Oban Star Racers BD is in planning, along with all of Iwasaki's unreleased music from the show to be bundled with it. Hopefully it'll be better mastered than the first soundtrack.

https://twitter.com/EiffelSavin/status/842665088117030912

Iwasaki sure has been lucky lately to have all the music from his shows being released, either as soundtracks or BD bundles. Even something as mundane as Qualidea Code. Shame he (and many others) didn't get this sort of treatment for any of his pre-2010 works until now.

Nothing confirmed yet. He said IF there was a release, it could be available as bonus..

where the hell did that ocarina of time orchestral album comes from suddenly?

The weakness of Sakuraba's writing is evident in the second orchestral album Vinphonic just posted. The arrangers and orchestrators couldn't elevate it past the original source material.

Mysterious Seven (http://picosong.com/pVZP)

There can be only one... or two (http://picosong.com/pVZ6)


Coming soon...

where the hell did that ocarina of time orchestral album comes from suddenly?

It's been in the works for several months now. Comes out in about a week.

Hear a preview: https://soundcloud.com/materiacollective/hero-of-time-full-preview

Not a real orchestra, but several thousands would have been spent on that sample library.

Also, Princess Mononoke?

I've been trying to get into Ryuichi Sakamoto's music recently but so far I'm not having much luck knowing where to begin because of his massive discography and wide range of styles. Can you guys make some recommendations?

^Snake Eyes. Also his album 1996, which has much of his film themes arranged for trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIrWY48Kih4 is one of his best pieces.

Thanks for the start, guys.

So far, I have to say his music vaguely reminds me of late 90s Hisaishi. Very eastern melodies. Funny enough, Hisaishi also came from the same electronic background as Sakamoto, so I wonder if that had any effect on how his music sounds.

This is just magnificent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvZd4MTKY10

For a thread that spends a lot of time talking about Japanese musicians, how come so few people here ever bring up Sakamoto? He's arguably the second most well-known Japanese film composer after Hisaishi.

In case all of you missed it...

It seems according to the director of FFXII Zodiac Age, Matsuno stated that Sakimoto re-recorded the entire score for FFXII with a live orchestra. Gamers can switch between original sound version or the live version which WHY WOULD ANYONE listen to the original over the live?!

I am just giddy because clearly this is one of the best if not THE best Final Fantasy score of all time. Below is Ozmone Plains :).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0YjrXxhYp8

Oh boy that sounds great! I wish this was done more often. Many music that was sampled really deserved a live rendition..

Legacy of Japan
Hitoshi Sakimoto
Film Score Selection



PW: Basiscape (https://anon.click/dajif42)
(New Link: 27.03.2017)

Hitoshi Sakimoto is a good case that you don’t need to graduate from the finest music institutions as long as you study the fundamentals of music properly by yourself. The self-professed game and anime composer and founder of video game music company Basiscape is a brilliant silver-age film composer in his own right. His scores for TV anime are proof of that. Romeo X Juliet is a great romantic film score with a love theme to die for.

For the Ogre games he composed some great music as well, most brilliantly arranged in the orchestral album Ogre: Grand Repeat (together with Masaharu Iwata) which you can take as a classic fantasy score.

The Tower of Druaga (The Sword of Uruk) is a continuation of his classic film score sensibilities with a bombastic tour-de-force and yet another great theme.

Valkyria Chronicles is military bombast done right with great patriotic themes as well as much beauty to contrast the banging onslaught of (metal) percussion. I also find his synth sounds to be pretty much the only ones I can stomach despite the outdated samples. Good composition will of course always triumph over sound limitations.

Dragon’s Crown is another score I would really like to hear performed live. His world map theme haunts me still (also a really great game in my book). But I must confess I don’t really like other Basiscape scores if Sakimoto is not the lead composer.

Finally some symphonic or live-orchestral arrangements from game scores that are pretty much the only pieces that I return to.

Its downright criminal that a composer with such potential is barely given enough opportunities to flex his muscles with a real orchestra so any news of Sakimoto with a live orchestra is wonderful news.

Every score has recieved the film score treatment.

Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHLIPrmyZI

The Royal City of Rabanastre :). It sounds so much better with live music despite the poor video quality lol. I just can't wait to hear pieces like Theme of the Empire, Destiny, A Moment's Rest, Bhujerba, Nalbina Town, Penelo's Theme, and Battle of Freedom <3.

Oh that sounds so good! I remember that theme from the DS spin-off.

Nier Automata is one the the best games i have ever played.the gameplay, the story, the music...everything.LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it.

---------- Post added at 10:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 AM ----------


In case all of you missed it...

It seems according to the director of FFXII Zodiac Age, Matsuno stated that Sakimoto re-recorded the entire score for FFXII with a live orchestra. Gamers can switch between original sound version or the live version which WHY WOULD ANYONE listen to the original over the live?!

I am just giddy because clearly this is one of the best if not THE best Final Fantasy score of all time. Below is Ozmone Plains :).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0YjrXxhYp8

i wonder if its only a selection because the whole score is 5 hours long.

---------- Post added at 01:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 PM ----------

[/COLOR]
Thanks for the start, guys.

So far, I have to say his music vaguely reminds me of late 90s Hisaishi. Very eastern melodies. Funny enough, Hisaishi also came from the same electronic background as Sakamoto, so I wonder if that had any effect on how his music sounds.

This is just magnificent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvZd4MTKY10

For a thread that spends a lot of time talking about Japanese musicians, how come so few people here ever bring up Sakamoto? He's arguably the second most well-known Japanese film composer after Hisaishi.
I guess because he is not that often fully orchestral in the way Hisaishi often is and is generally more restrained and more often a more alternative approach, more electronic and minimalistic than Hisaishi in general. Most of his music is not particularly romantic as well, although there are of course numerous exceptions.

Here's two more of his best pieces.

First a more minimal approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMy_Hvk7cGI

And then ambient: https://play.spotify.com/track/1PXpoBP8v5rxnJwUVzuXXB

The theme to The Last Emperor is great, as is Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.

Thanks for the start, guys.

So far, I have to say his music vaguely reminds me of late 90s Hisaishi. Very eastern melodies. Funny enough, Hisaishi also came from the same electronic background as Sakamoto, so I wonder if that had any effect on how his music sounds.

This is just magnificent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvZd4MTKY10

For a thread that spends a lot of time talking about Japanese musicians, how come so few people here ever bring up Sakamoto? He's arguably the second most well-known Japanese film composer after Hisaishi.

Sakamoto is very, very good (albeit a bit consistent but he is also very prolific). May not have the technical skills of composers that are loved here, but he's his own artist.

If you are not opposed to bossa nova, he made one of the best (IMO) albums for that genre in Casa.

After a bit of listening, I can see now why there isn't much to talk about Sakamoto. Delix was right; his style seems to be more suited to underscoring with minimalism and ambience, often using subtle electronica. In a way he reminds me a bit of Philip Glass in how he goes about his music.

Three of his best romantic pieces that are among the pretty rare exceptions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oUcmForp_E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oG5zeiesys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWR0-4QxSjg

I don't think I have heard him "bigger" than this.

I return to Sakamoto after long periods of time to strengthen the impact. I respect him a great deal and his piano piece almost come close to the emotional response I get from the french masters. In his film scores his string writing evokes genuine emotion from me but he is one composer that should be savored on special occassions.

And speaking about artists that are rarely (or not enough) talked about here, how about this brilliant film composer:





Legacy of Japan
Kow Otani
Film Score Collection (Remastered)



PW: RoarOfTheEarth (https://anon.click/qekab88)
(Update: If the first link gave you trouble)


Samples:

Raiders of the Galaxy Empire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gOxcSO7-Ec&index=10&list=UUGIF4LgWcoYajfvST2pQ1Yw) / Gundam Wing (http://picosong.com/pQq6) / Popolocrois (http://picosong.com/pQyz) / Wild Arms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hjaPPT2ZwE&list=UUGIF4LgWcoYajfvST2pQ1Yw&index=13) / Shadow of the Colossus (http://picosong.com/pQkx) / The Pilot's Love Song (http://picosong.com/pQYs)


Kow Otani is a genius, an eclectic genius to be exact, with a very distinctive voice. This may come to someone’s surprise but when during the Echoes of War footage the words “he is the John Williams of Japan” were uttered some of you might have shaken your head and thought “yeah, right…”

BUT that statement is completely true (in a sense). Kow Otani absolutely loves John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith perhaps more so than any other Japanese composer and holds them in the greatest of respect. We’re talking about a Japanese composer who has contributed a piece to honor Jerry Goldsmith after his death: “Hymn for J.G. (dedicated to Jerry Goldsmith)”. He has a very distinctive voice with much esoteric and electronic touch but don’t be fooled… a classic film composer breaths under it with as many John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith influences and references than one can possibly count. Whether it is the opening title of Star Wars, Duel of the Fates, Indiana Jones or 80s Goldsmith… all can be found if you pay close attention. Not to mention the numerous winks to other legendary composers like Morricone. And just like James Horner he has his own four note danger motif :D

In my opinion Otani wrote his greatest music before the 2000s but that does not mean I dismiss his 21st century works, quite the contrary. Still, I just had to remaster the “old recording” sound out of these gems and I think I succeeded with flying colors in presenting the scores in a new light that will please anyone used to the classic Hollywood sound.

Raiders of the Galaxy Empire (with guest appearance by Toshiyuki Watanabe, another Williams lover) is a great Star Wars homage and not with a bad taste like Gundam F91 but expressed with genuine love. So I’ve taken it upon myself to remaster it as close as I possibly can to the sound of the original “Star Wars”.

The orchestral score for Gundam Wing continues the epic SciFi saga sound with a classical touch. Likewise, it received the same remastering treatment.

Popolocrois Story is classic 70s and 80s film score to the max in fusion with concert-grade classical pieces with a finale Williams would be proud of. I consider it to be his Magnum Opus. Here Otani’s trademarks appear at their very strongest. I love it to pieces. If you haven’t heard it before you’re in for a treat as I’ve carefully remastered the TV score to Hollywood standard with much love and attention to detail that I fear not even a potential “official” remaster will be able to achieve.

The Gamera trilogy is a brilliant homage to Ifukube and classic 70s SciFi film. Again full of little Williams references and a thunderous roar of the orchestra’s lower register.

Wild Arms: Twilight Venom is the greatest western score in the anime business. John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith and Morricone are all thrown into a giant Mexican standoff. It’s so great I just had to remaster it to match it to classic Hollywood sound. Now it truly sounds like a score from that era. I dearly thank Otani for this marvel. Hearing all those classic scores arranged together with the distinguishable voice of a talented composer is pure joy.

Shadow of the Colossus is probably his most known work and for many the first introduction. It’s a great game score all things considered, but prepare for an onslaught of captivating nonstop action and poetic tragedy. He used his danger motif in this score perhaps more so than in any other. I’ve also remastered it to Hollywood standard.

