKUDAI
聚楽第
4
MOUSUGU HINOMOTO ICHI NO HEY TO YOBA RERU OTOKO
もうすぐ日の本一の兵と呼ばれる男
5
CHACHA -UTSUKUSHIKI CHOU-
茶々 ～美しき蝶～
6
SANKAKU KANKEI
三角関係
7
FUTARI DE HITOTSU(BALLAD VERSION)
ふたりでひとつ (バラードVersion)
8
SHOSEN KUNI SHUU
所詮国衆
9
SANADA KA NO MICHI
真田家の道
10
ISSEN
一閃
11
ATARASHII YO
新しい世
12
MIBUN NO SA
身分の差
13
NIJI
虹
14
TEREKAKUSHI
照れ隠し
15
KUNI SHUU NO OMOWAKU
国衆の思惑
16
NAZONAZONAZO...
謎謎々...
17
CHOTTO KOMATTA HITO TACHI
ちょっと困った人たち
18
KODOKU
孤独
19
NANKOU SANADA MARU
難航 真田丸
20
ANKI
暗鬼
21
ROKU MON SEN(SHOW HENSEI VERSION)
六文銭 (小編成Version)
22
OCHIUDO KARI
落人狩り
23
DORO ASOBI
泥遊び
24
SAIGO NO HITO HI RA
最後のひとひら
25
HIDEYOSHI -SARU TO YOBA RERU OTOKO-
秀吉 ～サルと呼ばれる男～
26
TENKA WO TOTTA SARU
天下を取ったサル
27
IJIWARU
意地悪
28
OOSAKA -SENGOKU ABANJANGURU-
大坂 ～戦国アーバンジャングル～
29
HAMETSU NO KUMIKYOKU
破滅の組曲
30
SANADA MARU KIKOU(VOCAL HEN) / HATANO MUTSUMI
真田丸紀行 (ヴォーカル編) / 波多野睦美


Links
AAC: https://mega.nz/#!7ZVA1CDT!j9wzboCXFtUdM7AGon6rdNsdQa21d1QANZKXCw5aNF4

Once again, credits to the original uploader.

Even though there is still an optimist in me who says "Amano still records in Warsaw", "Wada's back better than ever", "Yamashita is still well regarded enough to score the new Yamato", "Tanaka is still rocking it with Gravity Daze", "Yoshihiro Ike is scoring the new Bahamut to picture, how amazing is that", "Hisaishi will deliever another glorious score for Ni no Kuni 2" and "look at all these symphonic projects this year" I can't find myself to disagree with the general point you made Tango. But if we're lucky it's just the usual seasons some composers have. I know almost nothing about their private life and if they pursue other professions beside composing for example. Then it would be understandable why we don't hear from them often. For example Sahashi has composed quite a lot for theatre, produced an esoteric album and worked as a concert arranger these past years. It pains me to say it but the 2000s were the era of Sahashi but that time has long since past. His three London symphonies will most likely remain the pinnacle of his career and that's much to be proud of. However, him not scoring the new Sailor Moon in favor of Takanashi was such a crushing disappointment. But regarding the sheer (evergrowing) number of new shows each season, there's got to be a way for the greats to get work at their full potential: Kato, Takanashi, Sawano and Yokoyama can't score 50 shows a season.

It is however quite shocking that Misa Chujo is not scoring the new Nanoha, with a wonderful debut like 2nd'As I thought she was now linked to the franchise.


@Arrowhead: Thanks for Sanada Maru II

EDIT: Wow, Godzilla is a giant turd. What happened? I thought Sagisu was growing with Attack on Titan but that must have been ghostwritten by Amano as well in retrospect. Now he delieverd the worst Godzilla score and the worst thing in general I've ever heared from him. No artist with any sort of self-respect would copy-paste his own work like he does here. What a talentless hack.

Edit: Nobody needs to read my manic depressive prophecies of doom. ;)

Edit: Nobody needs to read my manic depressive prophecies of doom. ;)

LoL did not write

The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Kohei Tanaka
The Orchestral Scores for Anime and Games



Kohei Tanaka is a living legend in the anime scoring business. The self-proclaimed “Anime-and-Game-Composer” and founder of the music company IMAGINE is one of the most well regarded voices in the Japanese scoring world. After a humble beginning as a Piano Lounge player after graduating various famous music institutions he had a few lucky encounters and ended up scoring various anime projects in the 80s and 90s. He first became famous with Gunbuster, especially the march he composed for the giant mechanoit. He enjoys to this day a successful career with many great works under his belt. Some firmly rooted in the classical and symphonic genre, others in experimenting with various music styles, like many film composers of the 80s and 90s did. He has a vast knowledge of classical music, jazz and rock and incorporated various genres and styles into his work. I first came in contact with Tanaka through the anime One Piece which I watched as a child. I always thought of it as wonderful and kind of nostalgic work and I didn’t even know why at the time. It just felt warm and comforting listening to his music. Later I would know how he was rocking his little studio ensemble together with Shiro Hamaguchi like the good old early days of American television. Back in the 50s and 60s your American studio orchestra could jam, sing and rock your socks off simultaneously. They were unbelievably skilled players and the composers they played for were equally gifted and compassionate. So whenever I listen to Tanaka’s orchestral scores I am reminded of that relentless vigor of the glory days of the orchestral score in Hollywood. Tanaka is just a great musician and person all-around in general so his music is always a pleasure to listen to. So this collection serves not only as a tribute to the man but also as an electronic archive of his music because I believe his work is important to preserve and to be as equally valuable as the work of any great film composer.

Part I - One Piece (https://mega.nz/#!ttQiQYRR!RvElZ6Qll7L-bytToPQCIchzOtLSUeydIqYeFllYYoY)


Starting of with his most recognized work (outside of Japan): One Piece. A truly massive franchise, consisting of a dozen movies and hundreds of television episodes. Tanaka served as the lead composer in a collaboration work with Shiro Hamaguchi, Yasunori Iwasaki and many more. Even an orchestral concert was performed a few years back. Tanaka is also a gifted songwriter and singer and his first television song “WE ARE” is highly popular in Japan (and around the world). I’ve reworked the entire BGM collection for the TV series and the (11) movie scores. It should be noted that while a certain movie goes into really atonal territory, Kohei Tanaka had no part in it. In general Tanaka rarely ventures into avant-garde stuff ( I wonder if it's because of his synesthesia?), so those who have an allergy to that can be save assured that it almost never happens. I still am very fond of the television score. Luffy’s Theme always manages to make me smile and “The world's number one Oden store” always pulls at my heartstrings. You can also take Film Z's Marine Hymn as Tanakas final farewell to the franchise.

Part II - Sakura Wars (https://mega.nz/#!d1YFhCAQ!5KwSTe9ol-9p6vX1jO5784XVAWUluFycutqqDG5U48k)


Part two is another massive franchise but pretty much only famous in Japan but equally as impressive musically, if not more so than One Piece: Sakura Wars (or Sakura Taisen). Sakura Wars is perhaps the greatest orchestral thing to feature Japanese instruments and classic synth I can think of (outside of the classical world). I really respect Jerry Goldsmith’s experimentations with synth and even Tanaka has nothing but praise for the master but I think Tanaka succeeded more in combining the two. It also has to be mentioned how amazing his song writing is for the franchise. He even goes full opera, delivering kickass orchestral songs that have sort of become a special trademark of his style. Sakura Wars also gifted us with a GREAT film score, Sakura Wars: The Motion Picture… man I just love it, everything about it. The synth works just beautifully in harmony with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, a rare case for Tanaka were he got his hands on a full symphonic ensemble… and THAT KILLER THEME… it all just makes you wish he would get numerous opportunities to work on such a scale again instead of the few gems we got. For the film he also scored perhaps the most epic rollercoaster ride in cinematic history.

Part III - Symphonic Adventure (https://mega.nz/#!Zs52CQ6Y!HjkdpOlt85lhRbBWTmphHY9rIRb6Y6iCShem0U6knX8)


Speaking of gems: Part three is all about his symphonic work. In the 90s Tanaka gave us his first Symphonic Work for the television anime Bastard!! His Symphonic Poem is a wonderful venture in the fantasy genre in the vain of Poledouris’ Conan but with a delightful Spanish touch and a little bit Stravinsky. Tanaka also got a chance to score one of Japan’s most prestigious shows at the time: Mobile Suit Gundam. And he was blessed with an opportunity to arrange his TV-score as a full-fleshed symphony, performed by members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Here we can see his classic sensibilities brought to light. A fantastic introspective work, reflecting the beauty and tragedy of war. His Symphony No. 1.
Another important score worth mentioning is his film score for Galaxy Express 999 ~ Eternal Fantasy, another GREAT work where we are blessed not only with a killer theme, a mini Piano Concerto and a wonderful symbiosis of synth and opera, but also the sound of the Moscow International Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Konstantin Kremets. You can even regard it as his Symphonic Poem No.2 if you want. A score that gets overlooked quite often in regards to symphonic character is his score for G Gundam. Most of the score is not performed in a tiny studio but many orchestral pieces were recorded in a big hall by a symphonic ensemble. This version of the score paints an entirely different picture from the Original Soundtracks, more akin to a great orchestral film score of the 80s. For the game End of Eternity Tanaka scored the cutscenes with a big symphonic ensemble again and for all intends and purposes, it’s a full-fleshed symphonic film score. I also included Endride, while the absence of a real horn section is tragic and the score as written just screams for a big symphonic ensemble, it still manages to function as a grand symphonic fantasy adventure.

Part IV - Orchestral Busters (https://mega.nz/#!gwpzlKJA!R4Rm_rZriRcN0GSm_6etga-bnFkXfIEZIPkJFJsXXCM)


Now we venture into part IV, where most people should be familiar with Tanaka and what I call “Orchestral Busters”. Tanaka is truly the King of composers when it comes to letting the orchestra jam. Whether frantic jazz or adrenaline rushing hard rock, he always makes the various band instruments and keyboards sound like a natural part of the orchestra. Here his melodic gift also shines the brightest. His Busters have the wonderful ability to satisfy both parts of your brain which seems to be a specialty of Japanese composers in particular. But Tanaka has truly mastered the art of it. Most evident is this craft in his music for GaoGaiGar. Man… what epic and extravagant scores all-around. Such efficiency in orchestration while still being complex and serving a narrative, such brilliant incorporation of synth and rock... what a killer theme… great Leitmotif writing… at parts more fitting for 2001: A Space Odyssey than a show about punching toy robots… well you get the idea so I stop gushing now :D

For Diebuster, the sequel to Gunbuster he pretty much rerecorded the original score and expanded on it while also providing excellent new material. It should be noted that not even Tanaka is immune to copying. His theme for Nono is pretty much note for note his romantic theme from Galaxy Express. That aside his Gunbuster march is truly iconic in the anime world. I would say it’s comparable to John Williams’ Imperial March. Many upcoming Japanese composers have referenced his march (some less subtle than others). It’s not a big ensemble but then again, if you have the chops you can pretty much jam away with any ensemble and Tanaka worked his little orchestra good. He also wrote an epic tragic theme, “Seito”, it’s so great. I was really grateful Tanaka incorporated it in his Symphonic Suite for Gunbuster. In my arranged version you can hear the march in all its glory (shameless self-marketing off the list).

Now we move on to my favorite game score of his: Gravity Daze. Well if I’m honest End of Eternity is better on paper but what can I say, it’s a matter of preferences and while my brain is more satisfied after listening to EoE, Gravity Daze just makes my heart bounce every time so against my better judgement… the score is just full of vigor and character, having played the game recently on the PS4 for the first time made me realize that Tanaka needs to score more games asap. What he does with his music is what every media composer can only hope to achieve: To serve what’s on screen while simultaneously make everything work that’s on screen. The game’s art and locations are really only brought to live by Tanaka’s expertly composed score and while the orchestral parts are his A-game, it’s the combination of everything that make it work so well. “Pleasure Quarters” and “Douse Shinundakara” are just insanely catchy and while I feared the purely synth stuff would feel out of place, the exact opposite happened because the areas in which they are placed are in contrast to the games “normal” world. I of course feel pretty enthusiastic towards Gravity Daze 2 and the new anime project. Hopefully they can turn it into a franchise. Who knows, perhaps an opportunity for another symphonic score might arise then.

Moving on to Overman King Gainer and man, what an awesome testosterone driven theme song he composed for that one. The score itself is great as well, downright operatic in parts and full of classical references, for example Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights.


Part V - The Final Six (https://mega.nz/#!1khSFRZT!V7EPbuX4OOAr7zUPeymzTixHjORqCcF6ambAV7uo-w0)


The last part is about his scores which, while not perfect and of the same quality as his A-game, still outclass some composers entire portfolio. Especially Hyouka and GAD GUARD deserve special mention in how different they are from his usual work. In GAD GUARD he also really earns his title of Morricone Jr.


Encore - Violin Royale (https://mega.nz/#!lpxgmYgJ!H1R8MUYZwoW3kdzfG_cSKdNlHtg8ZVGNKj824wCIoOo)



Let's end things in a classic way ;) Tanaka gives us a very much classical driven, romantic score for Hameln no Violin. But more fascinating is the classical music treasure box... what's inside?!... If you ever wondered what classical pieces would sound like with a violin as a lead or performed solo, this is for you. I also think Classicaloid won't be nearly as good.


So that concludes what might be the first of my attempts to archive GREAT music that is hardly known or acknowledged as such. Granted I did play with the idea to start a special blog/forum thing but this thread has proven over the years to be an excellent source of great timeless music that you need to listen to at least once in your life so I could imagine no better place to share it until I decide how to proceed.


Top Wo Nerae!


Composer Profile: Kohei Tanaka



Trademark: Virtuoso, Synesthetic, Anime-and-Game-Composer , Morricone Jr.
Inspiration: Classical Repertoire, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Ennio Morricone
Music Education: Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku, Berklee College of Music, Piano Player, Arranger, Songwriter, Singer
Worked with notable Orchestras: Tokyo Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic
Most known work: One Piece, Gunbuster, Sakura Taisen
Orchestral Skill-Level: High
Melodic Sense: Terrific
Style: 80s Orchestral Film Score
Score Cohesion: Very Good (almost no rearranging needed)
Similar western composer: 80s Jerry Goldsmith

Vinphonic never dissapoints.but i have to repeat my recommandation for RICHARD HARVEYS ORATORIO THE PLAGUE AND THE MOONFLOWER ON SPOTIFY.maybe if i write in CAPITAL LETTERS i will get your attention cause this one is breathtaking.i ordered it immediately after listening to it. Its a mix of spoken dialogue by ben kingsley and ian holm and huge orchestra, multiple choirs, a beautiful lady singer.The music is part classical, part filmscore-ish with great middle age style tunes, emotional choir and singing parts, breathtaking violin music...loved every second of it.the dialogue is about 10mins of its 68mins runtime but never bothered me.Especially Ian Holms performance is just delightful as Plague.

Thanks a lot!

Harvey's Oratorio is decent, but has too much "crossover" for the sake of "crossover" for my tastes. It's eclectic, but leans heavily towards 80s new age putting it in the same category as Vangelis or Karl Jenkins. I prefer his score to Animal Farm due to its strong melodic presence.

Vinphonic, does your Kouhei Tanaka compilation include the whole album, or just a modification with just Tanaka's tracks?

I'm interested in a few albums of those you added, but not if they're not complete.

If you're talking about One Piece it's not just Tanaka, I left everything pretty much as is. Every single piece that is performed by an orchestra is present. In this archive I also included every single tribute piece perfromed by a symphony orchestra I could find.

But in general I'm not a fan of the Japanese soundtrack in the slightest. If anyone wants every single tiny track (god knows why) and doesn't mind various subpar rock and synth tracks interupting the orchestral pieces as well as a nonsensical track order most of the time, then you should look for the official albums. Thankfully Tanka's scores are not that bad in that regard. Yoko Kanno soundtracks on the other hand...

You should absolutely not let the fact that Vinphonic's compilations may be missing a track or two stop you from downloading them. As he says, many of these scores have tracks that aren't particularly interesting or interrupt the flow of the album completely. For example, End of Eternity is much more interesting when you cut out Tanaka's symphonic pieces and leave most of the over-long tracks from Motoi Sakuraba off of it entirely. As if Sakuraba's style wasn't overly bloated enough as it is he includes two versions of almost every track he wrote on the album duplicating it with only minor changes.

Love only for you - Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchesta
Koichi Sugiyama Hit Songs (1966-1981)
君だけに愛を 東京都交響楽団�すぎやまこういちヒット曲集,2009

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!oo4FnbzZ!_oXRhr1yARLvNseK4z5KkCCR6_TmLdxTq17DVhrF3ho)

Kimi dake ni Ai wo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZOg6fSalQQ)
See also Syrius (Thread 57893) (Tango's upload)


Shigeaki Saegusa
Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa - Piano Concerto ''Philosophy of Squids'' (2009)
Osaka City(Shion) Wind Orchestra - Suite Zeta Gundam (2014)
オーケストラ・アンサンブル金沢 三枝成彰:ピアノ協奏曲「イカの哲学」
飯森範親 & 大阪市音楽団「三つのジャポニスム」より 交響組曲「機動戦士Zガンダム」

MP3 - 1 (https://mega.nz/#!Q9ZVjJDB!nYBc7MZYq207yqSCnFvjuj9qZd-YIsRZwGIThngY1E0) / 2 (https://mega.nz/#!0hgCEa4a!9NjI7JNbHw5vUZSaewR4GJx4Nv6dZAZL6OdavuSZ3Uo)

Tetsuwan Atom / Astro Boy 1980 Original Soundtrack
Arranged by Shigeaki Saegusa _ Dr. Ochanomizu Orchestra
鉄腕アトム オリジナル・サウンドトラック - 全編曲:三枝成章 演奏:お茶の水博士オーケストラ

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!94plzIaL!mXYWX8H1BjCyFtUdnVOBRmQp8cEanXpiMYepjb3hsZ0)

Shigeaki Saegusa with Hiroyuki Namba - New Sound from FOUR SEASONS (ROCK Shiki)
三枝成章 with 難波弘之 New Sound from FOUR SEASONS, (ロック四季, 四季'88 1978/1988 CD)
(http://www.uploadhouse.com/viewfile.php?id=22704672&showlnk=0)
FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!9oJU2DhI!mJXWqBIAWTPgV91bKFNzsRWpSm-LTKF48ZAtvVxbmNg)


Saegusa(age36), Namba(25) and Vivaldi(300)

Hey, tangotreats, if you somehow end up reading this comment, do you mind me asking what it is you don't like about Shiro Sagisu? It's just I've never really understood some of the criticism he's gotten over the last few years (beyond getting a lot of work at the expense of others) and I figured you would be the best to explain why from your point of view, considering how well you explained why you enjoyed the Force Awakens score. If you, or anyone else, can explain it to me, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

So Zyuohger is Beast Saga 2.0?

Why has nobody in Japan ever said "Hey, we keep recording all this orchestral music but every time we want to make something with reasonable sound quality we end up going to Warsaw or London! Why don't we build a proper studio in Tokyo? Or at least do something with Sound Inn?"
There are people that want to but they don't have the ability to do it.

Miyano: "I've touched on this before, but there are no scoring stages in Japan. There is only one that comes close to the feeling of scale and that is the NHK Studio. Though there are many in other countries, I think it is very unfortunate that Japan doesn't have one. In the old days, film companies such as Toho and Nikkatsu had each made their own studios. They seem to have been very good studios but they became to difficult to maintain throughout the years."

Those studios are now nothing more than history. She then says that a project of that scale isn't in the scope of her company at this time. It is a bad situation.


Edit: By the way, I think the issue with Sagisu has a lot to do with the director - Hideaki Anno. You only find this copying problem on the shows/films that Anno has directed.

Those are: Evangelion, Nadia, Karekano, and now Godzilla. Those scores all blatantly rip off each other. Sometimes in a good way (Eva), other times in a bad way (Godzilla).

You don't see this issue of recycling old music on Sagisu's non-Anno scores. Also, on the topic of Sagisu, his "Outtakes from Evangelion" album has a few orchestra pieces from the Eva movies, but with the weird chorus removed.