The Pilot’s Love Song is romantic war score with some truly aviating moments and much use of his trademark motif and electronics. Again remastered.

Kow Otani also has a funky “crazy” side to him which can be heared in his TV anime work. Outlaw Star stands out with its classic SciFi score buried under an onslaught of funky beats and electronic noises that give it a truly unique touch. The same can be said for Soul Taker which is Shadow of the Colossus clothed in electronics and beats. Pumpkin Scissors continues in this style but with a much more classical touch.

Another side to Otani is an incredibly reflective and emotional voice at home in esoteric sounds and beautiful chamber string and piano pieces. His best work in that regard is Haibane Renmei, followed by the emotional understated beautiful film score for Colorful. All full of soul-touching moments and pieces best taken in on a rainy day. Unfortunately as of this moment, his solo piano album with a homage to Jerry Goldsmith is impossible for me to find. I’ve used much of my CD-rips for this collection but that one is still missing from my shelf.

Still, here is another brilliant Japanese composer that should get far more work that allows for classic Hollywood writing.

Also, his Children of the Worldstone is a masterpiece of orchestral fusion with electric guitar and ethnic vocals.


Be Invoked

Vinphonic Request update

[09] The Pilot's Love Song \ 04. Parade _.flac. The file has been damaged

Thank u, Vin!

topSawyer, you could replace it with an archive of the Pilot's Love Song OST from here (track 4):



Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta Original Soundtrack (WAV)
https://mega.nz/#F!3xURBLTY!EBZi8-uXQjtdLzBenou7cw

EDIT: Vin has also put up (Thread 57893) a new link.

Thank u, Vin!

topSawyer, you could replace if it's damaged (or due to your connection?) with an archive of the Pilot's Love Song OST from here (track 4):
ok Thank you lessiknowthebetter

Not heard of Raiders of the Galaxy Empire before, is it a movie or series?

It's a symphonic suite. It must be related to the TV anime Ginga Sengoku Gunyuuden Rai (of which Raiders of the Galaxy Empire was a liberal translation) but the TV score was composed by Kaoru Wada and he is nowhere credited and its pretty much all Otani (at least his trademarks appear all over the place).
EDIT: According to vgmdb it's an original work so its in the same boat as Gekkou no Pierce and The Kingdom of the Flower Crown Dragon.



A bit of an appendix for everyone, if you don't shy away from non-orchestral soundtracks by Otani (of which I own very few), I highly recommend Tetsuwan Birdy and Vampire Hunter the Animated Series (Darkstalkers). Jazzy, funky and so very 80s at times.

Orie pretty much has it all covered in that regard:

Thread 55776
Thread 55173

I've totally given up on Sawano. His music is one thing, but his mindset here proves that he's the biggest hack composer in all of anime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkm69Cn5tzs

Things to look forward to in Attack on Titan 2: a LARGER 80-piece string ensemble (technically it's 40 but he overdubbed two separate recording sessions on top of one another), MORE choirs and vocalists, MORE synth and techno remixes.

It'll all be MORE "awesome" music for more more "awesome" scenes.

How exciting.

For me, I'm at my last straw with Tatsuya Kato, if this is not the project to turn my opinion around, nothing will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGfC2boki-I

Oh no, synth, techno, excitement? Those are the WORST things a composer could care about.

For me, I'm at my last straw with Tatsuya Kato, if this is not the project to turn my opinion around, nothing will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGfC2boki-IKato's music is utterly forgettable, but at the very least he seems to try sounding different from time to time instead of sticking to reusing the same goddamn wall of noise over and over and over again.

The fact that Sawano is given a 40-piece string ensemble (40 musicians gathered in one place in any recording studio in Japan is a huge luxury as it is, but to have that many for a single string ensemble is absolutely bonkers) while some far better composers would be happy to just have 10 is baffling.

The worst part is that no matter how many musicians he has, it will sound no noticeably different at all than any of the work he's done since Unicorn.


Oh no, synth, techno, excitement? Those are the WORST things a composer could care about.
Too bad Sawano's usage of pretty much anything, synth or real instruments, has become stale, repetitive, and the total opposite of "excitement".

Sawano is basically what happens if Zimmer decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his career rehashing BvS forever.

Surely even Sawano's biggest fan must hold their heads in despair when their idol muses about how to make a score sound grander, and can come up with nothing better than "more violins".

Yeah Sawano's music isn't even remotely what he thinks it is. If he can't even convey "excitement" or whatever the fuck else through his own music, why does he hold a job? His music is such bland, monogamous, shit, that is usually such a clusterfuck of noise that you have to struggle just to distinguish it from his other music and fathom how someone thought sid music sounds remotely ok and is worth paying for..

Could you possibly reup the Legacy of Sakimoto? Looks like the link went down.

Done :)

I'm actually in the middle of restructuring my Legacy series, replacing some links that gave some people problems and I'm also trying to make kinda legal versions right now to spread the word.
I also quite like patreon as a hub point so far, if you ignore the money aspect completely, it saves one the trouble of setting up a blog and you have quite a few features ready that makes it easy to reassemble, should this forum (and nextday's backup) fall. It's also really easy to distribute your own music (and albums) directly without worries of publishing and printing costs (if one has no budget) and you can contact potential artist for covert art and booklet directly and set up collaborations with a few clicks and talks. I've previously shied away from doing this but so far I don't regret being talked into it... perhaps something will happen next year ;)

I don't love Sawano's work but it fits great in Attack on Titan.

On the other hand, I've been enjoying the music of Gerrit Wunder. A few of his soundtracks were released lately and they are lovely gothic horror scores.

For me, I'm at my last straw with Tatsuya Kato, if this is not the project to turn my opinion around, nothing will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGfC2boki-I
Musically, he's been improving. His scores are more cohesive and his arrangements are more interesting now than when he first debuted. The problem is that he values quantity over quality. He writes 2 hours of music for every 12 episode show he gets his hands on, and sometimes he does more than 1 show per season. So for every soundtrack you end up with 5 minutes of interesting music and 1 hour and 55 minutes of filler.

hero of time orcarina of time ochestral album is on spotify.really enjoyed it.but i enjoyed symphony of the goddess,too, so clearly i am an idiot and it sucks.

Kato has potential, but I wonder if he's ever going to realise it. The most interesting music he's ever written is, for me, in Buddy Complex - two sturdy orchestral cues amongst a mess of filler and noise... but both of them have no personality outside the Hollywood music he's ripping off. He seems to have the technical ability but not the raw creativity that is needed for him to really take off. No spark, no uniqueness, just completely professional, and thoroughly generic music that never tries to do anything beyond fulfil a basic function as background music...

Wow, this spawned a whole conversation, huh? lol

Look my dudes, nobody has had anything interesting to say about Sawano in yeeeeeaaars, least of all his detractors. I just find it funny how some people feel this compulsive need to seek out and dig even deeper for even more arbitrary reasons to loudly declare him a musically-illiterate monkey or whatever, and like to poke fun at it. :) We get it. Nothing has changed.

I think most people are worked up because Gigantic Formula suggested something more than "no clue, just add more stuff, lol" which makes my theory that it was orchestrated by Nakanishi (uncredited) much more likely.
I too, thought that this "wall of sound" was in some part a deliberate choice but the more "behind-the-scenes" footage I see the more I get this dreadful feeling that he's just throwing paint on a white wall and hopes for someone seeing some worth in it. As a pop music artist, he's pretty good and I enjoy his music from time to time, but I doubt I will ever hear something more to my tastes again.

Not that I really mind, with his music mostly used for teenage fantasy and all... and it certainly works perfect for that.

.

New Oshima
White Rain - http://picosong.com/pZic/
Tree of Dreams - http://picosong.com/pZ7u/

There might be more songs too. I found these from browsing through the game files, but all the files are untitled and with a generic file format so it's hard to tell which ones are music files.

Edit: It is just those two songs, but those are two very nice songs.

Game? What game? What? Who?

This is wonderful stuff... I mean, really, really wonderful... :O

Even by Oshima's standards...

Game? What game? What? Who?

This is wonderful stuff... I mean, really, really wonderful... :O

Even by Oshima's standards...
A smartphone/tablet game called Deemo. A new version of the game was released a couple hours ago which came with new songs. Oshima wrote these pieces in 2014 and recorded them in Sydney.

Wow... now this is a fantastic detour back to her early cinema period roots.

The latest LWA episodes also featured quite a bit of delighful new fantasy material, not enough to put it on the same pedestal as the OVAs but there's still the second cour.



Which reminds me, has England any more Teletubbies show to give some symphonic music to, otherwise its 2v1 for Japan right now :D

Hirano's new anime is this kid's mecha show: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/drivehead/

It is a full length (30 min) show, not a short. Hmm...

Any other country, you'd say "Oh, the score will be crap, then..." - but Hirano on this show could be really fantastic! :D

Could be! We already know from his Facebook that there was an orchestra recording so... that's something.

The thing I'd be worried about is that kid's shows don't often get soundtrack releases (remember Tanaka's Gaist Crusher?).

Aaargh... :(

The melody in Oshima's Tree of Dreams is eerily similar to the main theme from LWA.

Still pretty good of course.

I really, really like those new pieces... The orchestra isn't quite up to scratch but the music is grade A Oshima... As Vinphonic says, a callback to an earlier stage in Oshima's career (early to mid 1990s) that I'm always happy to hear. It's "Planet Of Life" Oshima, not Fullmetal Alchemist Oshima, living in roughly the same sound world as "Balloon Of Happiness" (a six minute tone poem written to commemorate the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami) - but I think these two pieces do a little better.

Thank you very much for posting them... and I sincerely hope there's (lots) more to come... :D

Unfortunately those are the only 2 pieces she wrote for the game. But she has many more projects in the works and since it's Oshima you know you can expect great things. She's one of the few composers who routinely knocks it out of the park. I'd love for her to write more standalone pieces though. Like you said, these two pieces and "Balloon of Happiness" are top notch. It makes me very curious what her symphony and concerto sound like.


Edit: Her blog said the pieces were recorded in May 2014 in Sydney. Here's a picture of Oshima with the Eminence Symphony Orchestra (located in Sydney) in May 2014: https://www.facebook.com/EminenceOnline/photos/a.113665080379.134801.46560525379/10152380962120380/?type=3&theater

I'm not sure why Penkin and Miyoshi were there. It must have been a shared recording session. Either way, now you know who performed the pieces.

Masato Coda
CHAIN CHRONICLE
Tokyo Studio Orchestra / Remastered by Vinphonic



PW:Haecceitas (https://anon.click/bukew71)

Highlights:
http://picosong.com/pxms / http://picosong.com/pxga / http://picosong.com/pxm5 / http://picosong.com/pxmj / http://picosong.com/pxmN


Really good fantasy score, Coda is slowly getting there...

And just a reminder this is in essence for nothing more than a mobile ad (with really nice art).

His next project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdtq1FjE4s

(but just imagine what Yoko Kanno would have done with a lighthearted Escaflowne)







It also seems like Japanese mobile games have now orchestral scores as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzly2N2dz8

Ohh, it's Eminence... That explains a lot! The orchestra that plays about ten minutes of music every five years. :O

Edit: Shadowverse sounds like Yoshihiro Ike! Interesting...

See, this is what I mean when I was talking about Kato: http://picosong.com/pDwT/

An interesting theme that sets the tone for the score... or so you would think. But after the first two tracks, the soundtrack unfortunately goes back to the usual filler Kato.

Sure, there are a few more tracks in the same vein as the main theme:
http://picosong.com/pD3P/
http://picosong.com/pD3Q/
http://picosong.com/pD3j/

...but that's pretty much it. Kato is technically competent, but I really don't think he's putting his skills to good use.

Which is way SukaSuka is my last straw... that pv indicates that they go for a "serious" tone in a fantastical setting with what appears to be heartwarming moments of love and family as well as heroic tragedy. If Kato makes no use of this premise and the staff asking for "something sincere" and we end up with another Samurai Girls, I will give up expecting a substantial score from him. Let's hope he is not going further down the Kanno route of providing one or two stellar pieces in a sea of servicable bgm because if I had to choose between a Kanno showpiece and a Kato showpiece I know what I would discard ;)




EDIT: Boy oh boy... I sure love the recent influx of anime pvs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VySDRbfnev4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrMJLsnNpqs (Inai goes full classical)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1yjl8zex1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuQA5_O0RxE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tjfrDmxSOw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGS8EtbN0-w

90s Sahashi style returns...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDfGjtBchP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH5M4dCx94k


It's also still hard to believe that we now have a season (on paper) with Oshima, Amano (pv has full orchestra+choir), Tanaka, Hirano, Inai (x2), Ike in Hollywood mode, Hattori, Iwashiro, Uematsu and lots pf promising upstarts all at once and already a few promising glimpses at summer and fall. Although I do believe we are now witnessing a new Golden Age solidifying, to not be overly enthusiastic, let's see first if someone will knock it out of the park (my bets on Inai and Ike) and who will disappoint (My bets on 5 new minutes of Warsaw, probably the choral piece, for Berserk).

Surprise of the season will be... Tatsuya Kato (I hope)

Those Kato samples nextday posted are... GORGEOUS. The crazy thing is... Kato is a really, really good orchestrator, and he can write a fantastic melody... and looking at his credentials and seeing who he studied with (Saegusa, Hattori Sr, Koroku, and Haneda) it would be easy to see him becoming something really, really special... So why does he write 98% crap and throw in 2% of music that makes you go "WOW!" in every score...

> Oshima

Has her project been announced? Do we know what she's scoring yet? Or are you referring to Part 2 of LWA, which could be good but having heard the distrubution of score in the first 12 episodes I'm really not holding my breath.

> Amano

He's scoring something? Or he's orchestrating a few minutes for Sagisu?

> Tanaka

For a remake of an old show that will be filled with old music with probably not very much original in addition.

> Hirano

For a kid's mecha series that will probably never be released.

> Inai

First show - a spin-off from a series that had about five minutes of good music... the second one looks like it could be interesting though...

> Ike

Hope he does something at or beyond Bahamut...

> Hattori

Could be good, but Intelligent Qube was a very, very long time ago and his recent music heavily suggests what kind of style this one will take...

> Iwashiro

Hahahaha! ;)

> Uematsu

Something other than Granblue, which we've heard already and which is tiny ensemble shit by Narita? (With a theme by Uematsu that isn't anywhere near the same level as even his most pedestrian themes of fifteen or twenty years ago?

I really, really hope good stuff emerges... but right now I see a whole slew of unremarkable projects with nobody composers attached, a few good composers attached to non-promising projects, and only a couple of genuinely good chances for good scores...

I hope I'm being a misery guts and in a month we're all saying "Fuck, April '17 was the best year for the orchestral anime score in over a decade!!!" but I somehow doubt it'll come to that...

The Rage of the Bahamut clip doesn't contain any action music, but the music that is there scores the scene well. It feels more like movie score by Howard Shore than a typical reusable BGM.

Well, if nothing remarkable comes out of this lineup (I think the nature and quality of the projects matters not so much) it certainly will be the most disappointing anime season of all time.

@Tango: Regarding Oshima, I was referring to LWA but she already has has an anime film project confirmed for 2018 so I guess there's no brakes and we will be getting scores from her throughout this and next year.

@streich: No surprise since Ike was scoring it (and much of season 1) to picture and will be scoring (at least a huge chunk) of season two that way. The first score was quite glommy towards the end with too much Orff and Verdi and no proper end title cue so I hope for a more lighthearted adventure this time with a rousing finish.

Ah, yes, the Tatami Galaxy movie! That could be good... :)

Speaking of Yuasa, that composer (Muramatsu Takatsugu) for his other new totally-not-inspired-by-Ponyo-movie (Lu's Song) is the same as the one for Ghibli's Marnie, and will be composing for the new movie by Studio Ponoc as well (though that has the same director as Marnie). Is he the new go-to guy for big budget anime movie music?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH5M4dCx94k
Wow, Yuya Mori is finally back. I'll remind you that he debuted in 2010, at the age of 24, with this score: http://picosong.com/pTdg/

And yet he hasn't had any other scores since then. It's a pity, really. The guy is obviously talented.

Ooh, that is a smashing score! I really really appreciate what Mori did in March of the Student Councillors... It's a 14 piece ensemble. You barely even notice it, because every player is properly used and the piece sustains interest. There's no awkward filling in gaps with synthesizers; it just really makes the most of the players who are actually there - and it sounds extremely convincing as a result.

A harp in a 14 piece wind ensemble? I'm sold.

No Tango, not one but two other films blessed with her music:

Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Zenpen ~Benio, Hana no 17-sai~
Music by Michiru Oshima
Released November 11, 2017

Tatami Galaxy is this year as well.


Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Kōhen ~ Tōkyō Dai Roman ~
Music by Michiru Oshima
Released 2018


@zipper: I'm interested in the score at least, even if Marie was more of a "good-kind-of" generic deal. Let's see if he steps it up with more personality.

Oh and Mori did work... he scored pretty much all the new Seitokai OVAs since the first series (two in 2016 with new music) and each time he did go more classical (some stuff is still unreleased): http://picosong.com/pTWA/
And he has his first film score this year as well (Seitokai movie in summer).

I also noticed that MONACA has announced another soundtrack box... but sadly just Aikatsu, not Captain Earth :(

Oh and Mori did work... he scored pretty much all the new Seitokai OVAs since the first series (two in 2016 with new music) and each time he did go more classical (some stuff is still unreleased): http://picosong.com/pTWA/
And he has his first film score this year as well (Seitokai movie in summer).
Yeah, I just meant that he hasn't done anything aside from that series. The good news is that there's a full TV series in the works for Black Clover (that trailer is just for a one-off OVA).

I've totally given up on Sawano. His music is one thing, but his mindset here proves that he's the biggest hack composer in all of anime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkm69Cn5tzs



I think most people are worked up because Gigantic Formula suggested something more than "no clue, just add more stuff, lol" which makes my theory that it was orchestrated by Nakanishi (uncredited) much more likely.

I couldn't agree more, I always like to give the benefit of the doubt until the end, but these interviews just proves more and more that GF might've been just a one main theme piece created from Sawano in his piano roll, in which Nakanashi actually even did more than just "orchestrate". It always bothers me how ambiguous credentials can be in these types of situations, this was early Sawano, he was nobody back then, why even hide who did which in here then!?

@nextday: Thanks for the Oshima pieces! Her finest moments are truly canalized in this commission, Tree Of Dreams is grand in scale, the horn sections are just dead gorgeous! and White Rain is such a magical staircase of notes, not a single dull moment in either of these two. Now I'm excited to see what other composers they might hire in the future, if Rayark Inc asks the artists to really bring their all into the pieces for their games, the idea that perhaps some of those pieces might belong to Tanaka bringing a Bastard!!! like suite with the proper ensemble might not be so far, one can only dream...

Speaking of which, I decided to get deeper into the rabbit hole about Rayark Inc and their games, and look what I just found! :D:


Cytus: Chapter L
Arrangement by pensquawk



Ice (Composition) & gaQdan (Arrangement & Orchestraion)



Download (http://www.mediafire.com/file/czvseveobofdl9c/Cytus_-_Chapter_L_Suite.mp3)


preview (http://picosong.com/paC9/)

I'll say this right now: Michiru Oshima is probably the best out of all the orchestral pieces that the Rayark games series has and, for the moment, will ever have. She just knocked it out of the park with the revelation of her two 2014 recorded pieces. With that being said however, this 60 minute recording divided by 10 movements for Chapter L of the Cytus series (which if you know me already I merged them all together to transform it into a suite) is among the second best, objectively speaking since it's only one of the few long orchestral music that this game has ever had. It disguises itself as "piano concerto" but there's clearly the prevalent game/pop mannerisms at certain points that you can hear in here, obviously due to the composition being from a not classically trained artist such as Ice himself. The closest thing I could describe for reference, would be a mix of what you'd get between Go Shiina & Yoko Shinomura later on, not only in terms of styles, but in recording sadly.

Yes, the fake synth brass hurts painfully at times and the quality of the recording is not all that good either (though note that this was extracted directly from the game files, so I don't know if the quality is that much different on the official OST), but I find myself quite impressed on how such minuscule world as the mobile games industry are even getting this treatment now more frequently and this piece itself has quite great moments if you can get through the cons that would detract you from a full orchestral experience! Better than nothing I suppose, enjoy! (If you'd like the 10 seperated pieces, you can download it right here (http://www.mediafire.com/file/eadit100fvv2d86/Chapter_18_L_%28Edited%29.rar)!)

https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/11715

音楽　鹿野草平
Music: Souhei Kano

It happened.

!!!!!!!

Let's pray it reaches that goal, for all that is good and holy on this earth...



On the western front, I hope everyone here buys a copy to make a franchise out of this and let a similar miracle return happen (even if you have no intend of playing the game): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9K6FHXGFQQ

Oh and Ron Goodwin's Valhalla is getting a new release... heaven

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH WHAT IS THAT???! Words cannot quite express how much I want this to happen, whatever it is...!!!!!!!!!

Also... LWA 13 is out. Oshima's very clever plan is now obvious; the first twelve episodes have been a mere prelude and the score proper starts now... :D

Fleet Girls Collection KanColle Official Classic Style Orchestra
The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kosuke Tsunoda

Music by Kaori Ohkoshi, Hiroshi Usami, Michio Okamiya
Arranged by Daisuke Ehara, Souhei Kano, Ayana Tsujita, Kayoko Naoe, Shingo Nishimura



Ripped, etc. by nextday.