Funny, I've heard good scores from the Japanese that were recorded in Japan.

@nextday: I was partially joking with Sagisu but it may really be the director's fault this time. Considering how well he did with Attack on Titan. I even suspect that Attack on Titan was recorded later than Godzilla and it's just using outtakes from various Sagisu sessions.

There's also more music in the Outtakes than in the damn film score. And I have this creeping suspicion that for every overprocessed and layered Sagisu tracks from Eva 3 there exists a pristine orchestral variation recorded by Amano. The piece from the animators also has Amano's handwritting all over it, I hope the second volume has the animator's trailer piece and more orchestral recordings.

There's more music in the Outtakes than in the damn film score. And I have this creeping suspicion that for every overprocessed and layered Sagisu tracks from Eva 3 there exists a pristine orchestral variation recorded by Amano. The piece from the animators also has Amano's handwritting all over it, I hope the second volume has the animator's trailer piece and more recordings by Amano in general.

Could you explain this to someone who has no idea of what the hell do you mean because I barely know anything musically about those two composers or Evangelion?

Masamichi Amano / or Masamicz Amano is a great orchestral composer and orchestrator. He composed some of the best orchestral scores for anime and also has a passion for orchestral brass band. Here is a sample of his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKizuUSuEmY. He disappeared in the late 2000s from the scoring scene to work behind the scenes as an orchestrator for Shiro Sagisu. But he does far more than orchestrating: every Sagisu album of the last few years has basically been a collaboration effort or a split album if you will with Sagisu tracks and Amano tracks. Amano has a very distinctive usage of brass instruments, especially horns (rips & falls) and loves to quote classic Hollywood scores and classical pieces in his work, this trademark appeard on several tracks credited to Shiro Sagisu out of nowhere. For example here is a piece from Magi very much in Sagisu's style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rp9C8iHG80&list=PLcS70ZKfUJ9uQKdCIFj7tYb6nzkHYX6tn. But then you have a piece like this which not only sounds completely different from Sagisu's style but strikingly similar to Amano's past scores and also has numerous Hollywood influences, like Jaws, Sindbad's Adventure and many more for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrV8uVmpShM. Or Berserk: here's Sagisu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHQkxLTmVXc ... and here's Amano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERZuxAs6KIw.

Thank you for the explanation. Damn, there's lot of great music I don't know they existed..

Thank you for the explanation. Damn, there's lot of great music I don't know they existed..
A good place to start: Thread 49552

And for similar old hollywood/classical orchestration, check out the works of Yasuo Higuchi and Tomoyuki Asakawa.

Don't worry. I have something coming up soon that will ease the pain many of us faced in the early days were we had to search numerous websites, and dozens of threads in this forum to get new Amano. Mostly thanks to the glorious duo of Tango & Herr Salat.

I was checking out some Comiket albums and it's pretty weird to see the how far Kokyo Active NEETs have come. When they started a couple years ago it was a bunch of musicians cramped in a tiny little recording studio.

Now, in their latest recordings it looks like they are in Victor's 302 Studio, a professional studio where many anime soundtracks are recorded, with professional musicians that have performed on numerous anime soundtracks.

It's baffling how a doujin group can afford to do something like this when many actual producers can't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMwDvpCdXM8

@Godzilla: I don't mind the re-using of cues so much on Sagisu's Godzilla, as it's mostly just EM20 (Decisive Battle), and that's probably one of my favorite cues of all time, especially from Sagisu. I just wish they were better renditions than how they turned out. When it comes down to the real instruments used (for "EM20_Godzilla/再始動"), I appreciate the strings, their slightly different arrangement, and their sound, but I can't identify any other real instruments for certain, besides maybe the electric guitar and percussion for the rest of the EM20s. The problem is that I go back and listen to one of the EM20s on Rebuild 1.0, and I'm disappointed from what treatment the Godzilla renditions received, and the effort that was put forth.

Just what Tango said, "piss-poor synth renditions of tracks from Evangelion". Synth besides for the strings, and (perhaps) some percussion and guitar.

As for the rest of the score (I listened to the entirety), I don't have too much to say about it. There were tracks that I liked, but that doesn't much make up for all the areas in which the overall score was lacking. I don't know what the hell happened, but I was and still am sitting here thinking of what could've been; re-recordings of Akira Ifukube's original scores (there didn't really need to be tracking of the original cues), much more of that Sagisu creativity we've seen in the Evangelion series and rebuild films, less variations of the same cues and more cues that differentiate, or more new material. Though I can't say what was exactly recycled other than the EM20s, but I can say I'm hearing some of the sort same music I've heard in Evangelion, just not as good.

Which would bring me to how easily interchangeable a majority of Evanglion's scores could be with a Godzilla film such as this one, which might explain the re-use of EM20. And I like that, I like how it's re-used (I know some don't), but I would've preferred that they sounded much, much closer to these: one (http://216.227.134.162/ost/rebuild-of-evangelion-evangelion-1.0-you-are-not-alone-original-soundtrack/xtmsblsnli/18-the-longest-day-iii.mp3), two (http://216.227.134.162/ost/rebuild-of-evangelion-evangelion-1.0-you-are-not-alone-original-soundtrack/cmucjqxvvz/20-battaille-decisive.mp3), because those sound absolutely wonderful, especially in comparison to how they subpar they might sound on Godzilla (except for the strings, that's one of the few things that sounded good from EM20_Godzilla :p).

As I mentioned earlier, there were tracks I liked, no - actually enjoyed. These include:
"Persecution of the masses (1172)/上陸",
3, 20, 21, 27, 32 of "11174",
"Defeat is no option (1197)/進攻",
essentially all of the EM20s, track 15 being my favorite variation, though I would've preferred aspects from other tracks such as "rhythm", "Jerry", and "alterna" to make a more complete version.
"Early morning from Tokyo (ボーナストラック)",
"Who will know", the string variation (track 31) more so than the other (track 13).
In conclusion, oh, what could've been. I expected better from Shiro Sagisu.

You forgot the music is maybe like this because Hideaki Anno wanted it like that.. some composers are limited to what the director wants!

My only favourite cue of Godzilla Resurgence is M15. aka Decisive Battle a la Godzilla.

The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Masamichi Amano
The Orchestral Scores for Animation



If there’s one composer I would associate with the term: BIG ORCHESTRAL ACTION MUSIC, it would be the Japanese composer Masamichi Amano. His body of work can only be described in superlatives. His music is big and epic in the best kind of way. Like Yoko Kanno he blessed Japanese Animation with exuberant scores that could sit right alongside the greatest Goden Age epics of Hollywood. He is also perhaps the most traditional film composer in Japan. His soundtracks are for the most part produced like a classic film album and I regret that a similar composer like Keiji Inai is denied the same treatment. Before I begin, a tremendous amount of thanks for Tango and Herr Salat for providing Amano in FLAC. But before we begin let’s also address the big elephant in the room: Yes Amano is just as much a blatant thief and plagiarist then James Horner was but just like him he is an equally talented and gifted composer in the same vain. I would always give him the benefit of the doubt that he used all these film score and classical pieces not because he can’t write them but because he was on a tight deadline and had to work with numerous temptracks.


Part I - Gigantos Robotos (https://anon.click/ropos33)

Giant Robo: A big OVA series project from the 90s received a gigantic collage of Hollywood’s best musical moments. Everything is in there: From Bill Conti’s North and South, Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia and Bruce Broughton’s Tombstone to Hans Zimmer’s Backdraft. But also classical enthusiast can have a field day with this one. Everything a classic Hollywood film score enthusiast could dream of is in there, but it’s all woven into a beautiful package together with full lengthy classical pieces. What I would give to hear this music on the big screen again from someone who is not Williams.


Part II - Super Vibration Wave Attack (https://anon.click/qusus38)

Super Atragon: Perhaps his best work, most of it is original and all of his trademarks also appear at their strongest here: We have a baller theme, a welcome voyage into the atonal world of Penderecki, a fantastic Golden Age love theme and perhaps the most badass action pieces with orchestral toms I have ever heard. Also the most badass action track title ever: “Attack of the Super Vibration Wave”.
Ninja Resurrection: Fantastic classical choral work. A Dies Irae that is not a blatant rip-off and also one of the few occasions where Amano employs Japanese instruments. However, I’m not a fan of the synth stuff and I feel it detracts from the purely orchestral score.
Ruin Explorer: A welcome detour into the fantasy world with lots of modernist French flair. Very much reminiscent of Sugiyama’s Dragon Quest and Golden Age animation works. It’s also full of classical references as well. Another fantastic score by Amano and perhaps the most symphonic of them all.
Princess Nine: The most glorious score for a sport show ever. Again riddled with Hollywood and classical references, this time credited. Amano even incorporates Schubert’s themes into his own style and delivers on all fronts. I especially like the upbeat “Kisaragi Girls' High School Baseball Club” and it’s a prime example how the sparse use of big percussion can strengthen its impact.


Part III - Battle of the Beasts (https://anon.click/pigut58)

These six scores are just great film scores all around and equaly valuable. Mushiking Symphony is arranged by tangotreats from the original film score. I think it works miles better and really demonstrates what a great composer Amano could have been in Hollywood. Also some trivia: The 5th Movement is basically the same piece as heared in Magi: “Warm Opera”. Stratos 4 is basically a hybrid of Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Bill Conti’s The Right Suff (he really loves Conti). Sin: The Movie is basically an alternate Judge Dredd by Silvestri... and Boys Legend is a gay porno with an orchestral score... oh Japan.


Part IV - The Thief of Baghdad (https://anon.click/gazuq60)

Now on to his collaboration with Sagisu. Disclaimer: These are not the soundtrack version but arranged version to highlight Amano's contribution.
Magi is a lucky one because this time Amano was given free hand and wrote a fantastic epic Arabian Night adventure pretty much standalone, aside from one or two thematic connections to Sagisu’s part. It’s just epic in every sense of the word. “Magie et sorcellerie “ is just insane. If only every new Sagisu project had this approach.
Berserk is yet another fruitful success. Amano gave us an epic Golden Age fantasy score that even ventures into the world of avand-garde at the end for a truly terrifying spectacle.
Attack on Titan is one of the rare cases were the orchestral Sagisu parts work very much together with Amano’s arrangements. To this day I consider it to be Sagisu’s best orchestral effort. Perhaps he also borrows heavily from the classical repertoire. This time the lyrics also work for the most part and do the opposite of what they’re usually doing for me.
The final album is yet another collaboration with other Japanese composers for the game Phantasy Star Universe. Even though the compositions are not Amano, his orchestrations pretty much make it his work by its quality alone. His work as an orchestrator also gave us the wonderful Hollywood homage with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Sadly his score with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra for Saint Seiya online is still in obscurity. I hope they still have the tapes somewhere.

That pretty much concludes it. It’s a shame he doesn’t work solo anymore except when under the protection of Sagisu’s name but I hope he will make a return sometime soon. That or far more projects like Magi please. That reminds me, is there a second season of Magi announced somewhere?, I know there’s talk of a second season of Rokka no Yuusha but another Magi would take the cake. Especially with all that delicious unreleased material.



Composer profile: Masamichi Amano



Trademark: Master thief, Orchestral Brawler, Brass Band Lover, Masamicz Amano, Regular at Warsaw

Inspiration: Classical Repertoire, Hollywood League (John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Basil Poledouris, Bill Conti)

Music Education: Kunitachi College of Music, Orchestrator, Conductor

Worked with notable Orchestras: Warsaw Philharmonic, London Studio Orchestra, Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Orchestra

Most known work: Giant Robo

Orchestral Skill-level: Terrific

Melodic Sense: Very Good

Style: 80s Orchestral Film Score, Modern Era Classics

Score Cohesion: Good (some rearranging needed)

Similar western composer: 80s Alan Silvestri, 80s Bill Conti

From what I've read here of the Giant Robo paragraph (I saw Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia, and got excited), those scores are something I want to be listening to.

---------- Post added at 01:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:04 PM ----------


You forgot the music is maybe like this because Hideaki Anno wanted it like that.. some composers are limited to what the director wants!

I've already considered that, the thought just didn't enter my mind when I was writing that post. You're right, part of why it is the way it is, is likely due to what Anno intended, but that doesn't mean it can't live up to Sagisu's previous scores.


My only favourite cue of Godzilla Resurgence is M15. aka Decisive Battle a la Godzilla.

You have the whole score, right? You should maybe give track 31 a listen, it's beautiful.

Wow, lots of talk lately, my quick two cents before I move on with the next and first artist spotlight post:

2016 Godzilla score was a disaster, but as you guys mentioned earlier, the one who's to point the fault at is Anno as the director. It's funny, even the Live Action AoT has more of a Godzilla feel at times than the 2016 score itself.

Vinphonic, I cannot thank you enough on the Tanaka compliation, I've been looking for YEARS now in completing my collection from my one of all of favorite japanese composers, and this closes the deal just perfectly! I totally agree on Tanaka's terrific melodic sense and it's one of the prime examples on why I love japanese scores so much.

And now for something completely different (well, not that different, it's still a score, just not japanese):


The Little Wizard
Marc Tim�n Barcelo

(http://www.uploadhouse.com/viewfile.php?id=22711865&showlnk=0)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!kVAlnQBS!_DVt5eu_6hK6CLaAnkTIxGnlwivPLQtQjB6nTr0kI88)

I've been actively liking some spanish film composers nowadays, and Marc Tim�n Barcelo is one of them. The Little Wizard is what you'd get if you merge both parts of John Williams contribution of the first three Harry Potter films and after that. The main theme of The Little Wizard is delightful, with a mystical entrance that dives into a humble shy tune before the not so overused choir enters.

Spotlight tracks for this score to me are The Little Wizard (Main Theme), The Wickedness of Bishop Joan, The Escape, The Trap, The Final Battle, Dubidoso's Mother, The Strength of the Goldfinches.

The score was recorded at Primo Studio Orchestra as seen here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCUo8cKiUo) for a recording session of the main theme. As far as complaints I have with this score, well, remember when I said this resonated to me as a mix between Williams HP and the others? Yeah, that's also were the score can fall very low at times, were you can find some utterly "functional" tracks that serves no other purpose than to be tied by the scene rather than being a narrative experience even without the film. Orchestration wise, if you compare this to some of the new composers, it falls flat against Benny Oschmann's Book Of Unwritten Tales series for example. For what it's worth, I still think it's better than what you hear on your medicore modern Hollywood scores for a genre such as fantasy. And I'm looking foward for Barcelo's future contributions in this type of format hopefully :).

PS: If you guys still have that bad taste on your mouth after that pathetic dreadful Ben-Hur remake of a score, you can also check Barcelo's Coliseum here (Thread 181503). Here's a sample. (http://picosong.com/DcD3/)

Special thanks to KevinG for his post contributions of Marc's work!

Thank you very much for sharing. I must say Barcelo's Coliseum slipped under my Radar, shoud be a pleasing fix after Beltrami's abomination.

For what it's worth I'm also enjoying the work of spanish film composer Zacar�as M. De La Riva.


@nextday: Yeah, what's up with that. I'm not at all displeased, however. I'm enjoying their recent albums and who knows, next thing their performing in Budokan with arrangements by Kameoka and Yamashita. Not that unlikely :D

Thank you very much for sharing. I must say Barcelo's Coliseum slipped under my Radar, shoud be a pleasing fix after Beltrami's abomination.

For what it's worth I'm also enjoying the work of spanish film composer Zacar�as M. De La Riva.


@nextday: Yeah, what's up with that. I'm not at all displeased, however. I'm enjoying their recent albums and who knows, next thing their performing in Budokan with arrangements by Kameoka and Yamashita. Not that unlikely :D

Barcelos Witches is incredible.by far his best work.great themes, supercatchy and elegant and a magnificent finale.its on spotify.i bought the download immediately after listening to it.

Vinphonic

Part I - Gigantos Robots
Part III - Battle of the Beasts
the archive file is damaged when I unpacked
request to re-upload

Vinphonic

Part I - Gigantos Robots
Part III - Battle of the Beasts
the archive file is damaged when I unpacked
request to re-upload
I tested it myself.

- For the first one I get a CRC failure on "03 - Go Gakujin no Sakebi.flac" but the file still plays so I'm not sure what the issue is.
- For the third one I had no errors.

Hi Vinphonic,

firstly thanks for putting up these "Legacy of..." collections - they continue to be a tremendous source of joy for me.

The "Part I - Gigantos Robotos" link appears to be dead. Could you look into that?

Just to be sure I updated it again, Part III should work now, Part I is in testing. I didn't have problems with large files with MEGA before so I don't know why it's happening now.

EDIT: And now everything should work...

I tested it myself.

- For the first one I get a CRC failure on "03 - Go Gakujin no Sakebi.flac" but the file still plays so I'm not sure what the issue is.
- For the third one I had no errors.
I just downloaded the new link
I have no problem

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 PM ----------


Just to be sure I updated it again, Part III should work now, Part I is in testing. I didn't have problems with large files with MEGA before so I don't know why it's happening now.

EDIT: And now everything should work...

I just downloaded the new link
I have no problem thank you re-upload

And now for something completely different (well, not that different, it's still a score, just not japanese):

Thank you, I really like this score. Oschmann's BoUT may be (marginally) better orchestrated but it really rubs me up the wrong way... this doesn't. A classical heart beats in this score; yes, it occasionally veers off into film score cliches, but on the whole I find it to be a reasonably original (it's occasionally in Williams' sound world but never to a point of pastiche and it never sounds like Barcelo is taking off Williiams or plundering pages from the John Williams And Herbert Spencer Big Book Of Orchestral Gestures) and skilfully arranged. It is a serious musical endeavour. (The Wickedness of Bishop Joan starts off with a mini-fugue; let's see Oschmann doing that if he can take his mind off filling scores full of notes - arpeggiating strings, pizzicato bases, and woodwind flourishes - for long enough to actually try writing some MUSIC!)

I can see myself getting enjoyment from repeat listening. With BoUT, I listened once, felt impressed by the orchestral acrobatics but never played it again.

More coming up on various topics (including Sagisu...) but I just wanted to get that out there first. :)

Thank you, I really like this score. Oschmann's BoUT may be (marginally) better orchestrated but it really rubs me up the wrong way... this doesn't. A classical heart beats in this score; yes, it occasionally veers off into film score cliches, but on the whole I find it to be a reasonably original (it's occasionally in Williams' sound world but never to a point of pastiche and it never sounds like Barcelo is taking off Williiams or plundering pages from the John Williams And Herbert Spencer Big Book Of Orchestral Gestures) and skilfully arranged. It is a serious musical endeavour. (The Wickedness of Bishop Joan starts off with a mini-fugue; let's see Oschmann doing that if he can take his mind off filling scores full of notes - arpeggiating strings, pizzicato bases, and woodwind flourishes - for long enough to actually try writing some MUSIC!)

I can see myself getting enjoyment from repeat listening. With BoUT, I listened once, felt impressed by the orchestral acrobatics but never played it again.

More coming up on various topics (including Sagisu...) but I just wanted to get that out there first. :)
like i said repeatedly Barcelos Witches is weaaaaaaay better and secondly...i think from a western standpoint, Sausage Party might end up being the best score of the year.Its Christopher Lennertz UNLEASHED, massiv classic fullorchestral action-adventure score in the veins of 90s sportsfilm music with tons of highlights, an absolute killer theme based on alan menkens song and the most hilarious filmscorehommage i ever heard (in food massacre) the action does not hold back, either, several moments sound like the independence day sequel we never got.loved it.gonna buy it asap.

More coming up on various topics (including Sagisu...) but I just wanted to get that out there first. :)

I tried my best (which wasn't good enough) to describe what I thought of Godzilla Resurgence's score. There's still a little more I wanted to say, or to a bit more in-depth about some of the certain tracks, and why I liked them, better explanations, etc, but oh well. I might try again later, and add on some more of my thoughts.

^ ^ ^ LOVED your comments, just to be clear... mine were because somebody explicitly asked for my opinion above. :)

Really? I didn't think I explained myself that well, to be honest. :)

like i said repeatedly Barcelos Witches is weaaaaaaay better and secondly...i think from a western standpoint, Sausage Party might end up being the best score of the year.Its Christopher Lennertz UNLEASHED, massiv classic fullorchestral action-adventure score in the veins of 90s sportsfilm music with tons of highlights, an absolute killer theme based on alan menkens song and the most hilarious filmscorehommage i ever heard (in food massacre) the action does not hold back, either, several moments sound like the independence day sequel we never got.loved it.gonna buy it asap.