Sample: Special-type Destroyer (http://picosong.com/pr5q/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Download: https://mega.nz/#!OoYGhKAS!MQ3A7eW9HyaoxiylWZkAASq23-KlVBjigq30Suu6oKY

The KanColle Classic Style Orchestra Concert was held on May 7th, 2016. In charge of arranging the music is the same team that brought us last year's Miku Symphony (Thread 57893). They did a good job bringing the music to life considering the source material. For example, listen to the original version of No Going Back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaD8Lqzi7UU) and then listen to Souhei Kano's version of it. It's completely different from the original but I hear it was well received by the audience! The booklet has a little note in English that says "Admiral, let us feel the same excitement once again!" so perhaps they are planning another concert in the future. Enjoy!



Staff photo - Left to right: Ayana Tsujita, Shingo Nishimura, Souhei Kano,
Daisuke Ehara, Kosuke Tsunoda, Kayoko Naoe, Iori Iwasaki, Erina Otani

Many thanks for this orchestral album nextday. I wouldn't know about most of these things in the thread if they weren't shared here.

I also thought I would mention the Kritzerland release of John Scott's score to Rocket to the Moon. I've been loving their recent CD of the music from "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" as well.

https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/11715

音楽　鹿野草平
Music: Souhei Kano

It happened.

http://i.imgur.com/is1Pv0L.gif

...This year is quite something, I must say.

https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/11715

音楽　鹿野草平
Music: Souhei Kano

It happened.HA! Totally called it.

There is always the small chance that Yutaka Yamamoto (Fractale's director) will bring back Kano for his next project:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-03-08/yutaka-yamamoto-will-produce-twilight-anime-film-even-if-crowdfunding-fails/.113081

So did I, about a week earlier. ;)

By the way, Yamamoto says the movie will be made regardless (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-03-08/yutaka-yamamoto-will-produce-twilight-anime-film-even-if-crowdfunding-fails/.113081) of whether the crowdfunding campaign is successful. It's going to be a close one, I think.

The real question is whether he'll have enough money for a decent ensemble. Hats off to him if he decides to go with it bare-wallet, but it doesn't bode well for the music.

The real question is whether he'll have enough money for a decent ensemble. Hats off to him if he decides to go with it bare-wallet, but it doesn't bode well for the music.
Yamamoto is very passionate about the music for his works and wouldn't hire Kano for no reason. Here he is conducting the main theme from Fractale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B35Bz4DXJ0A

I can't think of any other anime directors that have done such a thing.

I am really enjoying the Kancolle concert. I think they made a strange decision by not involving Natsumi Kameoka (the composer of the TV series and movie scores) and completely ignoring those scores in favour of the not-as-good game scores... but it manages to (mostly) shake off the orchestral J-pop sound so beloved of these concerts and actually do something that sounds pretty substantial.

Kano's orchestrations are good again, though these are again in the style of "slick and professional orchestrator" Kano, not "genius frustrated composer" Kano - I think I would've liked a little more of his personal fingerprint on his tracks as, though there are passing nods to his style, there's very little here that only he could've bought to the music... It is, of course, done with panache and talent... but his work here is more that of a technician rather than as an artist.

I want to hear Kano the artist again. I hope this new project a) comes soon, and b) gives him a wide canvas onto which he can project, and c) doesn't short-change him on money.

I'll enjoy it whatever it is, but let's face it... nobody's going to be happy if Souhei Kano's first score in six years goes full-on experimental and is written for penny-whistle, electric guitar, and contrabassoon. The orchestra is his instrument and I really hope he gets to wield it properly in this new film. :)

Takatsugu Wakabayashi
Ange Vierge
Tokyo Studio Orchestra



PW: FlyingAnimeJedi (https://anon.click/kuses49)
(FLAC)

Sample 1 (http://picosong.com/pGEu) / Sample 2 (http://picosong.com/pGEJ) / Sample 3 (http://picosong.com/pGEA) / Sample 4 (http://picosong.com/pGEG)

I�m angry because of Ange Vierge... for a Japanese studio recording it sounds really really good (really big ensemble... and the music itself is surprisingly decent for a generic anime cashgrabtrash but this is the country that employs a symphony orchestra for a porn game so all bets are off anyway...) so they can actually put in the effort and make it sound close to a Hollywood recording on their own (brass sounds like brass etc. sans the layered percussion) so why are they not recording everything in �Sound City Studio Bst.� and hire whoever recorded this everytime?

Yoshihisa Hirano: Arrangement Work Compilation
14 FLACs + 5 MP3s = 90:57
Source: Various

Tracks 1~13: Ali Project's studio albums
Track 14: Arrangement of Wagner's Nuremberg Overture from Boogiepop Phantom
Track 15: Hirano's original composition for J-Pop singer Shibasaki Kou
Tracks 16, 17: J-Pop singer Hiromi Iwasaki
Tracks 18, 19: J-Pop duo ManaKana

Just a quick write-up before I hit the bed: This is pretty much another Ali Project album in the same vein as Grand Finale. So if you don't like Ali Project, then stay away from this one. I realized that I could make a compilation of substantial length by pulling Hirano's scattered effort on Ali Project's regular releases. Some detective work was done to find out which tracks feature Hirano's delicious arrangement in Ali Project's vast discography. Luckily, I was able to find most of them in high quality - the 5 MP3 files are in 320kbps. I left off tracks where Hirano was only responsible for strings arrangmeent, such as this one: Troubadour (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqaysClpnsE). It's a damn shame because the first 22 seconds are one of the most magnificent things I've heard recently. Anyway, Hirano (baroque-minded) and Ali Project (gothic pop) are a match made in heaven!

My favorite here is Ranse Eroica (Track 13 in this compilation), which starts off with Debussy's string quartet note for note, and then develops into Hirano's magical insanity full of his characteristic dissonance. Each track is romanized and is tagged with its original composer plus corresponding album artwork. And I intentionally put J-Pop arrangements at the end, so it would be easier for you guys to delete them. While Hirano did arrange them, they only sound like J-Pop with Hirano's light touches here and there. On another thought, I might as well call this Ali Project & Hirano Compilation. :'D



That's Tanaka Kouhei in the background, I believe...

Part I (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0iiea0weue5tp4q)
Part II (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?od7gl9z9rh70gu2)
Part III (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kiid4mbvu6zhia1)

EDIT: Argh... is there any way to cut the first 22 seconds of Troubadour without an abrupt end? Just thought it would make for a splendid opening/interlude to this compilation. :-D
This looks interesting. Does anyone still have this collection? I only have the Wagner arrangement.

It has arrived! :D:


Lady Lord Naotora Original Soundtrack Vol.2
Yoko Kanno, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Lang Lang, Midori, Ko Shibasaki, Miu Arai




PW:MeowTora (https://anon.click/pewil13)

(MPEG4)

OOH thank you! :D

Definitely (mostly) the "dregs" from the first soundtrack, but Track 5 is SUCH a stand-out... and it has that delicious Debussian passage from the first episode that I had wanted to badly. 2:07 to 2:25... has there ever been a series of harmonic movements so sublime and colourful in the history of film music? And every note still crying out "Kanno"... Dare we hope for an OST 3 on which there may be, if nothing else, another handful of golden moments?

How do yall listen to this shit so fast, holy god. Lol Good on ya.

Thanks, pensquawk. Can't wait to give a listen.

Well I've been really enjoying the score for La Sonata Del Silencio by Cesar Benito. It starts out strong for the first five or six tracks though sadly has a fairly weak second half and a few filler tracks that keep it from being fantastic from beginning to end. Hearing this kind of music from a TV show makes me wish we could get better music for the American shows I watch.

EDIT: What the hell is with that high pitched beeping that shows up repeated times on Naotora Volume 2 Track 4? It sounds like a kitchen timer going off or something.

The music is so colourful that it's difficult to imagine it accompanying a live action drama in 2017. A lot of it sounds like it belongs in a cheesy 80s or 90s fantasy film like Dragonheart, and that's a good thing.

Also, it wouldn't be a Kanno score without the random electronic sound effects.

A solid 4/5 compared to the first one.

Thanks for this! Has anyone attempted to put together a playlist for the two volumes by the way?

I'll wait with that until confirmation on OST 3 but OST 1 is already a self-contained classical film score album (the best in years if you ask me... and as usual the first release of a Taiga drama has the most substantial score) so I suggest one can put track 1,4,9 and 13 from the second album into an extra folder and listen to everything else back to back ;)

Btw It's so great I have to wonder if this has already climbed to stairs to the best Taiga score ever... it certainly is one of my absolute favorites from Kanno, it has nearly everything that makes my hairs stand up, if OST 3 is a detour into Escaflowne/Aquarion territory we might have here not only her most mature but simultaniously her most versatile orchestral work yet.

Naotora kind of gives me a strange feeling. It's an excellent work - one of Kanno's best - but at the same time I still have a longing for the return of 90s Kanno.

I love them both, just for different reasons.

I actually find Naotora to be Kanno's finest work to date... but I know what you mean. Earlier Kanno is just a tad more raw - though I think this is as much to do with the genres in which her best orchestral scores were written (sci-fi, fantasy) as much as any maturation of her style over the years. I suppose you just can't approach a live action historical drama the same way you would a big, sprawling science fiction series set in a colourful fantasy world.

But what's here... It just tickles me in all the right places. It doesn't make me uneasy in the way that new works from composers who've been "off the grid" for a while usually do. It's an instant classic. It takes its place near the top (if not at the top, as I personally believe it does) of Kanno's filmography.

The 14-minute symphonic poem pretending to be a main theme is Kanno's magnum-opus. And the rest of the score, yes, there's naff filler... but there's also stuff in there that simply defies explanation; that it's being composed in 2017 at all is miraculous, but that it's the score for a television drama. Words genuinely fail me. :)

Does anyone still have this (http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?p=2322785#post2322785) collection? I only have the Wagner arrangement.


Yoshihisa Hirano: Arrangement Work Compilation
14 FLACs + 5 MP3s = 90:57
Source: Various

Tracks 1~13: Ali Project's studio albums
Track 14: Arrangement of Wagner's Nuremberg Overture from Boogiepop Phantom
Track 15: Hirano's original composition for J-Pop singer Shibasaki Kou
Tracks 16, 17: J-Pop singer Hiromi Iwasaki
Tracks 18, 19: J-Pop duo ManaKana


Just a quick write-up before I hit the bed: This is pretty much another Ali Project album in the same vein as Grand Finale. So if you don't like Ali Project, then stay away from this one. I realized that I could make a compilation of substantial length by pulling Hirano's scattered effort on Ali Project's regular releases. Some detective work was done to find out which tracks feature Hirano's delicious arrangement in Ali Project's vast discography. Luckily, I was able to find most of them in high quality - the 5 MP3 files are in 320kbps. I left off tracks where Hirano was only responsible for strings arrangmeent, such as this one: Troubadour (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqaysClpnsE). It's a damn shame because the first 22 seconds are one of the most magnificent things I've heard recently. Anyway, Hirano (baroque-minded) and Ali Project (gothic pop) are a match made in heaven!

My favorite here is Ranse Eroica (Track 13 in this compilation), which starts off with Debussy's string quartet note for note, and then develops into Hirano's magical insanity full of his characteristic dissonance. Each track is romanized and is tagged with its original composer plus corresponding album artwork. And I intentionally put J-Pop arrangements at the end, so it would be easier for you guys to delete them. While Hirano did arrange them, they only sound like J-Pop with Hirano's light touches here and there. On another thought, I might as well call this Ali Project & Hirano Compilation. :'D

EDIT: Argh... is there any way to cut the first 22 seconds of Troubadour without an abrupt end? Just thought it would make for a splendid opening/interlude to this compilation. :-D

Compiled by Akashi San. Re-Up.

https://anon.click/zacok59
(Mega.nz Behind Capcha)

<hr>


What the hell is with that high pitched beeping that shows up repeated times on Naotora Volume 2 (Thread 57893) Track 4? It sounds like a kitchen timer going off or something.

According to the credits from the booklet scans (https://imgur.com/a/v4OYk), it's a zurna.

Thanks a lot Salat for re-uploading this one! You've saved me again. I'm really looking forward listening to it.

@Vinphonic - Agreed on the tracks you listed, but I remember there being at least two or three "filler" tracks or so on the first volume as well. I guess I will figure out which ones to take out myself, probably for the best.

I actually find Naotora to be Kanno's finest work to date... but I know what you mean. Earlier Kanno is just a tad more raw - though I think this is as much to do with the genres in which her best orchestral scores were written (sci-fi, fantasy) as much as any maturation of her style over the years. I suppose you just can't approach a live action historical drama the same way you would a big, sprawling science fiction series set in a colourful fantasy world.

But what's here... It just tickles me in all the right places. It doesn't make me uneasy in the way that new works from composers who've been "off the grid" for a while usually do. It's an instant classic. It takes its place near the top (if not at the top, as I personally believe it does) of Kanno's filmography.

The 14-minute symphonic poem pretending to be a main theme is Kanno's magnum-opus. And the rest of the score, yes, there's naff filler... but there's also stuff in there that simply defies explanation; that it's being composed in 2017 at all is miraculous, but that it's the score for a television drama. Words genuinely fail me. :)
I think it definitely has to do with her maturing as a composer. Naotora is professional and refined. It's the culmination of Kanno's experience scoring TV shows for 20+ years. It's a masterful work that I'm extremely pleased with. I'll probably be listening to the Amatora Suite regularly for years to come (that piece is, as you say, her magnum opus).

Though that rawness of her early years still has a certain charm for me, especially since early Kanno was a big part of why I started following anime music. Escaflowne, Turn A, Brain Powerd, etc. were all very influential on my taste. I really hope that one day we will be able to hear another classic sci-fi score from her. This year will mark 10 years since Macross Frontier premiered. I pray we don't have to wait much longer for her next entry.

P.S. While I do agree that Amatora is her magnum opus, Memory of Military Boots is still a personal favorite of mine. ;)

Kanno seems to be cherry-picking her projects of late. I like to believe that every year she's offered at least one score with budget for an orchestra and, for whatever reason, turns them down. (I prefer that to the thought that nobody asks her any more...)

She's got nothing left to prove in the genre and maybe trips to Warsaw don't hold her interest as they once did. (Naotora must be the most boring recording session for someone who loves international travel and doing each score somewhere new, of course... but I don't think anybody would turn down a Taiga drama...)

Maybe this will reinvigorate her... this music isn't written by someone who finds symphonic writing tedious - it demonstrates a jaw-dropping skill completely matched by a love for the medium. 10% of her effort is in writing music that is functional and serves the needs of the series; producers will be happy, she'll get paid, and the score will be quietly acknowledged as a good one. The other 90%... that's the personal crusade, that which sets you apart from a film composer who does it to pay the bills, and a film composer who does it because they still find nothing more exciting than making music. (And travelling the world to exotic destinations, of course!)

Naotora, to me, sounds almost like something a brand new genius composer would write; it has that "Oh wow, I'm really doing this!!!" feeling that you used to hear from a composer's big debut. It completely satisfies my need for more Kanno. Another big anime score would be really nice... I wonder if this new Kanno era, "post-Naotora" will be *good* or *bad* for that possibility - it could go either way... With Naotora, Kanno is introducing herself to an absolutely gigantic audience who probably never heard her name before - an audience more likely to be interested in classical scores and more likely to buy CDs. The people who watch Taiga dramas aren't the same people who watch Escaflowne. She approached this score with astounding reverence and attention to detail - even by her own standards... Will she decide never to touch anime again? Or will she actively seek out anime again because she clearly loves writing full-scale orchestral music, has such an out-of-this-world skill for it, and realises that a live action TV drama doesn't necessarily provide the same diverse canvas as would a big, sprawling animated sci-fi show?

Intriguing times ahead...

@nextday: I consider myself lucky to have watched Escaflowne as it actually aired on German television when I was a kid so I came into contact with her music early on. In fact growing up with One Piece, Eureka Seven, Escaflowne and Inuyasha might have set my course early on for my passion and preferences of Japanese orchestral anime music. And I agree that 90s Kanno has written so much iconic masterpieces that one has a hard time choosing between Turn A or Escaflowne. Regarding her next work... well Frontier is getting new stuff so I'm optimistic (even for a complete soundtrack box), and lets not forget the new Ghost in the Shell anime by the same director as SAC, so chances of her anime return are high.


@Tango: Intriguing times indeed, not only Kanno soaring in amazing heights, but Hayato Matsuo could have his best career years ahead of him after Drifters/Keijo, Oshima still creates great score after great score and Kohei Tanaka is scoring more projects now than in 5 years combined and dozens of more examples from the old guard being very busy... and yet Sahashi is still in limbo (new FMP project postponed). I just ask for another Simoun with a symphony orchestra as his swan song, I don't want to accept his career fading with Soul of Gold and FMP (let's not kid ourselves, it's far from his very best).

Legacy of Japan
Hayato Matsuo
Best Orchestral Selection



PW: HellShallSing (https://anon.click/rirum42)


Hayato Matsuo is a classical trained anime and game composer and a disciple of legendary Japanese composer Koichi Sugiyama. His music has classical influences written all over it. Other noticeable influences include the legendary Kohei Tanaka and Hollywood legends like John Williams.

An unfortunate trend in his works is that there’s rarely a budget for a normal studio ensemble so often you will hear real strings mixed with fake winds which is a damn shame because the music as written is most often concert-grade. The other downside is that his magnum opus HELLSING is not available in complete form (and in best quality) and his joyful Hollywood bombast of Keijo!!!!!!!! is still unreleased.

But aside from that he gave us two of the best scores of the anime medium, (HELLSING and DRIFTERS) performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic. HELLSING is an operatic tour-de-force for one of fiction’s greatest characters (Vlad) and is filled to the brim with Star-Wars-level action and bombast. 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 (I love "Der Freisch�tz" so props to the staff for using it in the OVAs). DRIFTERS in particular just oozes Star Wars like nothing in the anime medium before. It’s the best Star Wars score not written by Williams since Shadows of the Empire.

If we venture further in time we discover that Matsuo was luckily given enough budget to write some grade A film scores. Street Fighter Zero is a homage to classic 70s orchestral magic and Magic Knight Rayearth is an operatic stageplay with concert-grade symphonic suites intersected by beautiful chamber pieces. One of his best. Haunted Junction and Kaitou Saint Tail are fun orchestral adventures with the former being inspired by Tanaka and the latter being more classical influenced.

Les Mis�rables is a formidable detour into the wonderful classical film score world full of imperial splendor and romantic moments. A joyful period piece of work.

The World God Only Knows is a continuation of this style but sadly with less budget but if you can stomach the fake it’s just as excellent, just a bit more playful and romantic.

Phantom Blood is a tragic case because that score would have worked so well with a symphonic ensemble. Still, the good music can triumph over audio limitations so it’s still worth a listen in my opinion.

Spirit of Wonder is a more eclectic album but still full of wonderful classic film score moments.

The last two albums focus on his role as arranger and orchestrator since he’s quite busy in this field of work. Shenmue is a great orchestral album mainly to the excellent arrangements by Matsuo. His commissions include his work for the legendary Game Music Concerts as well as some other solo projects such as the orchestral arrangements for FFXII.

Here we have a composer that needs more projects asap, if Drifters is any indication then his best (career) years are perhaps upon us.

As usual, I arranged the albums with a classic film score mentality.


Enjoy

:(

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-04-07/mobile-suit-gundam-composer-yushi-matsuyama-dies-after-house-fire/.114528

Holy COW! This is a wonderful gift ^^ Thank you so much for sharing it.

Shocking and sad to hear about Matsuyama - thank you for highlighting the news... RIP... :(

The Legacy of Japanese Composers
Akira Senju



Akira Senju is another Japanese master romanticist and the familiar Japanese phenomenon of a composer writing concert works for media. If you see him in interviews he�s really a very gentle and soft-spoken fellow and his music certainly reflects that. He is also an enigma in the sense that no other Japanese composer has as many recordings with eastern European orchestras and worked with European conductors as he does. Senju was actively working to form lasting musical relations between countries on the other side of the world and was one of the main instigators we have to thank dearly that we�re hearing so much Warsaw scores today. To this day he still upholds that close relation and had a concert with Warsaw in Tokyo last year.

But before I begin to delve into his body of work, let�s address the elephant in the room:
Yes, Senju very much likes to quote himself a lot, to unhealthy degrees and has a template of various tricks and moments he likes to repeat. Even among these �Best Selections� you will hear various pieces with the same underlying structure. But it�s by no means as bad as with someone like Horner, where it�s the same piece, note for note with minor alterations at best. Every score maybe has the same foundations but what is build upon those is most of the time (apart from Valvrave) unique enough to not cause illness known as �Horner fatigue� ;)

As always, the credits go to tangotreats, nextday, Akashi San and Herr Salat for providing various albums in FLAC that are hard to obtain physically.

Romantic Selections

Part I � Symphonic Selections



Download (https://mega.nz/#!MB0zRaQC!v3UesnucoEBSNEwjuTgJK0fX7S39JgJa1SASh-AsaEY)

Let�s begin with some of his very best symphonic works. THOUSAND NESTS is basically his Symphony No. 2 and a stunning concert arrangement of his TV score for Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, performed by the Cracow Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Gundam series really stands as a pinnacle of astonishing symphonic music for media products and he really outdid himself with this one. Not that the TV score isn�t already a masterpiece but here the music is more refined and focused, it�s very much Senju at his very best.

Walk�re Story for Orchestra, performed by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra is a symphonic arrangement of Hiroyuki Kawada�s score for the video game Valkyrie no Densetsu and a glorious romantic Fantasy score, Senju pretty much makes Kawada�s music his own with his unique trademarks and style. An essential album for anyone in love with symphonic game music.