It doesn't sound terrible, I guess... but any year that has a Williams score already has the "best score of the year" decided before you've even started. There is no composer working anywhere in the world today who can touch Williams, and I dare say all of them (the sensible ones, anyway) would readily agree. Lennertz hasn't written a single note in his career that genuinely interests me - and Sausage Party seems like it's going to continue that tradition. The best I can say for it is that the orchestra is used more imaginatively (and by that I mean to about 10% of its capabilities as opposed to the customary 1%) than we have come to expect from Lennertz and from a Hollywood score, and there is some semblance of melody which is probably due to Menken's (a real composer, even if his recent efforts have been thoroughly bland in comparison to his work of some twenty-five years ago) influence. What a pity it's for a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel crappy CGI animated movie about a fucking hot dog searching for the meaning of life. Is dumb comedies really the only genre that Western cinema considers viable for a vaguely traditional-sounding orchestral score? (And Food Massacre is a poor pastiche of The Omen; I'm sure it works in the movie and it will raise a smile in film score afficianados... but in the end doesn't it just remind you of how good film music used to be, and how sad it is that the 1976 Oscar-winner is now only good for extracting geek laughs by quoting it in crap movies about sausages?)



CLONEMASTER: Absolutely. It was fascinating to hear it. I can only come at it from the perspective of somebody who hates Sagisu and hates every note the man ever wrote. It was really interesting to hear why you - somebody not inherently biased against the score to begin with - didn't enjoy it.

It doesn't sound terrible, I guess... but any year that has a Williams score already has the "best score of the year" decided before you've even started. There is no composer working anywhere in the world today who can touch Williams, and I dare say all of them (the sensible ones, anyway) would readily agree. Lennertz hasn't written a single note in his career that genuinely interests me - and Sausage Party seems like it's going to continue that tradition. The best I can say for it is that the orchestra is used more imaginatively (and by that I mean to about 10% of its capabilities as opposed to the customary 1%) than we have come to expect from Lennertz and from a Hollywood score, and there is some semblance of melody which is probably due to Menken's (a real composer, even if his recent efforts have been thoroughly bland in comparison to his work of some twenty-five years ago) influence. What a pity it's for a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel crappy CGI animated movie about a fucking hot dog searching for the meaning of life. Is dumb comedies really the only genre that Western cinema considers viable for a vaguely traditional-sounding orchestral score? (And Food Massacre is a poor pastiche of The Omen; I'm sure it works in the movie and it will raise a smile in film score afficianados... but in the end doesn't it just remind you of how good film music used to be, and how sad it is that the 1976 Oscar-winner is now only good for extracting geek laughs by quoting it in crap movies about sausages?)



CLONEMASTER: Absolutely. It was fascinating to hear it. I can only come at it from the perspective of somebody who hates Sagisu and hates every note the man ever wrote. It was really interesting to hear why you - somebody not inherently biased against the score to begin with - didn't enjoy it.

last year force awakens didnt have shit on creed.training montage destroys fucking everything, even rays theme and jedi steps..also food massacre is a very deliberate parody on omen music.i would love to know what the choir is singing there.but you are right about the music in animated movies.its weird that they try to stick to tradition there and not that much anywhere else.what might be the reason for that? also its very appropiate to have an omen hommage right now.just look at the page number ;-)

also what with shitting on western composers for making fun of classic scores but praising all the japanese copycats? makes no damn sense.

CLONEMASTER: Absolutely. It was fascinating to hear it. I can only come at it from the perspective of somebody who hates Sagisu and hates every note the man ever wrote. It was really interesting to hear why you - somebody not inherently biased against the score to begin with - didn't enjoy it.

My introduction to and the only reason I know Shiro Sagisu is Neon Genesis Evangelion; One of the most excellent and my most favored scores I've ever heard. I've stated that "Decisive Battle" was one of my favorite cues from Sagisu, and in general, because it sounds so noble, and or a bit middle-eastern, with the back and forth between-the-three-chords-progression. Not to mention, the majority of the series' score, along with the rebuild films (which brought some new cues) I really enjoy.

I'll post links to every one of my favorite tracks here later on, and maybe or maybe not some short and sweet explanations on why I like them, if I can do so well, of course. :)

666 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo-BdRp8z7c)

In celebration of this threads shocking long life.



The Legacy of Hollywood
Jonny / Jerry / James
The Triumphant Triumviri




Let's be honest, there's quite a few people out there more passionate about them then I ever could get. And Varese is a dick... so no sharing. But it would just be the official albums with very few changes anyway so why do it?!
Their work is readily available on the net and recently you can purchase quite a lot of their score sheets.
Anyway, every praise and graditute that can be said about their contribution to Hollywood and the world has already been said (in this thread as well). So here's a couple of custom covers for your Hollywood folders and a list of my favorite scores you should have heared at least once in your life. Those scores should also be in your repertoire as an upcoming composer from my perspective.


John "Jonny" Towner Williams







EDIT: Star Wars - The Saga (https://mega.nz/#!s4ZGULqZ!3iVM7eJeVOBllzYG7ZWYvPgCrlCszgpGrUFpJSpc_bY)

Three of the greatest film scores ever written and THE most influental orchestral Hollywood scores of the past decades. I'm sure they will be just as fondly remembered and treasured as Alexander Nevsky and Metropolis, centuries in the future. This version has the Prequel scores completely redone and is a mix of various complete scores and the official soundtrack to serve my appetite for musical narrative. Force Awakens is the Deluxe Edition version.

Indiana Jones - The Ultimate Film Score Edition (https://mega.nz/#!YwADBDAT!CLG9o9OSoFsuiFSLOFR1tjBccE9D5tMJWSut0GBu2N8)

And another film trilogy by Williams with just as much quality and vigor as Star Wars. Like Mike said: He was shooting lightning out of his ass in the 80s. Not for nothing is 80s Williams my favorite. I consider this to be the ultimate versions of Raiders, Temple and Crusaders.



Jerrald "Jerry" King Goldsmith







James Roy Horner






Download (HQ covers) (https://mega.nz/#!c8ZFkDyL!5Y63SXVITd2EEJ9q0Aj3bmWI3gwq3T-1LV6CPP1hzGs)



Just my two cents: A criminal injustice that Jerry did not recieve an oscar for Star Trek and Poltergeist.
John Williams is the only composer left in Hollywood writting like the good old days. I also love Hook to death, listening to it at least every christmas.
James should be commended with how much you can get away without a bataillon of lawyers chasing your ass and how much emotional impact your music can have when you know your classical repertoire.
Also what's with the triple Js

Their influence is felt and respected in all corners of the world and they were true pioneers in establishing "The Hollywood Sound" which differs from the Golden Age which shared more similarities with the classical concert world.

But what they all have in common is a formal classical education, the first sign of any great composer. It also helps that they were pupil of the Golden Age masters. Korngold, Rozsa and North passed the baton to a new generation of composers who conquered the hearts and minds of people all around the world. From those three Jonny's music is the most complex and full of jazz writing. Jerry's music is the most experimental of the three and in general much simpler than Williams stuff but also much more efficient at achieving a similar emotional impact with less. James' music strikes a middle ground but its most powerful emotional moments outshine those of Jonny and Jerry.

With damn good reason are they among many Hollywood's best lists. I just have an inner frentic meltdown when their names are mentioned together with the likes of Zimmer however, who composed some fine work in the 90s but is otherwise the most incredibly overrated composer who ever walked the face of the earth. It's just baffling that he even aknowledged this fact himself and personally cries out for the next Jerry or Rozsa... and nobody takes after his advice. Quite ironic.

It's also frightening that there was a period in time when those three giants wrote scores for films almost on a monthly basis. I'm sure hundreds of years in the future their work will still be celebrated in the concert hall and their body of work still analyzed, studied and respected, although it seems not in Hollywood these days.





Looking forward to your brilliant destruction of Sagisu, Tango ;)

also what with shitting on western composers for making fun of classic scores but praising all the japanese copycats? makes no damn sense.

"Shitting on" Western composers for making fun of classic scores? I categorically did not say that.

I must be one of the most catastrophically misquoted - and attacked on the basis of the misquote - person on the internet.

To clarify: I said it was a shame that the style of classic scoring wasn't invoked in a serious way and was only ever invoked these days for humour; to bring to mind an older film or style of film making.

Cracking a musical joke is wonderful, but in a world where, for example, most mainstream songwriting is "You a bitch and a ho and a ho and a bitch!" and the people who write that nonsense are quoting lines from Shakespeare to make a cheap joke... it's worth commenting on; both as a damning indictment on the society that has culturally regressed so disastrously and in the sense of the massive disrespect it shows to Shakespeare's words and Shakespeare's genius.

Music that was an Oscar-winning, ground-breaking oratorio of demonic terror in 1976 is now a source for jokes in a naff animation about sausages.

From those three Jonny's music is the most complex and full of jazz writing. Jerry's music is the most experimental of the three and in general much simpler than Williams stuff but also much more efficient at achieving a similar emotional impact with less. James' music strikes a middle ground but its most powerful emotional moments outshine those of Jonny and Jerry.

I'm going to have to mostly disagree with this assessment. Williams was/is a traditionalist and has always leaned toward a conservative approach to keep his music approachable to the masses (and producers). Jerry, conversely, bucked tradition more often than not, habitually incorporating late 20th century orchestral idioms, and was never embraced by the masses (plus, his name was attached to fewer of the hallmark genre classics of the 80s). Horner digested both Williams' and Goldsmith's leftovers and regurgitated a palatable second serving for listeners, but was never a voice of originality.

One of Williams' greatest strengths is, I think, that he manages to write "complex" music that is functional at a basic level and is readily accessible to audiences. If we're taking complexity to mean experimental avant-garde compositional techniques, ground-breaking new instrumentation, atonalism, etc, then Williams, writing in a style with its roots in the nineteenth century (albeit frequently jazz-coloured) and big on melody, traditional harmonies, and frequently scored for an ensemble that wouldn't really have made Wagner raise an eyebrow, isn't complex... When I think of complexity, I think of what goes on under the surface. The thematic integration, the counterpoint, the leitmotif - things that just "happen" without offending conservative ears but which connect directly with the brain to create connections and which provide unprecedented replay and analysis value for people who specifically appreciate the craft.

Most music by Williams is concert hall grade; that is to say it is valid and worthwhile music in the way that Wagner is. It enhances the film for which it was written, but can also be enjoyed (and analysed) as a purely musical experience - an experience that doesn't feel diminished by the absence of the film.

If somebody wants to enjoy a score for the big tunes and emotions, there's none better than Williams. If somebody wants to pick apart a score looking for the fragments of melody that link together the strands of the story and characters, or find special meaning in rhythmic devices or harmonic ideas, taking it apart down to the foundation and examining the nuts and bolts and bricks and mortar that form the score's architecture, there's none better than Williams.

Horner... yeah. There's very little of Horner I don't enjoy, and the man undoubtedly knew what he was doing... but his music is about as complex as a plate of baked beans. As Gururu said, he took the facets of Goldsmith's and Williams' and others' styles that worked, ground them up, and spat them out in the form of the HYPER FILM SCORE style; not a note of originality, not a moment of uniqueness, not a single offensive harmony or ambiguous gesture - just sounds that exist in the RIGHT NOW and tug violently at your heartstrings like no other (film) composer could. With Horner, less was never more. More was more, and even more was EVEN MORE.

666 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo-BdRp8z7c)

In celebration of this threads shocking long life.




I'm actually pretty interested in the John Williams one if you happen to still have it :P.

ben hurts

Cracking a musical joke is wonderful, but in a world where, for example, most mainstream songwriting is "You a bitch and a ho and a ho and a bitch!" and the people who write that nonsense are quoting lines from Shakespeare to make a cheap joke...
Give me my long sword, ho!

Returning a bit to the usual routine: I'm very pleased that Re:Zero is getting a physical soundtrack. I'm time and time again amazed how much artistry and effort they put into dumb shows which should just be products to sell merchandize. But that's how the Japanese roll. I sure hope the producers of Alderamin proceed in the same way (but I doubt it). http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/ZMCZ-10885

There's also a preview of Kameoka's new Kantai score, which doesn't differ much from the established sound of the series but does sound big enough to be spectacle and gets me very excited, also nice to hear that the pop song has a full orchestra underneath: PV (https://vid.me/1hZz)

Anyone listen to Austin Wintory's score to Abzu? It is quite nice and probably is his finest work to date. It has Ravel, Ligeti, and Debussy written all over it. Also Jeremy Soule's music in Everquest Landmark is his finest orchestral effort since Total Annihilation. The combat music is all live and shows that he still knows how to write big orchestral moments. The rip is in the game section of this forum if you all want to check it out.

I apologize for me abrupt disappearance... I have been without internet for about a month since I had an unexpected move. I am back online now. Also I have been on four albums since I was last on here ;). I had to back out of a couple of them due to my move and it really was a shame because I wrote a full orchestration of some music from Everybody's Gone to the Rapture with some inspiration from Ralph Vaughan Williams. I will try and get it performed someday for all to hear ;).

Oh yes, I've heard Wintory's score to ABZ�! I love it! There's such a beautiful oceanic (perhaps Heavenly at times) score there, coming from a video game, which last I recall I've heard anything like this from a video game is Tim Follin's score to Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. But I would say this score takes a bit of different direction than that, representing the ocean in more of a calming manner. Moments from Thomas Newman's scores to the Finding Nemo and Dory films and Wataru Hokoyama's score to Afrika come to my mind when I listen to this.

I could say it was due to my interest in the ocean and the Ecco the Dolphin series (which sparked the latter) that I was immediately drawn to this score (and hopefully to say this game) after I found out about it. What I see in this score, is it's ability to paint a picture of the wonderful sea the game actually depicts, but it doesn't need the game to do just that so well, and with the game, its effect is enhanced. I am planning on playing it soon, not only because the game looks so great and interesting, but because I could make the score a sole reason to play it. It could be terrible, but it isn't. It looks like an interesting game, and it's one of the most interesting and beautiful scores I've heard from one in too long, that I know of.

ABZ� is the first of any of Austin Wintory's scores I've heard, and is definitely a recommended listen.


...is it's ability to paint a picture of the wonderful sea the game actually depicts, but it doesn't need the game to do just that so well, and with the game, its effect is enhanced.

I could also say the same about Spencer Nilsen's and Tim Follin's Ecco the Dolphin scores, as well. They do an exceptional job at it.

Tango will propably find something to bitch about but i think the majority of you will really enjoy Daniel Harts Pete�s Dragon.Surprisingly classical and superemotional with a heartwarming finale and lots of highlight plus a wonderful theme.

Glad I'm not the only one who remembers(and played) Ecco: Defender of the Future, or thought of it while listening to ABZU. My game score of the year, easy.

Shin Omizu no Hanamichi (2001 sequel to 1999�s "Omizu no Hanamichi"): Thread 208516

Ashita Tenki ni Naare (May Tomorrow Bring Sunshine): Thread 208515

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/L9kcvfDnils0Yp9SVtliDXHFEXDI9e_udod26D_QyQXrlNqZbT CwvJENXf5wGA1cl5AKwIfR9WZvvaUbo2zdq0NzypYyLosMO90h VrbnFm7SpLi8FZL-JMmSBa0Pa67b1Go7hwbKq-nXvZ_Q_3MVBAeTgPPJOrF6j5JoCjxho26N-vETPvu3F08N6Qvgwtm0tbpDm_yEmBedfID-IbsjV_s_gaXnbDoAnu06fq9eFLYw2CzNwUKQL-SenLxkBHiLdn2hZRf1jeMgTzdL5IXkFe0sMOGd0zxBV2JxPlDI yWwTlzsyoiy_HIh6dqktkkmxbhChJdtIFjQZqRR7u49Dphnr_n tXKbBEUWGYNlZktpviXD-3TJN-YdxY1ycBa3GdSQTz_7To9qz_7njauB1pkCbThJvpO-ECI1LDwpJt6Eu-8GbS_8j9GZ3yT3n19ylO541UGvUY1acxjjcFQosBLwBrGrQyve S5L7R3fOl3UUJogWCCwytup5WOIwiXjuPyilGpb_kZYqacgYyw yz9q6WJ87cm9eB6jILGJMABfoqwJ8wB04jyA8cHedVefOLGGKM SQ1ggprHWrOTMaAs1bYIWDefuMBmg=w520-h250-no

Tango, I know how to make you happy ... how about some Hirano :)

Tanken Driland ~BGM~



Hello Vinphonic.
Do you have the other tracks ? They're from Tanken Driland Character Songs & Music, aren't they ?

Download (FLAC) (https://mega.co.nz/#!LwYjnapD!SjBG8wUqi8JvExOiJXVuADvrcDUfXCNTVne240L S5Qo)

Tracklist:

01. Adventure ☆ Princess!
02. Wallance
03. The guy with the tiny hat
04. Knight of Pan-blue eyes (Night)

Now Tanken Driland is complete and it all makes a fine hour of fantastic music. If you want to make your own CD version with these tracks I put some pictures in there too.

Enjoy

On, the subject of John Williams, one song I have been looking for information on, is the Olympic Fanfare and Theme that NBC uses. It isn't the original 1984 recording, or the Summon the Heroes recording, but it's own variant, that doesn't even sound like the same orchestra. It's a song I have always loved, and cannot find. They have other great music they use by him as well, but I've tracked it all down with ease.

There is a piss-poor recording of the Olympic Fanfare and the Mission Theme (and a few other horrors) on a 1989 Naxos CD performed a hopeless Czech ensemble (billed as the "Philharmonic Rock Orchestra").

I am re-uploading it now just in case. :)

TT

Yoshihisa Hirano
Tanken Driland
Studio Orchestra



The complete score for the animation

Download (https://mega.co.nz/#!O95mxTTY!WknVhiKaA9E3-x7Fqex5Zmc1U_UoEGjDCWuTDpMtyXw)
CD-Rip / FLAC / 62 Tracks / 93 minutes


This is everything Hirano wrote for Driland (so far), I recently bought a large package from CDJapan and I had a few bucks left in my wallet so what the hell :D (I'm dangerously close to becoming a Hirano fanboy). But what a score! From modern ambience and rock to classical waltzes and marches, from somber piano pieces to all out orchestral bombast, this is Hirano at his absolute best. All this glory was achieved with such a small ensemble as well but through his masterful composition and orchestration skills he managed to make it sound bigger than your average studio orchestra. He also wrote some of my favorite pieces for this show, including Welcome to Driland!, Adventure Princess or King's Arrival. Even your average "game" ambient track sounds magical (Arcanum in the Cavern) and I really love the rock version of the Main Theme. Sometimes I prefer Hirano in "jolly adventure mode" and contrary to many of his fans I love HunterxHunter because of that BUT there is no dispute that his serious side is more satisfying for the brain (Driland has plenty examples of that as well).
Certainly one of the best scores of 2012 and one of my favorite anime scores in general.
That a guy like him is writing music in 2014 and getting money to perform it makes me not lose faith in humanity after all but on the other hand he is writting it for japanese late night TV shows, often incredibly niche ... but on second thought that's actually depressing...




ENJOY
(and buy the OST please)

Driland... not Hirano's best by any stretch, but a stunningly good score that proves that a small chamber orchestra can be made to do the work of a full symphony orchestra with judicious arrangement, big music and the most sensible approach to which instruments to replace with synthesisers; percussion. And a hundred points for Hirano continuing his orchestral tendency to use saxophones in the wind section, and a THOUSAND points for him actually having a chorus singing something worthwhile - not getting stuck in the childish "ah ah ah ah ooooooooooh" rut and not going down the Shiro Sagisu route.

There is a piss-poor recording of the Olympic Fanfare and the Mission Theme (and a few other horrors) on a 1989 Naxos CD performed a hopeless Czech ensemble (billed as the "Philharmonic Rock Orchestra").

I am re-uploading it now just in case. :)

TT It isn't that one...