Hikaru Genji is one of the most phenomenal pop arrangement albums I�ve heard, sounding more like a Golden Age film score than pop arrangement album, thanks to Senju�s brilliant orchestrations. It�s full of moments of romantic violin concerto and Hollywood grandeur.

Requiem for Showa is another brilliant symphonic work, essentially a concert work written for the Japanese film 226. Senju�s trademarks appear very strong here and his classical influences can be felt most prominently here. �Destiny� is definitely among my favorite Senju pieces.


Part II � The Warsaw Selections



Download (https://mega.nz/#!cF9yTSLL!UjLAl-Gp-jMREDFqVdhJ-vyFg2K8PeN2iYQy1nJ2YfA)

Furin Kazan is a glorious collaboration between Senju and Warsaw� what a theme! That B section is to die for. The rest is some of the very best music Senju has ever written. I also think that it�s a blessing that there�s almost no �battle tracks� and mostly romantic or tension tracks, as it is no secret that I think this is Senju�s strongest field. Again, it is more concert work than TV score if you get down to it and definitely among my top ten NHK drama scores.

The Mystery of Rampo is another masterpiece by Senju, this time performed by the Czech Philharmonic. It�s Senju at his most romantic, intimate and introspective. The score is full of absolute beauty and grace and transports your mind to another plane of reality. The Main Theme is a real killer as well, a tragic waltz in style of Shostakovich.

Chinmoku (The Silent Fleet) is another case of Senju being at his best when there�s almost no action. It�s all delicious mystery and tension with introspective moments. A very unusual war score indeed, the music again being elevated by Warsaw.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is certainly among his most popular works. He has written over two hours of score but I think a more concise symphonic album with the essential themes would have been preferable to what we got. But what is there is still gold. Over an hour of Warsaw score with concert grade music. Senju has written some of the very best action tracks and marches for this project. Everything related to the B side of the Main Theme, most prominent in the Overture, and everything related to Amestris with that very Copelandesque tone, is my favorite. This time I�ve included every orchestral piece from the series as there are some very enjoyable concert pieces worth listening to.


Part III � TV Selections



Download (https://mega.nz/#!INEGCYQJ!ZKPJx74UxS82vD1-rCwuFUFYUKnp1DmfFunbL1OFQ3c)

Victory Gundam is a remarkable score for one of Japan�s most revered franchises, certainly among the very best Gundam scores and on many favorite�s lists. For good reason, Senju delievers on all front with a romantic war score with strong themes and classic action. Some of my absolute favorite Senju moments are present here (M-51).

99 Years of Love is yet another great TV drama with a fantastic theme and plenty of the usual Senju romanticism, this time mixed with classic Hollywood grandeur and some divine moments like �Soldier�s Aria�.

Red Garden is in many ways a complementary work to Rampo and equally impressive. Introspective and reflective of the human soul and especially noteworthy because of Senju�s orchestral arrangement of KOKIA songs.

The Snow Queen is very much the usual Senju trademarks and style in full World Masterpiece Theater mode. The romantic Violin pieces appear with much more vigor and heart than usual. The songs are gorgeous as well.

Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem is a very unique score from Senju with the use of E-Guitar and Erhu in addition to the usual symphonic score. Even with a small studio-sized ensemble he works the same magic.

Valvrave is even more unique but in the sense that Senju goes along with the general conventions of anime action, almost Sahashiesque in certain parts. You can also consider it a best of from his various concert pieces, this time performed with orchestral rock, modern percussion and Morricone/Sahashi vocals. I like it.


Part IV � Film Selections



Download (https://mega.nz/#!1RsTgTbL!QB10l5PvVjKZzmZn2PpmAfaeq_s4xXM5i8P4u4WcYK4)

The Dream of Africa is in best fashion another symphonic work full of romanticism. Senju�s answer to Barry�s Out of Africa.

GRAND ODYSSEY is a classic Hollywood SciFi adventure score they just don�t make no more. The only fault are the rather short tracks, but the theme is excellent and is has some great action moments.

Concerto Nippon has many winks to classical composers , even direct references but Senju still puts in enough of his own to make a great score.

Magic Tree House has another theme to die for but like GRAND ODYSSEY too much short tracks for my liking. But the lengthy pieces and �THAT Theme�, to quote Tango, more than make up for it�s shortcomings.

Walking my Life is a very romantic Senju, almost entirely focused on piano and perfect for a relaxing afternoon listen or a quiet night. Very serene.

The last album are various Main Themes he composed over the course of his long and successful career. I�ve spiced it up a notch with including some Themes from albums that didn�t make the cut in this selection because apart from the Main Theme there�s not much to them compared to Senju�s A-Game (Like Algernon, Battery or Vesperia).




Composer Profile: Akira Senju



Trademark: Concert Composer, Master of Melody, Notorious Copycat

Education: Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku

Style: Romantic Repertoire, Golden Age Film Score

Similar Western Composer: John Barry, 90s James Horner


Could anyone re-up this wonderful compilation? I am trying to download all Legacy collections... They're breathtaking. Vinphonic, thank you so much!

Here you go, the appendix will soon follow there as well... (but be careful, it goes down really far... :D)

http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?t=215484&highlight=



@Zipper: What a cruel world :(

So this is happening: http://gonintendo.com/stories/277484-the-legend-of-zelda-symphony-of-the-goddesses-getting-cd-release
I would say it is about time. Hopefully they pick the right music, and not the same stuff that's on CD twice already.
Thank you PonyoBellanote for finding this.

Yeah, hopefully it's something different! :) And as most complete as possible.

there is enough music for 3 cds now with the new additions.

Hattori Takayuki has a nice-sized, domestic orchestra in ID-0, and he appears to be deploying it a little better than in recent years - although obviously with just one episode, the true nature of the score cannot really be decided upon quite yet.

Yoshihiro Ike is back in Bahamut - another domestic orchestra of good size - the first episode opens with a huge apocalyptic orchestral/choral cue and the end credits sequence is a modern-day marvel - two glorious minutes of rollicking orchestral music accompanying a simple text scroll on a black background. So far, no big surprises and no particular change in style from Season 1 - which is fine by me!

Warau Salesman was never going to give us a big symphonic score, but it's nice to hear Tanaka whatever he's doing.

Hirano's Drive Head won't be heard until the weekend, with a curious lack of PV material so far... I think it's going to be unremarkable when considered with Hirano's output but will otherwise be a good score. Productions from Takara Tomy have tended towards good music budgets of late, so that should be a problem - though I do wonder if what is ostensibly a kids show will really encourage Hirano's psychedelic mix of baroque, classical, romantic, and avant-garde - will we get lobotomised Hirano this time? Hunterxhunter Series 1 Hirano, versus what I'd like to hear - Break Blade and Jeeg Hirano. Tomica Hero Rescue Fire, a live action series, was scored by Toshihiko Sahashi - and Sahashi's style is approachable, fun, and tuneful. Hirano is infrequently those things... ;)

I started this season a little late (yesterday) but I am very pleased so far, and we are not even halfway through :D




Yoshihiro Ike scoring Virgin Soul. Please let this be the future of TV-anime.

From the first second onward I knew I would love this. So much class from the opening title to logo to credits. Cygames (and Level 5) consistently demonstrate an unusal amount of passion and class these years.
Back to the score, Ike's theme for Nina is perhaps his most jolliest piece yet after Kamichu’s “Highschool Girls”. If the story is not going into dark brooding political drama like the first episode suggests but instead goes Indiana Jones like the pv indicates there will probably be much opportunity for this theme to shine. If I compare it to the first episode of Genesis, there’s much more going on in Virgin’s score and it feels completely scored to picture whereas Genesis was only partial. Still, in terms of actual content the first episode of Genesis was much more enjoyable with great panache and fun characters whereas this one feels “typically anime”. Also some trivia, the music actually spoilers a major story element in the first episode regarding the character of Nina. This could have been avoided with a more subtle counterpoint of the Bahamut theme and not simply playing it while Nina appears at the end to not give it away instantly. But all that aside, this is a must buy for any film music lovers, especially considering the stellar presentation of the score on the first album. They care about their bgm music a great deal.

PS: I just noticed it's actually 24 episodes!!! Oh we're in for quite a journey then.




Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine: I really enjoy this one so far. From the very first second the music demonstrates class. It’s all full of imperial splendor and Inai’s trademarks are noticeable everywhere. No “showpiece” yet but I imagine they will show up soon.

Grimoire of Zero: Like Virgin Soul, this feels scored to picture and has a classic cinematic opening scene with title (I noticed this trend starting in 2013 but TV-anime are becoming more cinematic in presentation). Another very string heavy score by Matsuda, probably because of the partially artificial brass (need another episode to confirm). I very much like what I’m hearing, classical fantasy, although the action is not exactly to my tastes so far but he has proven he can do it with more meat. The woodwind writing also reminds me of 90s Williams. Looking forward to the next episode.

Berserk: Warsaw is playing a waltz for 30 seconds in episode 2… so perhaps 2 or 3 more pieces of gold. The show itself is absolute garbage with no gravitas for anything. I can never comprehend this disaster on screen when the Golden Age films had great direction and some chilling scenes thanks to Amano and here we have a failed highschool film project with Sagisu playing DJ… ugh…

ID-0: Of course you're right Tango but I expect a more lighthearted Gundam Origin (which had some fantastic film score moments nontheless) with shimmers of Nadesico.

Seikaisuru Kado: The music so far is good by Iwashiro standards, similar to Gargantia but with less electronics. Ironic that this has less electronics than Arslan so far. Still, long gone are his early days of semi-classical albums disguised as OSTs but with luck we‘ll have another Symphonic Suite included.

Uchouten Kazoku 2: A (classical) showpiece appears at the end of the first episode, if there’s more of them I will definitely check out the OST. Gate was such a tragedy in terms of crippling an ambitious composer going full Hollywood (the fake brass still hurts).

Eromanga-sensei: I dig it but there’s not much to talk about. Same goes for Hinako Note and Twin Angel. I like how they are scored.

Re:Creators: Again, setting and story is irrelevant, everything sounds the same when Sawano joins in. If you are not tired of him yet, this one could have more melodic material than usual and maybe one or two decent score cues but don’t expect Gigantic Formula.

It has been refreshing to play Persona 5 and have it be a game I actually stick with the in-game music, same for Uncharted 4. After so much time playing The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition where the music is generally so bad I have to put on something else it is nice to have a fitting set of music that I can actually listen to. I don't love Uncharted 4's music separate from the game but it works so well that it at least isn't pushing me away like other music out there.

The music in the new Bahamut sounds great so far. Hopefully there are some strong themes coming up. It already has the big orchestra and choir. It's a medieval fantasy. There's no real reason to not have strong themes, right?