And a hundred points for Hirano continuing his orchestral tendency to use saxophones in the wind section
In a week or so I should be able to share a short concerto (10 min) he wrote for saxophone. ;)

Shiro Hamaguchi
The Princess and the Pilot
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!stRHwRDC!OxA8E51XQJl3ugsQ5i89fbDdkSRbUOzCrri_C6f4GtM)
FLAC / BD-Rip / SFX


This is yet another great Japanese film score that was sadly never released, a tragedy on the scale of Sahashi's King of Thorn. So I've taken it upon myself to present the score in a at least mostly listenable format apart from the film. It's also a greatly underrated sweet little film if you ask me, I know I would love this the moment the Main Title appeared with a rousing introduction of the Main Theme. A second theme appears for the Princess at the second half of the second track which is delicately woven into the score's finest moments.

On the technical side there's simply too much sfx to bother to take them all out without days of work so expect no wonders, it is what it is. Most of the action is barely listenable but that's not where this score's heart beats fortunately. A great musical moment appears in track 8, how I wish Hamaguchi would be given numerous opportunities to write like that again, what a fantastic "flying" theme, right alongside Patema and Escaflowne. It's also telling us how much of a great film composer Hamaguchi really is. For the film's final scene Hamaguchi wrote perhaps his finest piece of film music aside from Ah My Goddess! The Motion Picture. A great moment of "movie magic" that I rarely feel these days. For some reason the score very much reminded me of Goldsmith's Forever Young and it certainly shares some similarities when I think about it.




Toshihiko Sahashi
King of Thorn
Studio Orchestra



Download (https://mega.nz/#!xxwRlLyR!DMea1TP7UwYPzisn-x6fWHzv-dTh0xRf1F0OTuUYTtg)
FLAC / BD-Rip / SFX


I will never understand why this and PatP never got soundtracks, a terrible shame. Sahashi wrote perhaps his most unique score to date for this one. His theme for King of Thorn is right among his very best and throughout the film this theme is excessively used and it's present in almost every piece. Luckily Sahashi excells at Leitmotif writing so it never becomes redundant. A secondary theme first appears for the monsters of the castle and is quoted quite often but not nearly as much as the Main Theme. It's played most frequently on pipes which is a rare choice of instumentation for Sahashi but it fits the Castle's location. The use of synth and organ is also tastefully done and the piano is not upfront but used as percussion, classy. Sahashi enthusiast will spot more than one of his blueprints for certain scenes. Overall the score is not as beautifully tragic as Gunslinger Girls but his theme is so great that it at least equals it.

I hope you can stomach all the sfx, I think it's slightly enough to be listenable.



Please Enjoy

Thanks!

So, once again, another Zelda symphony (http://www.promax.co.jp/zelda30thconcert/). They always consist of great music in great numbers, and you have to hope someone records and uploads them. This time, however, we will be getting a CD release, as seen here (https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B01JOB636K/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_ja_JP=カタカナ). I have a feeling this one will stand out from the others (and SotG was great imo, until the creators disbanded, and the quality degraded), though I am unsure of who the composer is this time. Either way, I ordered mine.

So, once again, another Zelda symphony (http://www.promax.co.jp/zelda30thconcert/). They always consist of great music in great numbers, and you have to hope someone records and uploads them. This time, however, we will be getting a CD release, as seen here (https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B01JOB636K/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_ja_JP=カタカナ). I have a feeling this one will stand out from the others (and SotG was great imo, until the creators disbanded, and the quality degraded), though I am unsure of who the composer is this time. Either way, I ordered mine.
I'm not sure who told you that's a concert CD, but it isn't. That's a 30th anniversary compilation album and will probably just include a couple tracks from every title in the series. They did the same thing for the Mario series last year (http://vgmdb.net/album/54247).

Sorry to disappoint.


King of Thorn
A few of the tracks were released in some form but I've never been able to find them. See here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo5ZwfyIhz83DsQ0drW6J63A4Pq_WI1Nr

Edit: In addition to those 6, the blu-ray menu apparently has a 4-minute track. But I couldn't find any working torrents for the complete blu-ray rip.

Just saw that Hirano is releasing another piano album in just under 3 weeks.


Unlike the album of contemporary works which I released in April, all tunes on this album are absolutely tonal. I, as the composer, consider them as even a sort of pops.
The theme of this album is "echoes of melancholy". I got inspiration for the tunes from Jean Genet, an aesthete of immorality.

Yoshihisa Hirano
Death Note Concertino
for alto saxophone and wind orchestra

Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare "Heartful Winds" - Toshiya Iwata, conductor
Kenta Fukui, solo saxophone



Ripped, etc. by nextday.

Download: https://mega.nz/#!8MVTDRIK!xcpOJn4yer6p3J6XjLBsQ-INTx3baC_I-mbPv5U2yTc

A reminder of why Death Note is one Hirano's best works - and just in time for the 10th anniversary of the anime.

Hirano wrote this concertino back in 2006 using the major themes he wrote for Death Note. The result is a stunning example of why Hirano is one my favorite composers.

This is the only CD recording of this piece and the only Hirano CD (that I know of) that has never been shared. Enjoy!

Wow, that is a rare thing indeed. I for one am simply enchanted by the way Hirano employs the sax, a great master of his craft.

As always, a million thanks for sharing these rare gems.

I am immensely grateful of course, but I think it's only fair to say Herr Salat did already share this gem (in FLAC) a few years ago.

The piece is just nuts, and I mean that in the best possible way. My favourite kind of Hirano - unhinged, deliciously crazy Hirano... a thousand different styles crammed in together to make a result that is musically fascinating, completely original, utterly representative of the composer, and embarassingly good fun to listen to. Even when he succumbs to Carmina Burana syndrome, he can't resist writing something that couldn't be written by anybody else.

I am immensely grateful of course, but I think it's only fair to say Herr Salat did already share this gem (in FLAC) a few years ago.

The piece is just nuts, and I mean that in the best possible way. My favourite kind of Hirano - unhinged, deliciously crazy Hirano... a thousand different styles crammed in together to make a result that is musically fascinating, completely original, utterly representative of the composer, and embarassingly good fun to listen to. :)
I searched here and on Google and it doesn't turn up. Did he remove it?

There's literally only 10 or so results when you search for it on Google. Either way it's fair to say not many have heard it. ;)

I'm not sure who told you that's a concert CD, but it isn't. That's a 30th anniversary compilation album and will probably just include a couple tracks from every title in the series. They did the same thing for the Mario series last year (http://vgmdb.net/album/54247).

Sorry to disappoint.
That sucks. Why does Nintendo do that? They rerelease their music so often but when they make something good, it doesn't even make a CD. I guess I was misinformed. Going to go cancel an order now

"For those not able to attend the concerts, fret not, as with all such events there's an accompanying music CD collecting pieces played during the show. In this case, The Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary Music Collection album will have two CDs, and while the exact playlist has not been finalized, we're sure Zelda fans are savvy enough to figure out the puzzle on which tracks will be included from a game library spanning from 1986 to the most recent release."

That sucks. Why does Nintendo do that? They rerelease their music so often but when they make something good, it doesn't even make a CD. I guess I was misinformed. Going to go cancel an order now

"For those not able to attend the concerts, fret not, as with all such events there's an accompanying music CD collecting pieces played during the show. In this case, The Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary Music Collection album will have two CDs, and while the exact playlist has not been finalized, we're sure Zelda fans are savvy enough to figure out the puzzle on which tracks will be included from a game library spanning from 1986 to the most recent release."
Whoever wrote that didn't know what they were talking about unfortunately.

As for why Nintendo does it... probably because they are very old fashioned. I don't see things changing until the old guys running the company retire - and even then, it isn't certain.

Matsuo... Drifters... Warsaw... OMG! :D :D :D

Whoever wrote that didn't know what they were talking about unfortunately.

As for why Nintendo does it... probably because they are very old fashioned. I don't see things changing until the old guys running the company retire - and even then, it isn't certain.
It was on Play-Asia
They are extremely old-fashioned.

Matsuo... Drifters... Warsaw... OMG! :D :D :D
Now there's something to look forward to!

Woah! they are really trying to dublicate Hellsings sucess. I hope to god it doesn't mean years of waiting only to be disappointed by no complete soundtrack release. That aside, I wonder how much opera Matsuo has sneaked in. The show seems to be all over the place with run of the mill eletronic here and there and then suddenly two Warsaw pieces at the end. I just hope it's not another Heavy Object. Then again, Hellsing didn't fire the guns until episode IV.

The recent Keijo pv also features a fanfare by a pretty big ensemble and considering how much pride they take in this production, it wouldnt surprise me to recieve a grade A Hollywood score by Matsuo. The man only had a few chances to show his immense talent so I'm glad he's returning full force.


EDIT: Surprise, suprise: Now the chance of Yuri on Ice to recieve a classical driven score has become a possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBocGR7PlJQ

Well, the Drifters we've seen is the OVA, which is basically the first two episodes stitched together and bundled with the manga as a bonus DVD to get people interested in the series itself which starts in October - so I wouldn't expect them to blow away much of their good score just yet. Generally, it's not economically viable to go to Warsaw for less than a full session, which means about half an hour of full-on symphonic score is likely. I know stranger things have happened and we've seen composers going to Warsaw to record three minutes of good music in an otherwise terrible score (Black Bullet) but instinct is telling me they're not going to cheap out with Drifters. I can't see another Heavy Object disappointment happening - I hope not, anyway - recording a handful of orchestral pieces makes sense domestically but if you're going to spend money flying people to another country and hire the team generally recognised as recording the "prestige" scores... you're not going to have one great piece sandwiched in a score of mediocrity. There's going to be some considerable effort made here.

That Keijo PV just beggars belief. This is a fanservice show, right? And that sounds like one of the biggest domestic orchestras heard in TV anime for years. What gives? Hasn't Matsuo spent the last couple of years drifting (no pun intended) along writing naff cheapo scores and orchestrating pop songs? How does he suddenly re-appear big time like this?

Gives me hope for the future; still waiting for Yamashita and Souhei Kano to get their first big Warsaw score... One day, it'll happen... :D

Woah! they are really trying to dublicate Hellsings sucess. I hope to god it doesn't mean years of waiting only to be disappointed by no complete soundtrack release. That aside, I wonder how much opera Matsuo has sneaked in. The show seems to be all over the place with run of the mill eletronic here and there and then suddenly two Warsaw pieces at the end. I just hope it's not another Heavy Object. Then again, Hellsing didn't fire the guns until episode IV.

The recent Keijo pv also features a fanfare by a pretty big ensemble and considering how much pride they take in this production, it wouldnt surprise me to recieve a grade A Hollywood score by Matsuo. The man only had a few chances to show his immense talent so I'm glad he's returning full force.


EDIT: Surprise, suprise: Now the chance of Yuri on Ice to recieve a classical driven score has become a possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBocGR7PlJQ
Drifters has two composers: the original Hellsing composer Yasushi Ishii and the OVA series composer Matsuo. That's why there's a blend of styles.

The music for Yuri on Ice is by two composers from Piano, the company that Yoko Kanno works for. It should be an interesting debut score for them.

The Lecacy of Japanese Composers
The Warsaw Collection
The Works for Animation and Games



Download (https://mega.nz/#!NkglWBbR!__P1TJVj7lHAofLsYGxObZpQXqXRYNhQmkSncrtSjEw)



The history of film music is full of beautiful relationships of composers and directors/producers but a magnificent musical relationship between two countries is a rare thing indeed. Poland has one of the worlds most prestigeous classical orchestras: The Warsaw Philharmonic. What is surprising is that it does not focus completely on the classical repertoire but is also credited as a performer for various media related projects. But these projects don't come from domestic or even european composers or companies but rather from people living thousands of kilometers away. The fruitful collaboration between Japanese composers and Warsaw, Masamichi Amano and Yoko Kanno in particular, brought us the best film scores of the past two decades. It all started with Masamichi "Macamicz" Amano and Giant Robot. From then on Masamichi continued to be a regular together with Yoko Kanno and they likely brought the quality and monetary value of a Warsaw score to many Japanese producers attention. The Japanese people in general have this wonderful habbit of doing things better than you really need to and have great respect for art and craftmanship. This also stays true for their entertainment industry. So its not that much of a surprise that they would allow a budget that makes it possible for a composer to fly all the way to Poland and record the music for the best possible quality while not having the budget to go to London. The Orchestra in general seems to enjoy working for Japanese composers and they level good compositions to greatness by their virtuosity alone. And each and everytime a Warsaw score feels more like the work of an artist than a purely commercial one. It also helps that Japanese media composers in general seem to have complete freedom in the way they write a score for a project. If the recent interview with Re:Zero composer Suehiro is anything to go by the usual procedure of a Japanese project seems to go like this:


Producer/Director: Thank you for meeting me. I've heared your music for this drama/game/anime I love, I would like to work with you on this project, we can give you this budget...

Composer: Sure but with a bit more money I can deliever a much better experience, the music is the same but the sound will be better.

Procuer/Director: A: Sorry we don't have that much / B: Alright, we have a bit more to spend

A/B: *Producer/Director gives general guidelines what he wants and if there's stuff to score to picture (and temptracks)* / *composer gets budget* / *writes score*

A: *records in a studio with contracted musicians*

B: *records overseas with an european symphony orchestra and/or choir*

A/B: *Sends it to the Director/Producer*


Heaven... no one seems to interfere, no mindboggingly stupid "no woodwinds" rule that destroys centuries of orchestral development / no "the kids won't like it!" because souldestroying commercialism / no "MORE DRUMS!!!" to please musical illiterate retards, just genuine appreciation and respect of the craft and profession of orchestral composers across the board... and it shows. These eight scores are perfect examples of this.



Ah! My Godess. The Motion Picture (Shiro Hamaguchi): Hamaguchi's Magnum Opus, a beautiful choral work with american film music flair and a beautiful gentle theme. The action is on par with everything else this time. Girls und Panzer der FILM was wonderful in that regard as well but here it's a bit more bombastic. "The New World Prelude" might also be my favorite piece Hamaguchi has composed. I've also included Ray of Light from Hanasaku Iroha.

Fafner (Tsunayoshi Seito): A film score arrangement from all the soundtracks, but more concert work than film score really. I've already arranged a little Fantasia for it and it works really well, showcasing the classical nature of the score. The gentle Theme is not all there is, beautiful little piano concertos and orchestral bombast in the vain of Amano are also present.

Final Fantasy XIII (Masashi Hamauzu / Yoshihisa Hirano): Hirano's only time to go big, orchestrating for Hamauzu but for all intends and purposes this comes across more like a Hirano score most of the time than a Hamauzu score. How I wish he would return to Warsaw, Nascent Requiem is just insanely good. This is my usual film score arrangement with worthwhile studio recordings put in the mix.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (Akira Senju): Not Senju's very best but an interesting and impressive concert work with perhaps too many of his blueprints to be truely original. But the themes are excellent througout. This is a 90 minute arrangement of his three hour recordings because listening to the entirety of it can be a bit dull.

Gin`iro no Kami no Agito (Taku Iwasaki): One of the only times Iwasaki strips away his eccentricism to score a film in a traditional orchestral conetxt. Overall it's an impressive score that shows that he CAN be a great film composer when he wants to be, a pitty he doesn't seem to have any affection for it.

Hellsing (Hayato Matsuo): This is his Magnum Opus and one of the best Japanese orchestral scores I have ever heared. It's a fantastic musical for one of fiction's greatest characters. It might not have the lyrical but melancholic yet delicate love theme from Kilar's Dracula or the complex narrative of Williams Dracula but it still towers them for the sheer bombast and operatic beauty, even including the work of Karl Maria von Weber. A real tragedy that some is in subpar quality or worse, unreleased. I hope Drifters is at least as good and in some shape or form allows for an opportunity to relase an offical soundtrack for Hellsing. I would buy ten copies in a heartbeat.

Jin-Roh (Hajime Mizoguchi): His best solo score by a mile. Not very action heavy but excelling in tragic and melancholic moments. Grace Omega is just beautiful and the perfect ending for this beautiful film.

Beautiful Katamari (Katsuro Taijima): One of Japan's most underrated and underused composers, I think. It's just insane that he delievered a mesmerizing Hollywoodesque symphony for the most obscure Japanese shit possible and yet he's wasting away as part of Namco's Soundteam for years. The moment I see his name on a new game or anime project will be a very joyus day indeed. I'm also very proud how my attempt at a Katamari Symphonic Album turned out, so much so that I ditched the original soundtrack entirely.




The relationship with Warsaw continues strong to this day and certainly will for many years to come. Last year was Fafner 2, Attack on Titan and a concert with Akira Senju and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in Tokyo and this year we have Drifters. Unless Berserk fires all guns in the last episodes, it appears to be just leftovers from the moves. Tango right yet again and doesn't need to eat no hat :D

Do you have Shiro Hamaguchi's Megumi no Daigo? It's a Warsaw score that I've not heard.

Unfortunately, that's also the only Warsaw album I don't have. I believe it was never shared, at least not here and in familiar places. And its not that much score to begin with, so paying a ludicrous sum for it is also out of the question for me.

Unfortunately, that's also the only Warsaw album I don't have. I believe it was never shared, at least not here and in familiar places. And its not that much score to begin with, so paying a ludicrous sum for it is also out of the question for me.
Ah, that's what I thought. I can probably pick it up in the near future - the CD is pretty cheap, only like $10.

And 30 minutes of big orchestra is more than what's on most of Hamaguchi's recent scores.

Heaven... no one seems to interfere, no mindboggingly stupid "no woodwinds" rule that destroys centuries of orchestral development / no "the kids won't like it!" because souldestroying commercialism / no "MORE DRUMS!!!" to please musical illiterate retards, just genuine appreciation and respect of the craft and profession of orchestral composers across the board... and it shows. These eight scores are perfect examples of this.

What I don't and never can ever hope to understand is how that happens in Japan... where the anime industry is the very personification of soul-destroying commercialism and a desire to please retards. How can they have THAT, and also have an environment where they say "Hey, you're the composer - go and compose something and let us know when you want to book the orchestra!"?

An environment where every single score, good or bad, orchestral or not, is the unique product of its composer? An environment in which the type of score you get - from the classically-infused avant-garde chaos of Hirano, through the electronica/orchestra experimental hybrid of Iwasaki to the relentless hardcore rock of Sawano, is decided pretty much entirely on which individual composer you hire for your project?

Utterly crazy. And wonderful.

What I don't and never can ever hope to understand is how that happens in Japan... where the anime industry is the very personification of soul-destroying commercialism and a desire to please retards. How can they have THAT, and also have an environment where they say "Hey, you're the composer - go and compose something and let us know when you want to book the orchestra!"?

An environment where every single score, good or bad, orchestral or not, is the unique product of its composer? An environment in which the type of score you get - from the classically-infused avant-garde chaos of Hirano, through the electronica/orchestra experimental hybrid of Iwasaki to the relentless hardcore rock of Sawano, is decided pretty much entirely on which individual composer you hire for your project?

Utterly crazy. And wonderful.
Hopefully nothing changes. I saw in that Re:Zero interview there was one part where the producer talked about how he likes Hans Zimmer and asked for music similar to the Dark Knight.

Meanwhile you have Suehiro, the composer, talking about Morricone and Bart�k as some of his influences.

Seriously, if these clueless producers start to get their way then anime music is doomed.

About your point Tango and taken Re:Zero into account:

From the various twitter comments of staff members to composer Suehiro's comments (which might be fake but I doubt it), they all seem to be happy to be part of the production and promote this stuff because they put weeks upon weeks of hard work into making it all work. If we take into account on how anime is made then Re:Zero is first and foremost a collaboration of artists more than anything. It may be a dumb silly anime, but it has artistic integrity, even by a small degree. There's an episode where two characters talk for 20 minutes straight and you still feel like a lot of effort went into making it, someone had to draw the background, someone had to animate every single little thumb movement and every little facial expression when a character moves and someone had to draw a cute girl looking really cute, and believe it or not that skill takes years and years of hard work of drawing things. The director and the composer supposedly cried when watching it (that may very well be marketing BS), but it's just an adaption of a dumb novel and they are acting like they are making some sort of masterpiece out of it. Imagine if the people making all the merchandize for it are just as happy to have made it as you are to recieve it, wouldn't that be nice...

Point is there is a certain level of enthusiasm present in that industry with many enthusiastic people working in it that it reflects on the music as well. Look at Tanaka, we would not have so much great music like his gem from comiket if he did not love being part of this industry. Even the recent fan projects from comiket are now becoming better at film music than a billion-dollar industry, that's just depressing: http://picosong.com/z3gw



Ultimately it is an industry of very passionate people with very passionate fans. As long as we get beautiful music out of it, it should never change.







EDIT: And just in time the recent episode of Re:Zero has a truely wonderful piece starting at 19:40 that pulls at my heartstrings. The soundtrack can't come soon enough.

EDIT 2: Ok, now it's getting creepy... I just talked about Tanaka and suddenly there's a new project appearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dauyLoKTvac.

I wholeheartedly agree; I just find it crazy and wonderful that artistry CAN flourish in the market of mass entertainment.

Makes me all the more angry to think that Hollywood seems to think artistry doesn't even need to exist.

I want to thank Vinphonic, tangotreats, Sirusj, and everybody who has contributed with music and points of view about music in this thread. Ive been following this for maybe more than 3 years and its been a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Let me invite you guys a beer or tea if you ever come to Shanghai. Cheers.

EDIT: And just in time the recent episode of Re:Zero has a truely wonderful piece starting at 19:40 that pulls at my heartstrings. The soundtrack can't come soon enough.

EDIT 2: Ok, now it's getting creepy... I just talked about Tanaka and suddenly there's a new project appearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dauyLoKTvac.
It's funny that "Main Theme composed by Kohei Tanaka" is the very first credit in the video. Like, who cares about the animation studio or character designer, we have Kohei Tanaka on board!

And yes, I think it's great when a new composer like Suehiro appears out of nowhere and delivers one of the best anime soundtracks of the year. Hopefully he gets more projects after Re:Zero ends next month.

Edit: By the way, I do think Re:Zero is a very high quality production. Sure the plot/characters are still standard light novel fare, but they make the best of it. Probably the only reason I'm still watching it is because it's rare to see this kind of artistry, especially considering it's the director's debut. They obviously really care about their craft. In my previous post, I only meant to highlight the disconnect between composers and music producers these days. The producers want that RC sound even when the composers have their roots in classical music. It just goes to show why composers like Sawano and Yokoyama get so many big projects. In fact, Yokoyama's most recent scores were literally mixed at Remote Control Productions. It's quite unsettling.

RC and Zimmer have a place - I don't begrudge them that - there have always been dumb producers/directors who ask composers to do silly things. My problem with it is when it becomes so prevalent that it literally disintergrates any other style and puts a generation of insanely talented composers out of work. The year Sawano scores ten animes, and in that year Oshima, Yamashita, Sahashi, Kanno, and Tanaka score the rest and they sound exactly like the Sawano scores... that's when I'll be unsettled.


I want to thank Vinphonic, tangotreats, Sirusj, and everybody who has contributed with music and points of view about music in this thread. Ive been following this for maybe more than 3 years and its been a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Let me invite you guys a beer or tea if you ever come to Shanghai. Cheers.

Speaking for myself, you're very welcome - and if that offer is serious I'd love to take you up on it the next time I go travelling! :)

Sure, but Kanno's last big orchestral anime score was 8 years ago. Sahashi is pretty much retired from anime at this point. Tanaka's last notable soundtrack was in 2012. Iwasaki barely does anything orchestral these days. Even Hirano hasn't had any work since 2013. The list goes on.

I think we're going to be in trouble when some of these big players exit the scene and there's no one to replace them.

[FONT=Century Gothic]Shiro Hamaguchi

I will never understand why this and PatP never got soundtracks, a terrible shame. Sahashi wrote perhaps his most unique score to date for this one. His theme for King of Thorn is right among his very best and throughout the film this theme is excessively used and it's present in almost every piece. Luckily Sahashi excells at Leitmotif writing so it never becomes redundant. A secondary theme first appears for the monsters of the castle and is quoted quite often but not nearly as much as the Main Theme. It's played most frequently on pipes which is a rare choice of instumentation for Sahashi but it fits the Castle's location. The use of synth and organ is also tastefully done and the piano is not upfront but used as percussion, classy. Sahashi enthusiast will spot more than one of his blueprints for certain scenes. Overall the score is not as beautifully tragic as Gunslinger Girls but his theme is so great that it at least equals it.



Thank you for processing the BD!

BTW, wasn't a lossy 128 mp3 version of the main theme in three tracks available a few years ago, no sfx? I remember something like that (and probably have it somewhere) ...

I want to thank Vinphonic, tangotreats, Sirusj, and everybody who has contributed with music and points of view about music in this thread. Ive been following this for maybe more than 3 years and its been a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Let me invite you guys a beer or tea if you ever come to Shanghai. Cheers.

A warm welcome from me as well. I sure am happy that this thread affects so many people in profound ways (myself included).




Sure, but Kanno's last big orchestral anime score was 8 years ago. Sahashi is pretty much retired from anime at this point. Tanaka's last notable soundtrack was in 2012. Iwasaki barely does anything orchestral these days. Even Hirano hasn't had any work since 2013. The list goes on.

I think we're going to be in trouble when some of these big players exit the scene and there's no one to replace them.



I wouldn't worry about the quality of the orchestral anime score just yet:

Oshima gave us some of the best scores ever written for any media in recent years (Shirayuki 2 was this year) and she will definetely return for the Little Wich Academia TV series, and I'm absolutely looking forward to it.
Toshiyuki Watanabe scored a Majestic Prince movie, how can the score not be anything short of fantastic. We're also getting his complete score of the TV series as a bonus together with his score for the Space Brothers movie. Space Brothers also has to continue some day and you can bet that Watanabe will make a return.
Natsumi Kameoka scored a mesmerizing bombastic score for the Kantai movie judging from the recent previews and she also scored the second season airing next year.
Keiji Inai wrote a completely traditional Hollywood score for Alderamin and is a possible candidate to follow in the footsteps of the greats (give him a few years).
Suehiro appears with a damn good score full of Hollywood moments.
91 Days is an honest to god American Mafia drama. It's not the Godfather but done so classy that you could put it in any Gangster drama of Hollywood's silver age and nobody would bat an eye.
The Ancient Magus Bride sounds very promising from the first three minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTBMP94mrqg Another case of an insane amount of artistry in the production
Turns out Yokoyama did trick us all because Monster Hunter Stories is a traditional orchestra recording featuring a big studio ensemble.
Koda has been on a roll recently and also scored an "epic fantasy tale" airing in winter (Chain Chronicle).
Matsuo returns with Warsaw and a big studio score for Keijo!, imagine a catfight of T&A with John Williams Flag Parade :D
Berserk has a few Warsaw pieces and no matter if they are leftovers or not we are still hearing Amano's Warsaw recordings in 2016 on a currently airing show.
Takaki still delivers some pretty great music for Precure and his upcoming movie score will certainly deliver. I still hope he will appear on the Legend of the Galactic Heroes remake, I could not imagine a more perfect choice.
Wada also delivers some damn good stuff these days, especially with the new D.Gray-man. And he's been absent from the anime scene for 4 years.
Pokemon XYZ continues to step up the game with a hollywoodesque score and Kan Sawada still provides hollywoodesque music for Doraemon.
Think of Mitsuda what you will but with help or not, two shows will appear next year with traditional Hollywood bombast.
Yoshihiro Ike really stepped up his game with Bahamut and I hope he will surpass himself yet again with the sequel. Who knows perhaps another Reideen is on the horizon too.
Uematsu suddenly returns big time with project anouncements left and right. The Granblue Fantasy anime airing in winter is 48 episodes! even. If he gets a big orchestra and some little help from the usual suspects this could turn out great. The Orchestral Album also has to appear soon!!!
There's also some big anime-game projects coming in the future with hollywoodesque scores from the sounds of it like the new Super Robot Wars V
Numerous "vintage" shows and films get remakes that actually respect and improve upon the original, look at Yamato 2199 or Lupin III for a blast of 70s Television or the recent Sindbad films that remain true to the WMTheater asthetic.
The industry also celebrates giving big project and names to various upstarts and newcomers, for example kotringo is a realitvely new artist and yet she gets to score what is the equivalent of a Ghibli film with numerous veterans of the industry working on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoI9Yl60BqU With a full orchestra even.
Orchestral aside there's been some amazing Jazz scores these past few years, from Thunderbolt to Geass Akito, from Lupin III to Osomatsu-san and that trend continues ever strong.
Slice of Life never sounded better in quantity than in recent years, from Inari Konkon to Kiniro Mosaic and Rabbit Cafe and now with Amanchu and the upcoming Mosaic movie.
I could continue this list with numerous other examples but you get the point that it's looking pretty good right now.


There's enough (young) talent present today or making its way into the industry that can keep the torch lit. It's just that in recent years they were not given enough work or budget.
If more and more talented composers in the industry do not get any work for five years or more and everything else begins to sound like Donkie XP, that's when I will begin to worry.


The only ones whose absence I really find problematic are Sahashi, Hirano and recently MONACA, but more because of personal taste than worry. Soul of Gold was in 2015 and there's possiblity of Sahashi returning for the Full Metal Panic project so hes not completely retired yet. Hirano was busy with his Piano albums and only did some drama to pay the bills but his return to anime is long since overdue. I believe he still has some more Broken Blades in store for us.
Kanno... hasn't done a full orchestral score for anime in years but Hellsing was over 8 years ago and suddenly Matsuo returns with Warsaw, not unlikely Kanno will also make a comeback like that. In 2014 she scored Terror in Resonance.
Technically I would count Gravity Rush: The Overture and Princess Connect as "anime" and Endride was just recently so I would not say Tanaka disappeared from the scene.
Iwasaki still sneaks in some pretty amazing pieces hidden among all the electronica and remember the wonderful operatic piece we got from Jojo in 2013... there's still some gems in his soundtracks but you're right the time is nigh for another Katanagatari or Binchu-Tan. To hope for another Agito is just wishful thinking.
Sato barely does anime anymore but he still gets work and the upcoming Assassination Classroom movie could have some great stuff: http://picosong.com/zR6J
Yamashita does mostly children shows these days but he is still getting work, recently scored a serious war drama and is now busy with the new Yamato. Who knows, perhaps another Warsaw score too.


Speaking about the bad boys:
Sawano is actually getting less work now than a few years ago and even I can find some enjoyment in his scores knowing that its not dominating anything. Yokoyama gets what, 4 shows a year out of 200, no need to worry yet. And I believe he can be better than what his scores make you believe, Queen's Blade has some good moments and now he can prove what he's worth with Monster Hunter.
Takanashi is perhaps the only one who should have retired long ago but he has done decent stuff in the past and I still enjoy him from time to time.
Yuki Hayashi is not terrible and can actually write some decent Jazz, there's even one or two orchestral pieces by him I like. Only Tatsuya scores regulary per season these days and I would not consider him that problematic, he actually does a very good job sometimes. Yuki Kajiura is not getting as much work as before and actually delievered some good stuff (mostly in her recent drama). Kenji Kawai appears from time to time, more misses than hits but he is by no means a terrible composer. And Sagisu has Amano for damage-control.


Not looking grim so far ;)


The Japanese Composer and Arranger Association has also been active behind the scenes with their goal of "upholding culture and tradition of music" and almost all of our favorite composers working in anime are also board members and taking part in it. Perhaps its thanks to their efforts that we are seeing so many symphonic concert projects emerging right now. There's various collaborations with Japanese band ensembles, not to mention the world's strongest Wind Orchestra lineup and the Tokyo Philharmonic is more and more embracing being part of the industry. The collaboration with European orchestras also grows stronger. The last couple of years we had numerous scores recorded in London, Moscow, Warsaw and even LA. Almost no other industry on earth right now allows for so much diverse expression of musical talent. There's also various political movements involving the JCAA to "promote" the Tokyo anime industry. Every year there's a government founded project to train new animators and perhaps we will see the same happening for composers too in the future. The Tokyo governeur recently embraced the idea of Tokyo becoming "Anime Land" and real effort is made to turn it all into a Japanese Hollywood by 2020. That would also open up the possibilities of new animation studio facilities and more importantly for us REAL scoring stages.

Apparently working as a western composers in the industry is also becoming possible: "Evan Call about getting into the anime industry as a foreigner and about his work on Schwarzesmarken" (https://type94.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/anime-anime-evan-call/)
What's interesting is how he pretty much confirms: As long as 50% of your music is at least somewhat following the guidelines you can compose pretty much whatever the hell you want.

And just look at big companies like Cygames and Level 5, instead of becoming companies that restrict artistic freedom and effort they are instead nourishing it and allowing it to flourish. Without Cygames we would't have had the wonderful return of scoring a TV series to picture. They also seem to treat composers with an insane amount of respect. And they also continue their efforts to improve the standard of Japanese animation studios. Level 5 concistently allows budgets for numerous big studio orchestra recordings for products that don't really need it. And thanks to them we get two of Hisaishi's most accomplished scores. I just don't have this fear of board executives ruining the standard of anime any time soon. At least not until I'm proven wrong of course but right now I feel somewhat enthusiastic about the future for once.






Just on a sidenote, words can't express how thankful I am how the Japanese make trailers for their products. Perfect example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCSUxwuqEzQ&t=57s. 99% of the time the music is either a mock-up of the score or the real deal. I mean who would be so dumb to not use the composer you hired for your project to promote it... It just so happens that this practice excites enthusiast like me more than the intended target group most of the time :D

I bought up those composers not to highlight the fifty million fantastic orchestral scores they've written in the last couple of years, but to highlight people with very particular and individual styles which are allowed to flourish whenever they score something. Nobody hires Kanno and asks for Sawano. Nobody hires Sahashi and asks for Yokoyama. None of them have been massively busy recently, but when they DO turn up you're never, ever left with the feeling that they've been pressurised into writing somebody else's music.


Sure, but Kanno's last big orchestral anime score was 8 years ago.

Yes, but she still works and every note she writes is instantly and obviously recognisable as hers.


Sahashi is pretty much retired from anime at this point.

Soul Of Gold 2015, Saint Seiya Omega 2012-2013, Sacred Seven 2011, Element Hunters 2009... Granted, he's not as busy as he used to be but you can hardly call him "pretty much retired".


Tanaka's last notable soundtrack was in 2012.

In what world are Gaist Crusher (2013-2014) and Endride (2016) not "notable"? Also, Gravity Daze and that Princess project spoke about by Vinphonic are just around the corner.


Iwasaki barely does anything orchestral these days.

He still works, prolifically, and again every score sounds completely like him - and whilst he's never been particularly well known for his orchestral music, some of his most recent scores definitely have a far, far more symphonic heart than his other work of the past decade or so.


Even Hirano hasn't had any work since 2013.

Mosaic Japan (drama, 2014), Ippo Rising (2014), Ai Tenchi Muyo! (2014), Yutori (drama, 2016), two solo albums this year. None of it his best work, and none of it particularly showcasing his world-class symphonic credentials, but not true to say he hasn't had any work since 2013. Clearly the offers are still coming in. Maybe he's just taking a break from writing his usual music which must knock the crap out of him. Conservative with notes he ain't. Never use two notes when 50,000 will do. ;)


I think we're going to be in trouble when some of these big players exit the scene and there's no one to replace them.

Well, think about how many people have exited versus how many came in. I maintain that Souhei Kano's 2011 debut Fractale instantly stands as one of the finest scores ever written. The guy's not even 40 years old. He's just one of many. These guys are out there; they're not coming to the forefront quite yet because old reliables - Oshima (55), Watanabe (61), Amano (59), etc, are still around and producing good scores. In the 80s everything was scored by Kentaro Haneda, Kei Wakakusa, and Seiji Yokoyama with names like Oshima, Watanabe, and Amano popping up every now and again working as assistants and ghostwriters. (Amano scored porn on cheap keyboards until he hit the big time with Giant Robo...)

Keiji Inai has it. Go Sakabe has it. Souhei Kano has it. Yamashita has it. Hirano has it. Kameoka has it. Takaki has it. Some of them are just at the beginning of their careers, some are well into their careers... but we're not in the Hollywood situation - the only composer writing decent scores is in his 80s and everybody else in the industry has barely any musical education to speak of.

I mean, if Natsumi Kameoka (36) can toil away as an orchestrator and as Yasunori Mitsuda's tea girl and suddenly burst onto the scene scoring one of the biggest franchises in Japan, and does it in such a shamelessly traditional way as she did with Kantai... I don't worry that nobody is around to replace the old guard when they retire.

One day, Oshima will get too old and she'll turn down a big, expensive score. They'll see who can do it. Inai will say "Oh, I can do that!". Kameoka will say "Oh, cool, I'm available!" - and life will continue.

I'll worry if Natsumi Kameoka's next album is created to N8T!!!SuM1 K#@M3~~0Ka$ and sounds like dubstep. ;)

I don't think the orchestral music in japanese stuff is gonna die anytime, if that's what have you worried, I'm pretty sure they have a love to orchestrate their music, if their budget allows it.

The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Toshihiko Sahashi
The Works for Japanese Media



Oh Toshihiko Sahashi� one of the best composers working right now and also a pretty underrated and unrecognized musical talent in the grand scheme of things. Almost no one else can put the same amount of unadulterated fun in his music like Sahashi can. Granted, he is by no means the greatest master of orchestral music but he seems to have absorbed the best qualities of the classical world, the film music world and pop world (Funk/Jazz/Rock) to combine them all into an unrivaled aural spectacle while NEVER coming across as a thief. It�s more like he really has absorbed the qualities of Mozart rather than just quoting him. He also has vast knowledge of film music as well as TV scores of the 70s and incorporates that into his own style like nobody�s business: Giant Monster attacks a city� Ifukube it is! Heroic march� Williams of course! Giant space ship sails through the stars� no one else but Jerry! Drama in Italy� Morricone! Training Montage� Conti! But in contrast to Amano none of it feels traced, it all comes across as natural in the context of the score. It�s also not unusual for him to combine his symphonic sensibilities, his love for film music and his affection for Funk/Jazz/Rock in the same piece of music for a truly remarkable listening experience.

If you have never heard of him, chances are high that you�ve listened to his arrangements at least. His Deep Purple Medley is perhaps his most famous around the world. It�s performed quite frequently, even in Germany to this day on various band festivals. It�s quite interesting how similar his career is to Hollywood legend John Williams in some aspects, a journey from a small Jazz/Rock band �Kenso� to the London Symphony Orchestra. He was also a very prolific composer until recently. In comparison to Tanaka, Kanno and Amano he was a lot more active. During his peak in the late 2000s we were blessed with numerous scores I would call great film scores, among those fantastic SciFi scores performed by none other than the London Symphony Orchestra.
Unfortunately everything else he masterfully scored was only performed by a local Japanese studio orchestra (small and big). Granted it is not bad sounding by any means but his music would have had even more power and grace with a world class ensemble. The only fault you can find with him is that he has a certain comfort zone of rhythms, harmonies and melodies that he falls back on frequently and that can be a bit repetitive at times but he never evokes the same reaction I get with Horner and Amano, far from it. Nonetheless he has his own little variation of a �Danger motif�, as well as standard blueprints for military action. Nevertheless, let�s dive in into his large body of work and highlight his most accomplished efforts but not before crediting and thanking Tango, Herr Salat, SirusJr, nextday and various others for their shares.


Part I - Toshihiko's Gundam (https://anon.click/lacaf44)


I would argue that Gundam was at its peak (musically) when Sahashi took over with SEED and SEED Destiny. What he wrote are hours upon hours of great SciFi music very much in the sound world of Williams and Goldsmith. In total over 6 hours of score and almost no boring and wasted minute. It�s all pretty much spectacle where we can hear Sahashi at his very best as an orchestral composer, a band musician and as a songwriter. Thankfully the shows were very popular in Japan and as a result he was given the opportunity to record a symphonic arrangement of his scores with the best orchestra in the world. His two London symphonic albums are just unbelievable. They�re fantastic symphonic scores that pay more than one visit to the sound world of the legendary Hollywood trio, even more evident than in the series. Two of the greatest SciFi scores ever recorded. He even got a third chance to go to London to record his arrangements of famous Gundam songs in 2009. For all intends and purposes this is Sahashi at his absolute peak. What he does with his arrangements of popular Gundam songs is just out of this world. A beautiful fusion of classical music and film music. His final piece �The Symphony� is one of my favorite Sahashi pieces and a giant love letter to Hollywood. His three London Symphonies should be in anyone�s collection. Three of the greatest orchestral albums of the past decade.