THAT TRUMPET SOLO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6x5WCf2Jw#t=53m12s)


After that, a jolly Wada jumps on stage and steals the show :D

Ah, good old Eric Miyashiro! :D

The trumpet remains my favourite instrument in the orchestra.

What Jerry Goldsmith did for the trumpet solo in film...I don't think can be overstated. That mix of grandeur and mystery, warmth and coolness, romance and heroism...


The music in the new Bahamut sounds great so far. Hopefully there are some strong themes coming up. It already has the big orchestra and choir. It's a medieval fantasy. There's no real reason to not have strong themes, right?

We can only hope... For me, this has been one place where Ike stumbles - even though I do like the sound and style when he goes for this type of score, melody tends to fall short.

I sure miss the times when Trumpet solos were associated with Hollywood music... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EnuV3mIv7M

This (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXeCrC2b5pQ) remains as one of my favorite trumpet solos with orchestra ever, from last year. She sure knows how to capture nobility within this piece with that trumpet segment :).

THAT TRUMPET SOLO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6x5WCf2Jw#t=53m12s)


After that, a jolly Wada jumps on stage and steals the show :DDear God what is Sagisu wearing in that first video. O_o

I forgot Amano was already 60, he sure looks worn out.

I love trumpet solos as well. My grandfather was a trumpet player and aside from being emotional on their own they remind me of when he would pull out his trumpet and have the same warmth as most of the solos in film scores.

(...) let's see first if someone will knock it out of the park (my bets on Inai and Ike) and who will disappoint (My bets on 5 new minutes of Warsaw, probably the choral piece, for Berserk).

Called it ;)



And Sword Oratoria is yet another series that feels scored to picture... until the last third (which is the score of the first season).

EDIT: Ah! Ike actually listens to my suggestions :D (Also nice wink at Powell's HTTYD)




As for my favorite orchestral instrument, I would pick the oboe but as far as "call and answer" goes I love the horns the most.

...Aaand, Drive Head is Lobotomy Hirano. Such a conventional sounding score, like a tiny-orchestra, Hans Zimmer percussion version of Superman, with occasional bursts of almost-apologetic dissonance - like Hirano is saying "Sorry, guys, I know you don't wanna hear this stuff, but just indulge me a tiny bit, OK?"

I guess we should be grateful that there IS an orchestra and that Hirano is scoring a full-length TV anime again AT LAST... but this is humiliating.

Totally not worthy of Hirano's genius; this is the epitomy of him phoning it a score to keep the lights on and pay the rent. This is lazy and non-committal infinitely beyond what I believed Hirano capable of at his worst.

And the orchestra seems to be be spread REALLY thin because the same cue is re-used four fucking times in the first episode alone.

This, combined with yet another missed Inai opportunity (Dungeon) and another Inai that *might* be at the very least worth hearing (Tutor) combined with a series of other anonymous sounding scores by anonymous, unskilled composers, a Hattori score that we're all hoping will be as good as Origin which itself was 97% terrible... and we have possibly the most disappointing April season for quite a number of years. There is no stand-out, no big orchestral score, no Warsaw, no significant work from an established name, and no breakout work from a newcomer.

When Yoshihiro Ike alone saves the season from complete mediocrity, you know you're in trouble. :(

Shame... even greater tragedy now that the new Break Blade got cancelled... imagine if he already recorded music for that :0

Also shame on Tatsuya, the wacky filler stuff feels really out of place to the somber tone of the rest of the music and setting... so why put them in there!?
I'll give it a couple more episodes but I'm no longer optimistic.

...Aaand, Drive Head is Lobotomy Hirano. Such a conventional sounding score, like a tiny-orchestra, Hans Zimmer percussion version of Superman, with occasional bursts of almost-apologetic dissonance - like Hirano is saying "Sorry, guys, I know you don't wanna hear this stuff, but just indulge me a tiny bit, OK?" Didn't Hirano say he was taking on all these kid show projects because he wanted to spread his love of classical music and give them a taste for it from an early stage? Because if that isn't the type of music he's producing here, then what is the point of him even taking on this project?

Legacy of Japan
Yoshihiro Ike
Orchestral Selection



PW: BahariMAX (https://anon.click/suxuc11)

Yoshihiro Ike is yet another Japanese composer with a distinctive voice and much display of classical and film music knowledge. Sometimes you catch him incorporating Dvorak�s New World Symphony into a score or directly quote Silvestri or Williams.

Some of his work can be really hit or miss and he is not one I would associate with great movie themes and he occasionally ventures into RC territory a bit too much but his classical film scoring sensibilities have improved over the years and if he is given an opportunity to do it like in the 80s, boy does he fire the guns. He always had a favor for large choral works in the vein of Verdi or Orff and certainly loves to deploy the orchestra�s low register in full force with cimbassi and contrabass bones.

He�s currently the �in-house� composer of Japanese company �Cygames� and is scoring numerous anime, games, TV-dramas and Live-action films. He also hosts various orchestral concerts of his media work, for example Bahamut or Tiger&Bunny.

A 20th anniversary album of his music was released of which I�ve selected all orchestral tracks for a good introduction of his work.

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is a Hollywood rollercoaster, going full Mask of Zorro or Carmina Burana. Ike was involved in one of the rare instances of a TV-anime being scored to picture so this is in essence a film score and it sure as hell impresses like one. Bombastic choral marches and villain themes for Demons, ethereal choral passages for Angels and frantic brass action for battles. Bahamut is a dream project for any composer wanting to write like the good old days and Ike delivered here perhaps the best score of his career. I personally can�t wait to hear all of his recent score for Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul and his game score for Tempest of the Gods which is scored in similar manner.

For the game Crimson Sea 2 Ike employs a real symphony orchestra and sends us again on an epic orchestral voyage but more in the context of the concert realm and less the big screen.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms X is another score performed by a big orchestra with much Chinese flair and classic Hollywood moments.

REIDEEN is a modern action score done right with much classical bravado and choral action.

The Great Passage is a full-on romantic detour full of uplifting moments that put a smile on your face. This optimistic drama score certainly lifts your spirit and here Ike employs his matured sensibilities.

Tiger & Bunny is a modern superhero score done right, with catchy themes, great action set-pieces that hold your attention for several minutes, spy-movie flair and classic film music moments. This is a combination of all the scores for the franchise, even including the musical homages to Nolan�s and Tim Burton�s Batman films.

With The Empire of Corpses and The Dark Side of Dimensions Ike continues to evoke the RC scoring style but like Sato he does this with the knowledge of a classical film composer so the result is haunting thrillers with major setpieces like �Playback of the soul� that is in part concerto for organ and orchestra.

Asura is a dark and depressing tale with much modern scoring elements but also symphonic beauty at the end.

Welcome to the Space Show is in parts classic ScFi and in parts Americana score with some real heartwarming moments.

Kamichu! Is a nice and relaxing afternoon score with guitar and chamber ensemble. His melody for the Highschool girls is incredibly catchy and puts a smile on my face.

Rush Hour is a great testament how much Ike�s style has matured. and if you consider his recent output and future projects (something similiar to Super Robot Wars in summer), he�s never been in better shape. Intriguing times ahead ;)

I think so, yes...

It's mind-boggling. I'm sure he can't be doing this because he wants to...


Because if that isn't the type of music he's producing here, then what is the point of him even taking on this project?

It's a paycheck, I guess...

It was always a miracle that Hirano was permitted to write the sort of music he wrote for anime - perhaps, though it pains me to say this, it eventually caught up with him and the powers that be have told him to tone it down. Earlier Hirano is replete with examples of music that would almost certainly make Average Joe cringe in discomfort; not just music that breaks the unwritten rule that film music should be inconspicious, but which actively smashes people over the head with sounds that 99.9% of the audience will find objectionable. I think it hit fever pitch in Ippo, which I absolutely LOVED but I believe to be a step too far for Hirano's experimentation - when I first heard it, frankly, I thought it would spell the end of Hirano's career. Somehow, it didn't - but ultimately every note of music he ever wrote after it... somehow didn't quite hit the spot as it once did, and when he (somehow) returned for 2013's Ippo Rising the difference in style is remarkable and very depressing.

My ex girlfriend, who was more musically-literate than probably most of anime's target audience, could never get her head round Hirano - and crucially, time and time again we were watching some show and some piece of score would suddenly appear and start insistently playing loud, atonal fanfares and furious woodwind runs, and she would suddenly breath in and say "Is this that Hirano bloke you like?"

It reminds me of the exact inverse of a conversation I had with a film director some years ago - like every other project I've been involved in, the film never got made - but in brief I was scoring a taut, austere, experimental drama - a short film of thirty minutes. My instructions were that the score should cover the film from start to finish without a break, be written for string orchestra only, based completely on variations of a three note motif, and avoid conventional tonality. It was a fun challenge. Believing that half an hour of constant grim, dissonant, themeless utterly cerebral but completely un-emotional music would not have the desired emotional effect, I decided that it would be good to have the score briefly "phase" into pure romance at key moments and then drift back into dissonance. I did a six minute demo suite for the director in which I introduced the motif and ran it through as many variations I could think of, and the guy's sitting there nodding approvingly and loving it, and then comes the burst of tonality I was so proud of. I've never seen a face drop so quickly. "Aw, why the hell did you have to do THAT?!" he boomed, and that was the last time we ever spoke!

Back on topic... Immediately after Ippo, we have Book of Bantorra - which showed the beginnings of Hirano's new streamlined style; in which dissonance slowly moved out of the fabric of the music itself and became more like window dressing kept at a respectful distance. Then, Chu-Bra - which, again, I liked, but was another sign that Hirano's approach to television anime was changing. A year later, we have Broken Blade - the last gasp of old Hirano. The first appearance of Lobotomy Hirano in 2011 with HunterxHunter which, at times, is so different to Hirano's style that one could almost be forgiven for failing to identify his influence at all. Then Driland, a cheapie with some good moments but short, underdeveloped cues and a far sunnier, less-complicated harmonic language. Then Ippo Rising... Then a couple of Hunterxhunter movies ranging from terrible to reasonable. Then a series of children's one-shot shows...

And now, here we are in 2017 with a score that sounds like a cheap mash-up of Pirates Of The Caribbean and Superman with one or two jarring chords which almost sound as if they are paying lip service. It sounds like a bad composer who is taking the piss out of Hirano.

On top of that, every single note that isn't plagiarised from John Williams' Big Book Of Superhero Cliches is clearly a sanitised copy-and-paste from a previous Hirano score.

Hirano has moved from "I want to educate young people about the joys of modern classical music" to "Meh, fuck this shit, I just want to get paid!"

To have to say this about Hirano, my hero, is painful...

I mean, at this point I have no idea whether Hirano is doing these dumb kids toys commercials because he wants to or because it's the only jobs he gets outside of orchestrating others' music. You would think that the guy who scored Death Note and Ouran and Break Blade would have enough weight to his name to get some of the bigger projects out there. Instead all those 40-violins sessions go straight to Sawano and co...