Now moving on to his scores for TV-Anime in the 2000s.

Part II - The Era of Sahashi (2000 - 2009) (https://anon.click/rizow24[)




SIMOUN: A masterpiece. It has everything. A homage to Mozart, beautiful Latin and folk inspired dances, a Vangelis homage, late romantic pastoral orchestral pieces and classical waltzes. Two major themes dominate the score: A feisty and eccentric theme, most prominent in the Tango and a romantic and regal theme, most prominent in the classical waltz. The fusion of synth, sax and orchestra is just out of this world.

Steel Angel Kurumi: A beautiful orchestral romantic fantasy with delightful string pieces. His most gentle work and a great example of the beauty of cello and harp. At the end he even pulls a Goldsmith with a full five minute symphonic piece with incorporation of the Main Theme. His songs are also incredibly cute and catchy. A must listen.

Element Hunters: A surprise bag full of everything that makes Sahashi great. Kickass Jass & Rock pieces, great orchestral pieces with more than one homage to Goldsmith and Conti. He even evokes Mozart at the end for a little operatic climax. Love it!

King of Thorn: Sahashi wrote one of the most unique and soul touchingly beautiful scores of his career and no soundtrack of the film was ever released. The few pieces who are SFX free are not even the best stuff in the film. What I would give for a soundtrack release.

Gunslinger Girl: His most tragic score, operatic with winks to Morricone, Bach and Mozart.

The Big-O: A great noir-style score full of funky moments as well as moments of orchestral grandeur. Guest appearance by Ifukube, Beethoven and Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

Full Metal Panic: A blast from the past with the iconic A-Team and friends with flavors of 70s Williams and 90s Goldsmith. Great military score.

Hitman Reborn: Rocky � Take 5� with British spy movie flair of the 60s and a little Bach & Mozart.

Soul of Gold: I've included it because it's his only recent score that has the same vigor and quality as his anime scores from the 2000s. An all-around excellent return to form.

I've also distributed various scores among others that fit thematically because on their own there's not much substantial orchestral stuff for a full album.


Onto his earlier work in the 90s:

Part III - 90s Pomp & 80s Funk (https://anon.click/biqul52)


Some of his earlier works have been collaborations with equally if not more talented composers such as Asakawa and Oshima and it�s also in this period where we can hear his band influence the strongest.
Future GPX is my favorite from this period, it�s just great fun to listen to it, a killer theme, full of funk and jazz. But not devoid of classic film score either, and a fantastic danger theme as well that would later evolve into his Spaceship Minerva for Gundam SEED Destiny. It also links the two periods together as he scored the sequel in 2000. With Garou Densetsu Sahashi did go full Hollywood for the first time. Delivering a mix of Golden Age sound, Jazz, Funk and Goldsmith. Blue Stinger has a fantastic Williams-grade concert piece that cements Sahashi's ability to score like the Hollywood greats.
Angel Links is a precursor to his greatest hits in the 2000s. We can already hear Sahashi�s tasty mix of various scoring styles. And the first most prominent appearance of his trademark soprano vocals.
And I�m head over heels for some of the pieces he wrote during this time, Izumi the Priest from Ryu Knight being a prime example.


About TV-Drama:

Part IV - The Romantic Drama (https://anon.click/dehez55)


The Fantastic Deer-man is an awesome thematic superhero film score written for a TV comedy. Symphonic in nature and with much concert grade pieces. One of his very best.
Swan no Baka, fantastic introspective score full of romanticism and smooth sensual jazz.
Chiritotechin is a beautiful classical driven pastoral score with a few nods to Italian film flair (think La Vita � Bella or Morricone�s catalogue).
Koi ni Oshitara is more a collage of great Hollywood moments than a cohesive score but the main theme is a killer and great Hollywood moments are still great Hollywood moments. I�m still not sure if Sahashi based his piece Frontier more on Tchaikovsky�s Violin Concerto or Bill�Conti�s The Right Stuff.


About his Tokusatsu scores:

Part V - Toshihiko's Tokusatsu (https://anon.click/leyiv35)


The Super 8 Ultra Brothers remains my favorite Tokusatsu score of his, it doesn�t get more epic than this one. Kind of what the Avengers should have sounded like. A great Superhero score all around, again with two major themes, one bold and heroic theme to lift up your spirit and a lofty and encouraging theme to make you fly. I really think Sahashi takes after Horner�s philosophy of a maximum of three primary themes in a film score, two being the ideal.
From all the Ultraman TV scores I think Gaia takes the spotlight. Like Mebius it�s full of western references like Top Gun but also manages to incorporate quite a lot of classic Hollywood style. For the Gaia movie he even incorporates previous famous Ultraman themes for a rousing climax. His �Battle in Hyperspace theme� as well as his �Photon power theme� being an excellent fun ride. Also some trivia: Mitsuda's NHK Comet Theme sounds suspiciously similar to Sahashi's "Ties of Friendship" from Mebius. Ultra Daikaiju Battle is for all intends and purposes a classic SciFi score where Sahashi�s trademarks appear much stronger than usual.
I personally adore his Gingaman score but objectively speaking it�s not among his best, although there are quite a few stellar orchestral pieces among the wacky and funky ride.
I�m not that positive of his Kamen Rider scores, but Agito takes the cake with its operatic nature, a direct homage to Goldsmith�s Omen, Silvestri�s Back to the Future and Italian Opera.

That very much ends another archive project but not before I repost something I still am very fond of, but more for nostalgia to be honest. I nearly can�t grasp that it�s been six years since I posted my first Sahashi tribute and my love for his music has grown more earnest ever since. Tango also did a great introduction album to the glory of Sahashi but I can't find it right now on my current pc and I don't know if its still up.
A Blast from the Past:

The Power of Trumpets � A Tribute to Toshihiko Sahashi (https://mega.nz/#!Jk4gCZiI!Q8ERrPvq75knZNScmPS_Sx5k3Us81_uMfmOQPJKOkKs)


Composer Profile: Toshihiko Sahashi



Trademark: Master of Funk, Jerry�s long lost brother, Little Mozart

Inspiration: Classical Repertoire, Hollywood Legacy, various 70s and 80s band work

Music Education: Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku, Piano Player, Songwriter

Worked with notable Orchestras: London Symphony Orchestra

Most known work: Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny

Orchestral Skill-Level: High

Melodic Sense: Excellent

Style: 70s Television Score, 70s Film Score

Score Cohesion: Okay (Needs rearranging)

Similar western composer: 70s Jerry Goldsmith, 70s John Williams

Sahashi's primary focus has been musicals for the last few years. One of his very first works was the Saint Seiya musical (he also scored the 2011 version) so it was not too surprising to see him doing the music for the anime.

Next month there will be an announcement about the new Full Metal Panic anime. Sahashi seems to have a tendency to return to series he has composed for, so there may be hope.

By the way, for anyone interested, I shared a couple Sahashi soundtracks a few weeks ago on another thread: Thread 72009

(longer post later)

I cannot get part 1 to decrypt properly on any browser or Megasync for that matter.

Hmm, still not working
EDIT: I see you're uploading now.

Sorry for the hassle. I figure it can't be just me because even my phone couldn't download it, and even if I zipped it in an archive it wouldn't work. Keep up this great work. These collections are magnificent!

Is it already confirmed who is orchestrating and arranging the pieces?
But man, Japan is really firing all guns this year. I hope the sheer number of appearing symphonic projects this year is not purely a coincidence but a genuine effort by a lot of influental people to bring back the glory days of the symphonic genre.
Update on this - it's getting a 2CD release in November. http://wmg.jp/artist/mikusymphony/PKG0000017363.html

Arrangers are the same as the KanColle concert: Daisuke Ehara, Souhei Kano, Kayoko Naoe, Ayana Tsujita and Shingo Nishimura (and more - these are just the ones that posted on Twitter).

Still no news on the KanColle concert CD. Hopefully they haven't forgotten about it.

Edit: Oh and the first Re:Zero soundtrack has surfaced.

Sahashi's primary focus has been musicals for the last few years. One of his very first works was the Saint Seiya musical (he also scored the 2011 version) so it was not too surprising to see him doing the music for the anime.

Indeed. I wonder why that came about? Surely the work didn't just dry up... The guy is popular and he sells albums. Maybe he's just tired of anime, or maybe he finds writing musicals to be more artistically rewarding.

I wish, I really really wish, that Sahashi comes back for Full Metal Panic. Stranger things have happened... but I have a feeling that he won't. Just a feeling - and one that I'll be very, VERY happy to have proven wrong.

Nice to hear Kano working on some stuff... but why the bloody hell is he orchestating this terrible music? I hope this is the beginning of a career which brings him back to scoring on a semi-regular basis. I don't want to live in a world where Souhei Kano's first and last score is Fractale and he whiles away the time orchestrating for crappy concerts of crappy Kancolle music. At any rate, hopefully these are going to be proper orchestral arrangements and not another example of that horrible rock-orchestra hybrid mess that the Phantasy Star album turned out to be. Also nice to see Daisuke Ehara's name popping up again.

Miku: Thanks for the info nextday.
Damn, the second half of this year is looking more and more promising by the minute. There's also a Detective Conan 20th Anniversary Concert, Yugo Kanno (http://t-onkyo.co.jp/?ticket=%E8%8F%85%E9%87%8E%E7%A5%90%E6%82%9F%E3%80 %80%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%8B%E 3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%82% B5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%882016-2) appears with a new Symphony concert and now a Go Nagai concert in september. It's starting to get crazy...



Also a new preview of Mitsuda's Valkyria: He just might have another Xenosaga in store for us and remember he did that great work all on his own. I just hope his health survives this one as well. PV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0MeuPLXGcU)

And it seems like Berserk is actually firing guns in the finale. We finally hear the full piece with the flute and almost half of the episode is pretty much entirely Warsaw.



About Re:Zero: After a quick listen I would say it's the soundtrack of the first season. I feel like the official release will have most of the great stuff as heared in the second half. Still, the music is quite intruiging so far. Very rythmic with much string ostinati, a battery of drums and electronics but the only thing it has in common with modern Hollywood is that Suehiro employs the same sound tools. I'm very much reminded of Iwasaki (and Sato) in the ability to merge the modern music world with classical writing. The vocals also work quite well in giving the score a unique vibe and there's some traditional classical film pieces as well. Shame about the fake brass but its not hurting much which is an accomplishment in writing to the strength of the samples.


There's also some similarities to Yugo Kanno's work, no wonder he and Yugo are part of the same music club "OneMusic" (http://one-music.jp/index_english.html). His colleagues are also equally capable of writing classical pieces as well as experimental hybrids judging from their samples. I hope they make it big in the future.

Their recent Drama from 2015 has a bouncy happy-go-lucky variation of John Williams Throne Room/End Title (by Suehiro)... and when was the last time you heared a Hollywood composer pay homage to Mancini?! There's some pure gold in their drama scores. To quote their incredibly young composer Akihiro Manabe: "Someday I want to produce movie music like 'Saving Private Ryan'" The future is saved.



EDIT1: This is what Suehiro is capable of: Sample 1 (http://picosong.com/zLFH) / Sample 2 (http://picosong.com/zLy6) / Sample 3 (http://picosong.com/zLyv) / Sample 4 (http://picosong.com/zLFt)

EDIT2: Has anyone Yugo Kanno's Maku ga Agaru in 320k or higher? I could only find a 128k rip on the net. If not I may add it to my basket in october. Christ, he is going places... Sample 1 (http://picosong.com/zLXB) / Sample 2 (http://picosong.com/zLXi)

Nice to hear Kano working on some stuff... but why the bloody hell is he orchestating this terrible music?
Eh, we both know that any music can sound good in the hands of a talented arranger. And for what it's worth, there's some pictures of the concert and there's no guitarists on stage.

If Sahashi does turn down FMP, I hope he puts in a word for Go Sakabe. He's the only one that can properly imitate Sahashi's style of orchestration.


About Re:Zero: After a quick glance I would say it's the soundtrack of the first season. I feel like the official release will have most of the great stuff as heared in the second half. Still, the music is quite intriguing so far. Very rhythmic with much string ostinati, a battery of drums and electronics but the only thing it has in common with modern Hollywood is that Suehiro employs the same sound tools. I'm very much reminded of Iwasaki (and Sato) in the ability to merge the modern music world with classical writing. The vocals also work quite well in giving the score a unique vibe and there's some traditional classical pieces as well. Shame about the fake brass in some pieces but its not hurting much thankfully which is an accomplishment in writing to the strength of the samples.
I believe the October CD will be a "best-of" soundtrack. The bonus CD soundtracks will contain everything that isn't on that one.

Your Mitsuda link isn't working by the way! He recorded the score over three days with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra earlier this month.

Eh, we both know that any music can sound good in the hands of a talented arranger.

Yes, my point was that Kano orchestrating Kancolle music is like hiring John Williams to be Ramin Djawadi's tea boy.

That, and nicely arranged crap is still crap. It's going to be all orchestration and no composition.


If Sahashi does turn down FMP, I hope he puts in a word for Go Sakabe. He's the only one that can properly imitate Sahashi's style of orchestration.

Has he been asked? We have no idea who is making the new series yet, do we?

If Sahashi doesn't do it, I hope we don't end up with someone doing a Sahashi pastiche; let's have someone who is actually a good composer. Sakabe has GREAT potential but right now he's at the very beginning of his career and I honestly don't think he's quite ready for the "big time" - plus, it would set a dangerous precedent and end up with Sakabe being typecast as the "call me if you want Sahashi but he costs too much / said no" composer.

[Edit: Dumb spelling mistakes...]

Speaking of Detective Conan, Phantom of Baker Street have some good orchestra music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAqTVxKko2w i just wished Ohno had a bigger ensemble.

Yugo Kanno's Symphony No.1 has sort of appeared online. Bits of the performance were aired on a TV program recently.

1st Mov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBY9SIMkLPI&t=136
2nd Mov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBY9SIMkLPI&t=481 (gets cutoff after 1 min)
3rd Mov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBY9SIMkLPI&t=697
4th Mov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBY9SIMkLPI&t=1041

It sounds interesting. Much more melodic than his previous concert work. I hope it is released on CD at some point.



Has he been asked? We have no idea who is making the new series yet, do we?

If Sahashi doesn't do it, I hope we don't end up with someone doing a Sahashi pastiche; let's have someone who is actually a good composer. Sakabe has GREAT potential but right now he's at the very beginning of his career and I honestly don't think he's quite ready for the "big time" - plus, it would set a dangerous precedent and end up with Sakabe being typecast as the "call me if you want Sahashi but he costs too much / said no" composer.
We don't officially know but we can assume it will be by the same studio. The author of FMP has a very good relationship with Kyoto Animation and the director.

And maybe you're right. Sakabe is a few years younger than Sahashi was when he scored FMP. Giving him more time to build up his resume and establish his own style isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'm sure Sakabe will get there... but I just don't think it's now. As you say, a few more years on rubbish shows will hopefully let him mature. He's only 34. He's got the time. :)

Thank you for the Yugo Kanno! I do not have time to listen at the moment but I will do later today. Your ability to "find things" has me in constant awe.

Vinphonic: What is with those Suehiro cues? They are indistinguishable - completely indistinguishable - from Yugo Kanno's style... From melodic style and harmony, through orchestration, all the way to shamelessly obvious things like Kanno's structural tendences - most notably to modulate upwards for a final repeat of the main theme and finish on a brief restatement of the very beginning of the cue. I have never known such a brazen and intentional emulation of another composer's style. It's not a case of hearing aspects of Kanno in Suehiro's work - it's not hearing ANYTHING AT ALL in Suehiro's work that identifies it as such. It's shocking - even by Japanese standards - and makes me feel quite uncomfortable. There's sticking to the "house style" (as 99% of Japanese drama scores tend to) and there's adopting aspects of another composer's style out of respect, and there's 100% emulation - Yugo Kanno paint by numbers. Every single note of that score - whether it is melody, counterpoint, or harmony, strictly directed by the thought "What would Yugo Kanno do?"

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present Exhibit A - Yugo Kanno's 2006 theme from "Attention Please"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP2MmSyPGO0
ON 異常犯

Option A: Not much is revealed about Suehiro's background, no education bio aside from his band background, just Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini on the site. I can only guess from their age but there's a possibility that they were college buddies. Maybe they studied under the same music professor (film score departement of the Tokyo College of Music). If not then Suehiro was maybe tutored by Kanno because he didn't know orchestration well enough. Perhaps Kanno was "helping him out" until he got confident enough. I mean Re:Zero is pretty distinguishable from Kanno, although some sililarities can be felt. So I guess he is slowly finding his own style.


Option B: "ONEMUSIC" dramas are pretty homogenous in their album presentation, most are collaborations and four different artist all sound vaguely like Kanno. That can't be incompetence. Maybe Suehiro imitates Kanno by request to fit the "drama sound" of ONEMUSIC. Perhaps they even composed it together but Kanno let Suehiro take the credit. Again, Re:Zero is proof enough for me that he is not a copycat.


Option C: Kanno wrote it, Suehiro got the credit, he is the new Sagisu (I just don't believe it).




ONEMUSIC: Their new talent Akihiro Manabe (28) studied under Toshiyuki Watanabe, combine that with his classical background from college and you have another one to look forward to. Hope he gets a project like Re:Zero soon.
Same case with Masahiro Tokuda because any composer who plays brass instruments in a symphonic context is a win for me. In general I favor synth strings over synth brass.
Yoko Kanno's colleagues from PIANO with similar musical education, Taku Matsushiba (25) and Taro Umebayashi (35), are also entering the fray in october so I'm anticipating what they have in store for us.
And IMAGINE has their "Generations" department open for new upstarts so I hope Souhei Kano joins them soon.

Just a thought: Perhaps we aren't hearing our favorite composers so frequently these days because they are tutoring new talents.








@nextday: Wow, thank you very much for this. Makes me wonder if Oshima's symphony was shown on TV as well...

Just saw that Hamauzu's World of Final Fantasy is getting a 4 CD release in November. My wallet is going to hurt for the next few months... Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrG6u-JvXNI


Just a thought: Perhaps we aren't hearing our favorite composers so frequently these days because they are tutoring new talents.
Maybe, but the teachers are usually older and retired. Look at who Tatsuya Kato studied under, for example: Kentaro Haneda, Shigeaki Sagusa, Reijiro Koroku, Katsuhisa Hattori.

I know some of the "older" current composers do some teaching work. Akira Senju, Toshiyuki Watanabe, and Keiichi Oku are university professors on the side. And Sahashi has had a couple assistants that he trained: Go Sakabe and Megumi Ohashi.

But most of them are still too busy with their normal work to take up a part time teaching job.


Yokoyama gets what, 4 shows a year out of 200, no need to worry yet.
Forgot to comment on this but he has 4 shows next season alone, which includes Gundam and Monster Hunter. He also replaced MONACA on one of their shows. A slice-of-life show but still...

Gundam and Monster Hunter would have potential in the hands of a better composers. Gundam in particular. I'm very salty that they keep giving Gundam to these composers.

I say this as someone who believes that Turn A is Kanno's best score and SEED and Sahashi's best score. So much wasted potential these days.


@nextday: Wow, thank you very much for this. Makes me wonder if Oshima's symphony was shown on TV as well...
It wasn't shown anywhere that I know of. I don't even think there was a second performance. :(

And still no news about her concerto and sonata. I'm not sure if the concerto has been recorded but the sonata has been for over a year now. If no news by the end of the year, I'll ask her about it.

I will never, under any circumstance, understand what do the directors see in Yokoyama, to hire him to make these blockbuster equivalent series nowadays. His scores are so snoring worth boring and uninspired, there's absolutely no defining theme and his orchestrations, while not as offensive as present Sawano, are a complete mess and lack the proper cohesion. Out of the almost 45 tracks of his recent Gundam score, only one, caught my attention and it wasn't even that good to begin with. One of the few decent classical focused music animes that came last year (Your Lie On April), and out of all the humongous pile of composers of Japan you can get, they choose Masaru f*cking Yokoyama to fit a role in which the likes of Hirano, Kanno or anyone fairly competent in that area, could've done it 100 times better.

Hell, I'll contradict myself in regards to my feelings towards Sawano as I say it, but at LEAST I can understand why they hire him nowadays, despite the crap he's produced lately. Sawano at least, had a trademark in which you could identify in terms of melody, you can see small similarities of that, if you compare his grand Gigantic Formula to the rest of the works, despite the drastic route he has taken. Yokoyama? He never had anything that resonated on me, or that I could find worthy to listen at ANY point of his entire career.

World Of Final Fantasy: Has Natsumi Kameoka been confirmed yet? Always on board on these as long as our usual professional arrangers are involved :)

Re Zero: I was a bit eh with the first release in general, the theme is quite good, and the chant doesn't seem annoying at all. But then I watched the series and then I realized that the best pieces are YET to come in CD releases. If I've got the time, I would really like to post a compilation showing the similarities with Suehiro's and Kanno's syle, cause I thought the same when hearing certain tracks.

Edit: Yugo Kanno's Symphony N� 1: Wow, really looking forward towards this, I still can find some identifiable patterns very characteristic of Kanno's style, but most of it sounds very unique, even more than his 2014 Gunshi Kanbee. Thank you alot for the share nextday, it's good to have folks like you, who are willing to go the extra mile to share these, it's a bundle of joy for me at least. Also, I think I read in some of the videos that you share mentioning the word literally CD and the year 2017, maybe it'll be released early 2017? Really eager to hear this :D.

Shiro Hamaguchi's next project: "Girls und Panzer - The Final Chapter"

Not clear if it's a new movie or series. The only thing I ask for is a real symphony orchestra and more serious war score.

World Of Final Fantasy: Has Natsumi Kameoka been confirmed yet? Always on board on these as long as our usual professional arrangers are involved :)

...

Also, I think I read in some of the videos that you share mentioning the word literally CD and the year 2017, maybe it'll be released early 2017?
It's Hamauzu. He usually arranges his own stuff. Sometimes with an orchestrator but from the samples I've heard it sounds like it's just him. I don't mind - I enjoy his style.

And you're right. I totally missed that. At the very end of the video it says - CD "Yugo Kanno: Symphony No.1" - to be released in 2017 by Nippon Columbia. Very nice.

Girls und Panzer just screams out OVA... and whereas a few years ago OVA used to mean "expensive and cinematic-quality animation" now it means "something we threw together on the cheap to drum up sales for the manga" - I am ready, as always, to be proven wrong... but I don't hold out much hope of any new score emerging here. With Hamaguchi's TV score, movie score, and concert performances already in the can... I think it's obvious what's going to happen. ;)

Hamauzu's Final Fantasy holds very little interest for me, although that trailer music does cheer me up a little - utterly bland arrangement (Hamauzu really needs Hirano to sound in the slightest bit interesting) but it's all acoustic and the theme seems fairly robust. We will see. I'm sure as hell not buying it, but I'll probably listen when it turns up.


Gundam and Monster Hunter would have potential in the hands of a better composers. Gundam in particular. I'm very salty that they keep giving Gundam to these composers. I say this as someone who believes that Turn A is Kanno's best score and SEED and Sahashi's best score. So much wasted potential these days.

100% agree without reservation. Gundam hasn't had a single excellent score since Seed Destiny and that was ten years ago. The quality has been variable since, but nothing has ever reached the standard Sahashi attained on Seed Destiny and Seed. Kanno's Turn A was truly glorious.

I'm sure as long as Gundam keeps going something great will turn up sooner or later. We've had Sawano, Yokoyama, (Yugo) Kanno, Yoshikawa, and Kawai... How about Yamashita or Hirano? Or even Sahashi again. I give up hope of ever seeing the Gundam Seed movie, so perhaps...??? :D

Suehiro: Well, there are always possibilities... but when a new composer springs up and writes either terrible scores (Re:Zero - sorry - I know you love it but I think every note of it can bugger right off) or scores that you can't tell apart from Yugo Kanno's... Forcing a composer to write in another composer's style at the beginning of their careers is exactly what kills composers. Megumi Ohashi has been writing bland, repetitive, and amateurish Sahashi knockoffs for over a decade, and see what happened HER career? If Suehiro does have any genuine talent, he's not going to realise it while he positions himself as a clone of Yugo Kanno.

You said that and yet Hamaguchi went to the studio to record suites from his TV work and three exclusive pieces for a 30 minute OVA. The movie was also pretty much all quality and a lot of craft and care went into the production. They postponed the release time and time again to improve the quality, I just can't see them not ending the GuP project on a high note. I will remain the optimist for the time being. If Matsuo has not outdone himself and Drifters is just 15 minutes of Warsaw, that's when the optimist will die.

I'm sure as long as Gundam keeps going something great will turn up sooner or later. We've had Sawano, Yokoyama, (Yugo) Kanno, Yoshikawa, and Kawai... How about Yamashita or Hirano? Or even Sahashi again. I give up hope of ever seeing the Gundam Seed movie, so perhaps...??? :D
Yoshikawa and Yugo Kanno were interesting at least. I haven't had a chance to hear Hattori's Gundam yet. But then you have Sawano (Unicorn), Hayashi (Build Fighters), Yokoyama (Iron-Blooded Orphans) and it's just a shame. Hirano or Yamashita? Sure. There's so many active composers that could write a classic mecha score if given the chance. Naoki Sato, Kan Sawada, Hiroshi Takaki, Keiji Inai, Natsumi Kameoka. The list goes on...

When Kanno and Sahashi did it, they set the bar for modern sci-fi music can be. And now it's been 10 years and that bar hasn't moved at all. Yes, there have been some great sci-fi scores in that time but oh what I would give for Gundam music to be truly great again. On the bright side, with Sawano, Yokoyama, Hayashi, etc. already out of the way it seems unlikely that they will be given any new entries. Gundam has historically had different composers for each new series (aside from some of the older ones). Here's hoping that it can get back on the right track sooner rather than later.

Yoshikawa started well but descended into electronic noise for the final three quarters of his series.

Hattori's has some splendid moments but as a whole it's pretty unremarkable. (But Hattori, to me, has NEVER achieved his potential.)

What would I give to hear Gundam by Sawada, Takaki, Inai, and Kameoka.

I'm a little frostier on Sato - it could be great if he were in the right "mood" but as we know Naoki Sato has two brothers; Naoki Syntho and Naoki Cheapo - and if the producers cock up and either of those two write the Gundam score, you can count me out. ;)

Heroic Age / K-20 Sato would be great.

It's Hamauzu. He usually arranges his own stuff. Sometimes with an orchestrator but from the samples I've heard it sounds like it's just him. I don't mind - I enjoy his style.

Oh don't get me wrong, I love Hamazu's style as much as you do. There's just certain limitations I've realized through years listening to his music, and those are clearly noticeable when it consists of a full orchestra (Typhoon Noruda is one of those pitiful examples, and shows that Hamazu can't even orchestrate with a domestic ensemble well without any of his usual ones, those being like Hirano). I still enjoy his music (without the orchestral factor in the traditional sense of the word) and chamber/solo pieces and listened them every now and then. That being said, just saw a gameplay footage of the game and looks like we're getting a score with FF Brave Exvius levels of budget recording, so I have my hopes for this one. Still curious on who might be the orchestrator for this one :0

My all time favorite Gudam scores has to be Senju's Victory before he went onto auto copy/paste mode, though Tanaka's 8th MS team is a very close candidate if I consider mostly the Czech Philarmonic recordings. Kanno's and Sahashi are equally brilliant as well!

It's been a couple of weeks since I asked, so I apologize for coming off as impatient, but what do you guys think of Shiro Sagisu? Seeing as he's my all-time favourite composer (and I'll be more than willing to go into that if anyone's curious), I really do want to know what you think of him; especially given how extensive some of you know about orchestral music, sound design, etc.

It's been a couple of weeks since I asked, so I apologize for coming off as impatient, but what do you guys think of Shiro Sagisu? Seeing as he's my all-time favourite composer (and I'll be more than willing to go into that if anyone's curious), I really do want to know what you think of him; especially given how extensive some of you know about orchestral music, sound design, etc.

I know for a fact that the person who posts here most often (tangotreats) hates his guts, while a good friend of mine (Clonemaster) loves him.

A fair bit of Sagisu discussion was had following your original request - the only person who didn't weigh in with an opinion was me... so let me do so now. ;)

I'll preface by saying that I largely agree with what was already said - my thoughts will therefore seem repetitive.

I will also say that I think Sagisu has skills - some of his pop arrangements are very good. I think he is miscast as a composer, and tragically miscast as an orchestral composer.

In no particular order...

1a. He has no affinity with the orchestra and relies on Masamichi Amano - who, on a bad day, is a better composer than Sagisu will ever be at the top of his game - to ghost-write his orchestral music. Amano has even dropped hints in the scores that alert you that this is happening; but even without Amano virtually waving in our faces crying out "I wrote this cue, not Sagisu!" one only needs to be familiar with Amano's symphonic style to hear what's going on. Sagisu provides a melody and perhaps suggests some chords, and the rest is down to Amano - every orchestral cue in a Sagisu score is jam-packed full of his Amano's sensibilities; orchestral style, harmonic colour, structure, and counterpoint - all clearly nothing to do with Sagisu. 2012's Magi is Masamichi Amano's Arabian Knights masterpiece. You only need a cursory familiarity with Amano's prior work and a basic appreciation of musical theory to hear that this is true.

1b. The musical quality of a cue is proportional to how stylistically involved Amano is. Some cues *are* obviously Sagisu, and as a rule they are repetitive, amateurish, and noisy - whereas Amano's are usually genuinely interesting, musically creative, poised, and highly professional.

2. Sagisu's own individual style (once separated from that of his arrangers, orchestrators, and ghost-writers) is centered around electronica noise and his "famous", highly cliched "choir" (actually just four singers) singing cheesy English lyrics that must sound very cool to Japanese ears but is actually corny beyond belief. And he's been doing it (with Mike Myzgowski) for twenty years - the same old, tired nonsense. Blood and guts and blood and guts and blood and guts and for God's sake give it a break already.

Completely aside from Sagisu's orchestral incompetence and the fact that I don't particularly like his style, I also just don't think he's a good musician. Whether music is orchestral or not, stylistically appealing to me or not, there are some aspects of construction that I can get on board with and say that I appreciate it; the difference between good music I just don't like and what I perceive as simply crappy music.

Finally, I don't like how Sagisu is happy to fall into this superstar composer role the industry has created for him, standing on the shoulders of giants. Sagisu is now known for his orchestral scores; they get rave reviews, and obviously somebody out there in a position of influence likes them otherwise they wouldn't be sending him backwards and forwards to London and Warsaw every five minutes. Sagisu is now responsible for the most consistently expensive, high-production-value scores. And every single fragment of competence in his orchestral music comes from Masamichi Amano.

Now, I don't know why Amano is willing to go on with this relationship. I don't know why Amano hasn't got a single composer credit since 2007. It could be that the offers still come in, but Amano would rather take a back-seat, letting Sagisu be the figurehead and just beavering away quietly in the background - he gets to have his fun with a big orchestra, and flex his compositional muscles, but he stays out of the spotlight. It could be because producers think that the guy who, just twenty years ago up until around 2003-2005, was recording pretty much every score in Warsaw or Paris and in 2005, 2006, and 2007 recorded in Los Angeles, just isn't worth it any more. I don't know. But what I do know is that Amano is twenty times more talented than Sagisu and he has over a decade of insanely good quality symphonic scores to his name to prove it.

Something I would like to add about the orchestal composer Sagisu, stripped away from Amano:

Eletronics and English Choir has not always been the case with Sagisu. The problem for me why I can't enjoy him in general is the repetitivness and simplicity in everything to the point it becomes just a loop of the same stuff over and over again. What for other composers would be a a simple bass line or just a line to support a melody is Sagisu's entire musical idea of a piece. A typical Sagisu moment would be the same rythm, the same harmony and the same couple of notes (on drums/Bass Guitar/Piano/whatever) played over and over and over again like a pop song, and it has been that way since Evangelion and Nadia. Most of his earlier pieces to me feel like a nice idea repeated to absurdity and then a sudden jump to another nice idea that continues to loop for a while and then it just ends. His music is also childishly simple for a professional musician for the most part. Almost all instruments play the same note at the same time, at best there's an octave difference. Everything structured like pop songs. Most of his music just does not develop at all. THIS is the problem with Sagisu, not the choir or electronics, but the endless repitition without going anywhere. Almost all of his ideas are just loops at their core, the mind of a pop-songwriter but not the mind of a storyteller.

Pili Heroes Music featured 60
霹靂狼煙之 古原爭霸 劇集原聲帶

以霹靂音樂為引，讓傳奇故事作畫

與我們一同踏上壯麗古原，爭霸天下！

霹靂音樂登上第六十大作：古原爭霸主題曲、片尾曲、插曲、搶先看預告曲。任平生、無限、圓公子、聖君士、生 命練習生與魚美人、紅塵雪。感動加贈「弓弧名家」迷你專輯。與您同享，淬鍊熟成！
古原爭霸原聲帶挑選20首於古原爭霸前半段中，極為重要的角色與代表音樂，並依照每首音樂的調性曲風，安排 最適切的聆聽順序。光碟圓標安排古原爭霸討論度最高的女性角色「紅塵雪」，同時也象徵精選六十的音樂精彩多 變。
編號
曲目名稱 作者 長度 試聽
01 俠蹤（古原爭霸第一片頭曲） 曲/編曲：賈愛國　
詞：廖明治
演唱：張獻仁 04:57 試聽
02 天地蒼茫任吾行（任平生氣勢曲） 曲/編曲：翁偉瀚 03:40 試聽
03 蒼茫行者（任平生角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:56 試聽
04 唯見悲憐（地繭無限氣勢曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡 03:33 試聽
05 古原爭霸（古原爭霸搶先看預告曲） 曲/編曲：賈愛國 03:05 試聽
06 騁懷馭心（患天常角色曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡 04:25 試聽
07 折柳心齋（醉古夫角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 04:14 試聽
08 吾命由刀（聖君士之歌） 曲/編曲：黃建秦
詞：廖明治
演唱：陳泓文 04:05 試聽
09 劍中洛神（紅塵雪武曲） 曲/編曲：風采輪 03:27 試聽
10 聖君士（聖君士角色曲） 曲/編曲：吳智暉 03:15 試聽
11 八面玲瓏（八面玲瓏場景曲） 曲/編曲：浩旭 03:10 試聽
12 湛盧無方（圓公子角色曲） 曲/編曲：風采輪 03:48 試聽
13 緣識（練習生與魚美人） 曲/編曲：丁天牧 03:25 試聽
14 幽夢潮（幽夢潮場景曲） 曲/編曲：吳智暉 03:45 試聽
15 羅魍罪惡（羅魍罪惡場景曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡 03:21 試聽
16 幽界破封（幽界幽都破封） 曲/編曲：浩旭 03:15 試聽
17 不覺已千年（夢不覺角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:39 試聽
18 既濟（既濟角色曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:21 試聽
19 千面修羅槍（玉梁皇武曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:17 試聽
20 笑傲蒼天（古原爭霸第一片尾曲） 曲/編曲：孫敬凡
詞：昊封
演唱：謝文德 04:38 試聽

【弓弧名家】迷你專輯曲目試聽：
第二CD安排万堺塵濤備受喜愛的「弓弧名家」迷你專輯，特別在音樂的挑選上，我們安排過去一直在許多橋段備 受重視的曲目，終能在此次的第二CD中安排適切的收錄與代表橋段，讓好音樂在第二CD中漂亮重 現。
編號
曲目名稱 作者 長度 試聽
01 帝弓十二虹（万堺關鍵一箭） 曲/編曲：丁天牧　 03:17 試聽
02 生死誰問（玄凌蒼認罪天地） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:10 試聽
03 封魔岩（玄凌蒼之死） 曲/編曲：賈愛國 02:58 試聽
04 何曾與君話衷腸（玄真君悲傷曲） 曲/編曲：黃建秦 03:20 試聽

https://mega.nz/#!pk1mgaJQ!OwzErh4QF0jeIGjpdX1MZV8ulftCmETkMUueNdgGejw

I want to thank Vinphonic, tangotreats, Sirusj, and everybody who has contributed with music and points of view about music in this thread. Ive been following this for maybe more than 3 years and its been a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Let me invite you guys a beer or tea if you ever come to Shanghai. Cheers.

I don't know if visiting Shanghai will happen in the future but like Tango I would absolutely love to take you up on that offer if I do make it out there. I'm always glad to share good music that it sometimes takes me a long time to find for myself.

On another note, I recently spent some time visiting a friend in Bratislava who is also a film score fan but who I learned is mostly interested in action music for the epic feelings they provide and a certain energy that they have rather than for music's sake. It was an interesting exercise to see what he enjoyed and didn't enjoy from what I played for him while I was there. Since he is also going to be spending some time vising me in a few weeks I have been going through my collection to pull out tracks that are both musically interesting and fit this type of action music that he enjoys. I have been wanting to do something similar to this for a while as a companion piece to my Loveliness Elegance and Nobility collections for those times when you want something a little more energetic. I've been surprised how few cues from Kousuke Yamashita and Akira Senju truly have this energy. I hope the end result is something enjoyable enough that I will end up sharing something.

Final Fantasy 15 concert livestream and recording after on september 7th on twitch and youtube from abbey road.

Final Fantasy 15 concert livestream and recording after on september 7th on twitch and youtube from abbey road.
The Twitch stream should have better audio if the broadcaster uses the right settings.

Twitch caps audio at 160kbps AAC whereas Youtube caps audio at 128 kbps AAC.

Yoko Shimomura? Zzz, I'll pass... ;)

There's also this mystery: In early 1995 (or 1994) Kaoru Wada composed this little piece (http://picosong.com/tUiH) and in 1995 Horner also scored Braveheart. Coincidence?
This well known melody is even older. See the song "Pai Longing" by Wada as part of the soundtrack for 3�3 Eyes: Dai-ichi Shou (Chapter I) released in 1991.

Catalog Number: KICA 65

Just saying.

The Horner-Wada connection has always been interesting to me since they do sound close enough in style and instrumentation (Horner loved the solo horn melodies) that he might have borrowed the Pai theme for Braveheart, along with the horn and strings. Most seem to believe he got the theme from the slow movement from Holst's Jupiter. Hisaishi's Journey to the West from Mononoke Hime also has that Braveheart sound to it. Actually, you hear that [bVI bVII i] chord progression in a lot of Japanese music.

Another composer who uses that progression a lot is Nobuo Uematsu (I think a few of you have heard of him but he's not famous like Sagisu). The FF prelude uses that progression, as well as To Zanarkand, Terra's theme from FF6, etc. Into the Wilderness from Wild Arms has it. Schala's theme from Chrono Trigger. You can also hear the progression in a bunch of Mario and Zelda games.

Another unknown named John Williams uses this progression at the end of Return of the Jedi (Victory Celebration). Silvestri used it in Beowulf (A Hero Comes Home). Shore in Lord of the Rings (Fellowship Theme) There seems to be a recurring theme here that has to do with "finality", but also maybe ethnic or ancient cultures. Poledouris's theme for Conan the Barbarian uses the progression and is also very Braveheart-like. Could Horner have been channeling that as well?

If you google the progression you will find a bunch of people trying to put it into a classical theory context (cadences) but failing miserably. It's more of a jazz thing, but for some reason seems to harmonize with pentatonic (5-note) scales well, thus fits with nearly any Celtic or Japanese melody.

In classical music you will catch Vaughan Williams using it (The Lark Ascending practically opens with it, and his Symphony No. 8 ends with it.) Bartok's Mikrokosmos No. 87 is loosely based on it as well.

Here's more Braveheart-style goodness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6JKdwKuTkQ - almost sounds like Hisaishi as well. That's the magic of bVI bVII i!

Not sure if this was convered here before but I just realized today that newest entry in the Valkyria Chronicles saga is getting a score, not by Sakimoto but:

"The music was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, who chose to use a classical sound for the game. He intended to express the game's worldview through the music, and used seamless switching between battle and field music, something that was new to him. The main theme was performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; according to Mitsuda, the scale of the recording session was larger than what was usual for Japanese video games. One song, "Eternal Rest", was sung by Sarah �lainn; according to her and Mitsuda, it is a positive song themed around death. Because of its similarity to hymns, �lainn attempted to express the song with a "mystic yet dark feeling to the singing"

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/01/22/valkyria-azure-revolution-gets-extended-trailer-details-concept-behind-music/

So if I didn't understand this wrong, the man's recording his tunes with a proper ensemble. Color me excited.

But why didn't Sakimoto score this? I sure as hell want to hear the man's organic orchestral tunes once more - even if I wouldn't give the Eminence a favorable mark for interpreting any of his works.

Illan Eshkeris Swallows and Amazons is a pretty good adventure score between Doyle and Fenton.Nice themes and orchestrations and big action finale.Worth a shot.On Spotify.

Ah, Ilan Eshkeri doing what he does best again! Thank you, this wasn't on my radar - I'm really loving it. Glorious arrangements, a nice chamber feeling (38 piece orchestra) but at the same time a good sense of orchestral power (occasionally very Stardust in tone), a real sense of melody, and that finale is what film music is about. :)

(See, I don't bitch about EVERYTHING...) ;)

I love Sakimoto, but Mitsuda scoring another game? This is amazing news!

I see that the article is careful to mention that the MAIN THEME has been recorded with the orchestra; I wonder if that's all, and the rest is synth?

I see that the article is careful to mention that the MAIN THEME has been recorded with the orchestra; I wonder if that's all, and the rest is synth?

A line in that article reads: "Mitsuda says there�s still plenty more music to *record*". I imagine that means there will be more live sessions to come - though not necessarily a full orchestra at play.

Haha, I'm an idiot, I missed that.

Thanks!

A line in that article reads: "Mitsuda says there’s still plenty more music to *record*". I imagine that means there will be more live sessions to come - though not necessarily a full orchestra at play.
He actually recorded all the music three weeks ago (Aug 13~15). The recordings took place in concert hall with the music being performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (led by Shimpei Sasaki).

Koichi Sugiyama was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest videogame music composer. Nicolive (http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv271497175) (PPV)

Hey guys, I just discovered this indie game that just came out a few days ago, it has a beautiful violin ridden orchestra score that I think you guys might love.

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

I hope official soundtrack comes out. I prefer that than gamerips.. due to collection reasons. :laugh: but it doesn't seem like they're releasing any so far..

EDIT: Just found it! 7 euros.. might get it. https://seasonsafterfall.bandcamp.com/

He actually recorded all the music last week (Aug 23~25). The recordings took place in concert hall with the music being performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (led by Shimpei Sasaki).

Seriously... are you Masatsugu Shinozaki in disguise? How do you find out all this stuff?! ;)

the gamescores coming up that i am the most excited for are recore because its chad seiter and shiness which has the lovely jrpg sound and looks incredible.and the usual ff stuff of course.but i fell in love with shiness from the very first trailer.

He actually recorded all the music last week (Aug 23~25). The recordings took place in concert hall with the music being performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (led by Shimpei Sasaki).

I wonder if it is just straight recordings of tunes as in Ni No Kuni, or stem recordings that play given the state of play. All in all hopefully an album is also planned out. Very excited about this one!

Ah, Ilan Eshkeri doing what he does best again! Thank you, this wasn't on my radar - I'm really loving it. Glorious arrangements, a nice chamber feeling (38 piece orchestra) but at the same time a good sense of orchestral power (occasionally very Stardust in tone), a real sense of melody, and that finale is what film music is about. :)

(See, I don't bitch about EVERYTHING...) ;)

It is exactly the tiny orchestra and prominence of strings in the mix over everything else (horns are buried if used at all in part due to the tiny horn section) that keeps me from enjoying this. And the music rarely has any energy to speak of. This suggests that despite the adventure cover this is more of a Moonrise Kingdom style of film than a true adventure. It's ironic that I didn't really pay attention to whether a score had action energy until I started distinguishing scores for my compilation but now certain scores lack of it irks me for some reason.

FFXV concert starts in around 1 hour.

https://www.twitch.tv/squareenix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0dabzg9GbM

Ron Goodwin : VALHALLA



Music composed and conducted by Ron Goodwin. Performed by The Copenhagen Collegium Musicum Orchestra

http://www.mediafire.com/?r4cbwpyz9bly9vd

Anybody else finding this FFXV concert stuff a bit fishy? If you're Square and you want to hold a concert to promote your new game, you don't do it London, and you CERTAINLY don't do it in a STUDIO with a full-sized world-class symphony orchestra and chorus before an invited audience of twenty people. You don't go to the trouble of having all those people sent over to London, What on earth is happening here? Is this a thinly-disguised rehearsal for a recording session for the actual score? Is this the recording session itself? If FFXV getting an Abbey Road / London Philharmonic score? I just can't understand why they would spend all this money unless something else was going on. You just know they're going to sell twenty billion copies of this game within five seconds of it coming out. 16,000 people are watching the live stream on YouTube.

Does not compute.

WAT U UP TO JAPAN????

Edit: And it's over... a mixed bag, to be sure.

Ian Dickson is an absolute bellend and should be ashamed of himself; as a host he is an utter disgrace. He has no idea what he's talking about and can barely string together a sentence. Apparently "Abbey Studio" has "hold helst" to many famous bands over the years, and he would like to "introduce you to you all our conductor for the evening, Mr Terry Davis". He mispronounces Yoko Shimomura, and constantly refers to the orchestra playing "songs".

The production was amateurish; I particularly like the fact that his credit identifies him as working for Square Enix in "london" - if we can't put a capital letter on the name of our own capital city OR get the name of the studios right, what hope do we have? Also, the direction was haphazard and frequently spotlit players who weren't playing; so we are looking at the bassoon player in the midst of a trumpet solo, the french horn player in the string dominated theme, and at the entrance of the choir in a particularly dark passage, we see violins repeating the same note repeatedly. We linger on the cymbal player who is doing absolutely nothing while the whole orchestra goes crazy in front of him, then we watch him as he fumbles around in preparation for his cue, and exactly one second before it comes, we cut to a wide shot of the whole orchestra. I was particularly amused to see the cuts to the bored electric guitar and drum players in the isolation booth when they weren't playing anything, but when they DO start playing we are still looking at the motionless hands of the pianist. It makes me appreciate a whole lot more the effort and musical literacy repeatedly demonstrated by the BBC Proms team.

The music is better than I was expecting - though to quantify that, I was expecting an absolute turd - and surprisingly enough there is actually some very good stuff here. Starlit Waltz owes a debt of gratitude to Basil Poledouris' Orgy scene from Conan, but it's a wonderfully constructed classical waltz that goes above and beyond game music into just good music that you can listen to and enjoy outside of the game.

Some of the action music is pretty good, too.

Did Kaoru Wada orchestrate this, by any chance?

dont know why you expected a turd since yoko shimomuras previous works have been high quality, too.love the drammatica cd, kingdom hearts has some spectacular pieces, very happy about upcoming the kingdom hearts concert tour.my favorite piece from the ffXV concert is still somnus, much better without the lyrics, very kingdom hearts-y.and yeah, i immediately was thinking about conans the orgy.btw this might be the first time the whole score is performed by real players and choir.Final Fantasy has often up to 4 hours of music.would be crazy expensive to record all that live, but it doesnt seem they�ve spared any expanses during the production of the game and all the tie-ins.they need to sell over 10 million copies to break even.square enix might be in trouble otherwise and maybe the whole jrpg genre.good luck to them. personally i am really looking forward to the game.(hated XIII, rage quit after 7 hours) and yes the concert didn�t sound as good as the ingame music heard in trailers and gameplay footage.

Did Kaoru Wada orchestrate this, by any chance?
I haven't seen him talk about it but he's probably involved to some extent. He orchestrated "Omnis Lacrima" on Shimomura's 25th anniversary album.

We also know that the 2014 TGS trailer and the 2015 demo version had music orchestrated by Shota Nakama (recorded in Boston).

Takuro Iga's music for Magical Girl Raising Project sounds like it'll be interesting.

He's a new orchestral composer and his instrumentation is interesting in that it's very woodwind heavy. I can't tell if that's just the way he writes or if he does it because real brass wasn't in the budget.

Here's a mix that I made from his debut soundtrack, Aria AA: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22621624/aria_aa_mix.mp3

The full score is a bit more orchestra/electronica by the way, this is just to show that he's capable of writing nice music.

Well, I'll take the risk that having an opinion will be written off as "bitching as usual" but on the whole Shimomura does not and never has particularly impressed me. The fact that the standout cue (so far) from FFXV is substantially plagiarised from an American film score from 1982 is sadly indicative.

Drammatica was nicely orchestrated, nicely performed nothingness. Memoria was nicely orchestrated, not-so-nicely performed nothingness. The one thing I'll say for Shimomura is that she sounds like herself; even though I don't find her music particularly enjoyable or artistically meritous, I have to give her HUGE respect for having such a clear and individual style.


btw this might be the first time the whole score is performed by real players and choir.

How do we know that? The concert, once you take out all the innane chatter, comprises just over half an hour of music. That would be consistent with the Final Fantasy musical "tradition" - about 30 minutes of the "big" music (the event cues, boss battles, finale, main title, credit roll, etc) with a "big" orchestra and the rest a mixture of cheapo synth, rock band, and tiny domestic ensemble.

Calling it now; last night we heard, if not ALL, then certainly the bulk of XV's orchestral score.

It would be great if it turns out to be literally drowning in hours of fully symphonic music all played by the London Philharmonic, but you know as well as I do that it's just not gonna happen.

I agree with Tango in that I don't expect much from FFXV score especially the in-game music you will hear a lot of while you are playing. Final Fantasy XIII proved that in that about half of the dungeon and world map music was average, a few were terrible, and a few were great. Most of the interesting music was reserved for cutscenes. It will probably be the same here. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up muting the music entirely for certain stretches of the game just like I did for Xenoblade and Final Fantasy XIII. Despite all the love for Kingdom Hearts, again most of the best music was reserved for the occasional epic battle and most otherwise cinematics. That is just the nature of scoring a game. They don't need to bother with anything so complex when you are just exploring the world or fighting stuff.

I think that after they remastered both KH1 and II with more recorded material, they will most likely have at least 90% of the music scored and performed for FFXV. The reason being that I read (I think it was from Square-Enix Music Online?) that there will be orchestral and chamber music as the focus for the majority of the music. That sounds to me like mostly live performance AND a lesser title LAST RANKER was 100% live and I quite enjoyed that one. And if I had to guess the orchestrator I would say it would be a combined effort of Wada and Miyano.

Was anybody able to record the FFXV broadcast? Sadly, I missed it.

Was anybody able to record the FFXV broadcast? Sadly, I missed it.


Its on youtube

I think that after they remastered both KH1 and II with more recorded material, they will most likely have at least 90% of the music scored and performed for FFXV. The reason being that I read (I think it was from Square-Enix Music Online?) that there will be orchestral and chamber music as the focus for the majority of the music. That sounds to me like mostly live performance AND a lesser title LAST RANKER was 100% live and I quite enjoyed that one. And if I had to guess the orchestrator I would say it would be a combined effort of Wada and Miyano.

That could be interesting. Chamber music in scores is fantastic if it's done right; ie, if the cues are actually written with a chamber sensibility and aren't merely business as usual with a tiny performing group. Last Ranker (which I filed away under "Last Wanker" - har har har) had the symphonic music performed by the smallest and most badly recorded orchestral ensemble in the history of game music - and the orchestral cues were a very small proportion of the whole.

Yeah, I definitely here Miyano in there. I was getting the Wada vibe from Omnis Lacrima. I will have to listen more carefully this evening.

Sirusjr: Completely agree. Cutscenes are prime targets for the BIG cues because they are scripted, directed dramatic scenes. The actual gameplay... you've got to worry about looping and you can't really have any substantial shifts in mood within a cue because you don't want the score to drift off into a romantic sub-theme while the player is being hacked to pieces in a battle to the death. There will be a tendency for this music to be less complex and more utilitarian.

Thank you. I thought it was only available as a live stream.

Yoko Shimomura, et al
Final Fantasy XV - Live at Abbey Road Studios

London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Choir
Yoko Shimomura, piano (on Apocalypsis Noctis)
conducted by
Terry Davies

Audio Only: https://mega.nz/#!hwIC2B5I!id4BxDLnFgaNIoE7H-K0WiB_XbQLoAQgH8WwaMiYvuU
Video (direct stream capture from Twitch): https://mega.nz/#!Eko1zCBK!NDcjrNBkcedG4fWbHACJzD6zFk14ZSLbkXu7S-79FCU



Here is Wednesday's concert.

The YouTube and Twitch streams both had 128kbps AAC audio but the Twitch stream had better video; the video version is from the Twitch stream.

The audio-only version is a direct grab of Youtube's 128kbps AAC feed which I have extracted, edited, and encoded to FLAC to prevent further quality loss.

Bearing in mind the shameful engineering of the night, higher quality really wouldn't gain much, if it existed. Take this as a sneak peek of FFXV's score, not as an album worthy of serious listening.

Hirano didn't orchestrate this, but whoever did seems to be going after his vibe (particularly the Hirano + Hamauzu confluence) presumably in an effort to give a little musical continuity between this and XIII. The first minute of "Fight Fantastica", for example, has more in common with "Fang's Theme" than anything else I've ever heard by Shimomura, although the orchestration is blander. Come to think of it, it basically IS the first minute of Fang's Theme.

Nox Aeterna is yet another action cue that rips off Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (well, every single Shimomura action cue in history does, but this one is particular egregious) - you'd think composers would get bored of doing that by now, but no, there it is again...

Starlit Waltz is, as previously discussed, a less-interesting, shorter version of The Kitchen / The Orgy from Basil Poledouris' Conan The Barbarian...

Omnis Lacrima we've already heard on Shimomura's "Memoria!" album in a performance by domestic ensemble - it's got a bit more going for it here...

Veiled Aggression starts with promise but turns into a crappy orchestral rock thing.

Apocalypsis Noctis is trying hard to be a definitive final battle cue, throwing in everything and every trick in the book but it's mainly stabbing rhythms and pointless piano noodling... (If I were a cynic, I'd say the piano noodling was there largely to give Shimomura a reason to perform at the concert but not have to play anything too hard that might show up her obvious shortcomings as a pianist... If I were a cynic.) Also, some idiot in the control room forgot to turn on the choir's microphones for the first minute of the piece, so despite the fact that we can see them singing quite emphatically, we hear nothing.

There is a little more pleasure in the quieter moments, but it's mostly atmospheric; chords and colours, with barely any genuine melody to hold it together. Noctis is a happy exception; a lovely melody, perhaps the loveliest heard in any Final Fantasy game since Uematsu's golden years - but it needs to be a bigger part of the score. It isn't. Why not?

Like Shimomura's other works... very obviously written by her, good in parts even if utterly derivative, but ultimately unfulfilling. Still well worth a listen, though.

Thanks a lot!

Well what do you know, MONACA employs an orchestra for their upcoming show in october, it's not as big as for their recent scores but hey a small orchestra is still an orchestra and it sounds like its going places too, perhas going the same route as Keijo!!! That would mean three sport shows next season with possible symphonic orchestral action :D


But now to the main topic of my post, here's an interesting experiment I made. If you remove all the big and famous names and prestigous recordings of the Japanese Anime scoring world and uncover the "bottom of the barrel", what music do you get?

I had two criteria: Not one usual suspect, that means no Sahashi, no Oshima, no Yamashita, no Hirano, no Senju, no Tanaka, no Kanno(s), no Hamaguchi, no MONACA etc. Most should be names almost no one has ever heared of. The only one (famous here) I left in is Takaki because he's hardly a big name (yet).
Takaki also met my second criteria: Everything you hear must either be from obscure Late-Night TV anime which the general population of the world (including Japan) looks down upon as "Otaku trash"... or it must be from "saturday morning style (girly) kiddy shit" (statisticly proven to be watched mostly by man in their 30s)... now you can best judge the value of an artform in its entirety by it's lowest outputs and what was the result you wonder?... well... let's just say upfront that there's more artistic merit in the usual Japanese "Otaku trash" or "kiddy shit" than in most other "serious" visual media of the world aimed at "adults", at least when judging the artistic merit by the music written for these shows. With that introduction out of the way here we go:



Vinphonic presents

Anime Conservatory
The Renaissance of Baroque and Classic in Japanese Late-Night Anime



Download (https://mega.nz/#!ZgYFDDKa!y_7-Au97qDnhSNk8jU1eVQ9Fr2aX-QVp1xKb0oRNJ2w)(2003-2016)


Under the Radar
The Quality of Orchestral Music for Japanese Late-Night Anime



Download (https://mega.nz/#!8tZgSZaD!DU4pW0OY3ZJfnNu5G_ZdH3wxjKa8gsT2Poyjp-hUtbg)
Part I (2004-2014) / Part II (2015-2016)


If you want you can count these two albums as an appendix for my "The Art of Film Scoring" series. In Japan there is truely a renaissance of all things wonderful, music-wise. Not only the revival of Jazz but more importantly Baroque or classical style orchestral music... and oh boy, there's a lot.
If I may go a bit historical, I think the Japanese did with "our" orchestral music what they once did with our firearms. Almost the very first thing the Japanese did when the Portuguese brought them firearms was "to make them ourselves and improve it". A few decades later there were more firearms produced and used in Japan than in the ENTIRETY of europe.

I think the same kind of ingenuity happended with orchestral music. Now we have more classical-baroque-romantic-modern-hollywood orchestral music produced in Japan than anywhere else in the world. And almost no one knows of it.
The Japanese love for orchestral music is just insane... I think they may even love it more than we ever did, I mean there's porn focussing on orchestral instruments and on sites you-may-or-may-not-know I can find a drawn anime girl playing EVERY orchestral instrument ever, even a freaking contrabass clarinet. And do you want to know what they did with a program intended for electronic pop dance: MMD Orchestra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7rnjXM0PNU)
Everything's so wonderfully bizzare.

Very interesting share. I will have to check that out soon.

I've still been working on my crazy action playlist which for now has been mostly from Japanese music and I have been glad for some gems I found in Sahashi scores that I normally don't listen to. On the other hand I may have to check my backups because I found very few Sahashi scores on my hard drive with real powerful action music outside Gundam and even then the original albums have such small ensembles that I can't stand them for my playlist and prefer the symphony versions with full orchestra. I backed up a good amount because my Sahashi folder was getting too big. Besides that, I found one Ultraman track with enough power and one Saint Seiya Omega track but everything else is either too playful or too cheesy. Then at the same time revisiting Brain Powered by Yoko Kanno I am finding some really delightful music that I never really noticed before. So much fun doing these compilations. I will eventually share my results once I have gotten it nicely cleaned up.

Well the greatest energetic action pieces ever for me are... probably Holst's Mars and Jupiter, Tchaikovsky's ballet dances, The Battle on the Ice, the final part of the I. Movement of Manfred, the IV. Movement of Beethoven's 5 or Veni creator spiritus from Mahler's 8 (I know I know pleb choices for the classical connoisseur :rolleyes:)

But in seriousness I once did a Hollywood action compilation which I keep updated over the years that may be of some assistance to you. Even I need a few days to even organize anything from my Hollywood library these days so I mostly update old playlists. Maybe you can find something new to use in your playlist.

https://mega.nz/#!0loVBLLJ!4r1bwZk-6Hid1MEOeR3tx3SUSs32EvHTpZSm7wikOqI

*some more candidates I did not include in this list which I think are essential: "Wagon Chase" (Wyatt Earp), "Victorious Titus", "Rowing of the Galley Slaves" and "Psycho"

Much appreciated! Will hopefully save me quite a bit of time in searching for music.