Is Hirano active on the concert scene? I know Senju is nowadays and only occasionally autopilots through some crappy anime like Valvrave to pay his bills.

Way back on page 152 (December 2009, folks - wow!) I posted something I was awfully proud of at the time - a vinyl transfer of Jerry Goldsmith's masterpiece Poltergeist. It was a good transfer - it still is - but with Poltergeist, "good enough" is never good enough, and since I have massively upgraded my playback equipment this year, I transferred it again this evening. Ohh, boy. I fear that you may hang yourselves if I go off on one of my "Goldsmith is God" journeys... so I'll keep it short and sweet. The score is magnificent - as I'm sure you all know because you've heard it a thousand times - but the vinyl transfer is just gorgeous. Please open the "Spoiler" to read a little more about why this should be, if you're interested - other than that, enjoy!

Review from FFShrine's resident tin-eared moaner:




Jerry Goldsmith
POLTERGEIST
(orchestrations by Arthur Morton - The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jerry Goldsmith)

LP Transfer



https://mega.co.nz/#!I0hwjYAD!K42CVhKPwg4ZEcRojs_8zBELxzVYdE_RcDl1QcZ Y8AM

Transfer from near-mint condition German pressing on MGM Records. Some light restoration has been undertaken but a handful of clicks and thumps remain where removing them would have harmed the music. Restored scans included. FLAC at Level 8. No MP3 this time, folks - if any upload in the history of this forum deserved to be heard in FLAC, it's this one.

�So, why the hell would you listen to your favourite score on some old obsolete black vinyl disc, if it�s been released in pristine sound quality on CD?!�

Invariably, that�s the question that I hear most frequently when I start talking about vinyl. To be honest, it�s not an assessment I disagree with in general. �Vinyl people� have a lot to answer for, with their completely untrue but no-less forthright assertion that vinyl �sounds better� than anything. It doesn�t. On a technical level, all things being equal, it�s completely outclassed in every way by CD � and that�s a fact that can be measured, verified, and proven.

Despite that, there are still reasons to prefer a vinyl release over a CD release � all things are often not equal. It�s deliciously ironic that current abuse of modern technology has imbued 100 year-old technology with new relevance. Vinyl is difficult to master �hot� so you�ll often find greater dynamic range than in the equivalent digital release � particularly if the CD release was �remastered� by an overzealous engineer caught up in the loudness war. In other cases, the vinyl release was cut from a superior master which was subsequently lost or too badly degraded to use by the time the re-issue came about. That�s the case with Poltergeist.

Poltergeist was originally recorded digitally and also on 35mm film for backup. The LP was cut directly from the digital recording, but neither element could be found intact when it came time to produce the CD. Rhino�s disc was mastered from copies of copies of copies, and FSM�s later disc from oxidised four-track �� backup tapes which were by all accounts falling to pieces, had to be baked before transfer, and were destroyed in the process. Over the past thirty years, they suffered bleed-through from sync tracks, leading to some messy restoration work. Additionally, the LP�s mix is often regarded as superior when compared to the backup mix.

All this adds up to a startling fact; it really genuinely *is* worth listening to the LP release of Poltergeist, and whilst it may not be the most complete presentation of the score, it�s certainly the highest quality.

Now, to something that is not worthwhile: You will notice that my release is at 44100khz, 16-bit. You will notice other people produce LP transfers at insane sampling rates and bit-depths and conclude that they must be better because the number is bigger. These people are purveyors of snake oil and nothing more. A digital recording at 44100khz preserves frequencies from 0 up to about 22050khz. Human hearing tops out at around 20000khz and is, in practice, much lower for most people. Preserving sounds that we are physically incapable of hearing (our frequency limitations are directed by the mechanics of our hearing system and the shapes of our ear canals) is a waste of bitrate. Unless your dog (or cat, or bat � both have even better hearing than dogs) is a fan of Jerry Goldsmith the gain is zero. Aside from that, most �signal� above 22050khz is distortion. Correspondingly, a bit depth of 16 bits allows accurate preservation of 96dB of dynamic range � and no recording ever made in the history of humanity has ever reached that level; not even experimental recordings. 99.9% of commercially produced recordings are lucky if they have half that. Again, higher bit depths mean bigger files and slower downloads, but absolutely nothing as far as sound quality goes.

One can be an audiophile and NOT be an idiot; golden ears do not exist.

All that said, my initial transfer is made at 96000khz 24-bit for a number of reasons � when processing digital audio, generational loss is introduced as a result of rounding errors � initial sampling and subsequent processing at higher bitrates and bit depths minimise the impact of these errors. Transferring at a rate of 96000khz makes it easier for restoration algorithms to tell the difference between noise and signal � and eases human analysis of spectrographs. Thus, there is a real and genuine case to record and master higher. For distribution, standard CD-quality audio 44100khz 16-bit � is sufficient to capture all and above that is within the human hearing spectrum.

Finally, a plea: Dear world, please stop calling vinyl transfers "rips" - you cannot rip vinyl. Rip means to copy digital data from one storage medium to another. Digitising vinyl requires care, attention, and good quality equipment. One is not merely copying ones and zeroes. It is a labour of love and a process entirely dependent on a human being.


Would you still have this file? If so, could you re-upload it, please? I'd love to check it out as well. Thank you so much in advance.

I was only a matter of time but last year Touhou was getting "professional" symphony concerts in may and october with a limited CD release of selected arrangements sold at the venue.

This year theres "Gensokyo Symphony Orchestra - Phantom Frenzy" on May, 3, the third Touhou concert. All professionally performed and arranged.

It was all performed by JAGMO (JApan Game Music Orchestra) who continue their stellar presentation and their goal: "We have a vision to make game music leave a mark in music history". It was the first professional game music orchestra established in Japan in 2014 and made an impression with the "Symphonic Gamers" concert. They have really good arrangers on their team and their performance of Zelda is among my favorites.

http://jagmo.jp/

A real shame then all this quality is limited to exclusive events. Their recent Battle Symphony as well. The CDs from Touhou only feature a small selection of (string quartet) arrangements and are not available anywhere online to my knowledge... but perhaps nextday can conjure something up, I hope you can find something:


http://www.4gamer.net/games/269/G026946/20160502011/




Coincidentally, the Japan Studio concert is on the same day: Who is excited for Miyashiro's next baller performance?! (just imagine a Gravity Rush 2 improv), I hope it gets put up on youtube as well with THAT lineup:

I. Q Intelligent Cube

Theme of Arc the Lad

Popolocroise Story

Wild Arms

A flower that crosses my corpse

Parappa the Rapper

ICO: Castle in the Mist

Shadow of the Colossus

Last Guardian

GRAVITY DAZE

GRAVITY DAZE 2

Would you still have this file? If so, could you re-upload it, please? I'd love to check it out as well. Thank you so much in advance.

Funny you should mention that - I did a third transfer of this yesterday as I needed one track for a new project I'm working on... So shortly I will upgrade the links. :)

Kirby Orchestra Concert was today. Shogo Sakai orchestrated all the music except for 1 song. Hopefully they release an album in the near future. :)


The CDs from Touhou only feature a small selection of (string quartet) arrangements and are not available anywhere online to my knowledge... but perhaps nextday can conjure something up, I hope you can find something.
They're releasing a 2nd CD next month with big band arrangements. And sorry, I've not been able to turn up the 1st CD either. I'm not sure why the orchestra doesn't release an orchestra CD.

Funny you should mention that - I did a third transfer of this yesterday as I needed one track for a new project I'm working on... So shortly I will upgrade the links. :)

Really?! What a great coincidence! Well, I can't wait to listen to one more of your amazing quality share ^^. Thank you 1000x!

Yokoyama's recording session for IBO's soundtrack in New York:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3o-nO-wwlk

Not sure why he even went there if all he was going to do was record separate ensembles like how its typically done in Japan.

good no even great news from hollywood for a change:Seth McFarlanes Space Live Action Action Comedy Show Orville will be scored by Bruce Broughton and Joel McNeely and with a real orchestra as well.Maybe Even Ron Jones will get to score some episodes in the future, who knows.

I expected it, since McFarlane is one of us... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjuj5SJQg-8

Seth really REALLY picks the BEST people for composing I swear. Bruce Broughton, McNeely, Jones.. fantastic, seriously. Can't wait to hear..

Bruce Broughton scoring a live-action American episodic TV series with a real orchestra, in 2017... WONDERFUL! :D

Broughton + Space = Magic

Very exciting news indeed!

Tilman Sillescu uploaded the first two movements of his symphony "Nachtlichter" on YouTube today:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSNwALzO_0s
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3DfzThMO_Q


Oh, and look what Hirano wrote for a concert. :)

i really enjoyed those two movements.i hope theres more than those. the 2.second one is straight up action music, fresh and excting!

Oh, and look what Hirano wrote for a concert. :) Why of all places, the Thailand Philharmonic?

i really enjoyed those two movements.i hope theres more than those. the 2.second one is straight up action music, fresh and excting!
There's still two more, but they aren't finished yet. He's thinking about making a CD when it's all done.


Why of all places, the Thailand Philharmonic?
I believe it was a commission. The good news is that the Thailand Philharmonic uploads a lot of videos on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG-vHuKwtAVTRhV1Ac_f3eQ/videos), so maybe we'll get to hear this one.

This specific concert (http://www.thailandphil.com/events/legends-and-fantasies/) will take place on June 23rd and 24th.


Edit: Yokoyama had another overseas recording - this time in Budapest (https://www.facebook.com/myokoyama0/posts/1472166896158775). I still have no clue why people like his music so much.

Yokoyama had another overseas recording - this time in Budapest (https://www.facebook.com/myokoyama0/posts/1472166896158775). I still have no clue why people like his music so much.I guess he's just easy to work with and has the reputation from working on big projects to keep pursuing bigger projects. He's the Brian Tyler of anime.

Only with no Lego Universe and Children of Dune to show so I would say he's far worse.









John DeSentis and his Orchestra
Symphonic Fury! The Music of Japanese Monsters
Music composed and arranged by Kow Otani and Akira Ifukube



PW: 1943 (https://anon.click/dugov81)


My friends, here we have a blueprint for how to do kickstarter projects right (regarding our favorite subject) with true professionalism and modesty. The very first process for this musical tribute was to get the original composer involved and Otani personally arranged his music and attended the concert.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1094605844/symphonic-fury-the-music-of-japanese-monsters?ref=nav_search

You can really sense the excitement by the audience. This is music performed by and for those that really care to hear it in the concert hall. Recording quality aside, I would really like to hear more of these passion projects. Who knows, perhaps there are enough Sentai (and Ultraman) fans worldwide to get a smiliar thing going. I would gladly spend money on it if the first thing they announced is to get Yamashita (et al.) for arrangements and stage Q&A.

You can still buy the (very limited) CD from their store and it is recommended if you like the music.


http://genesis54inc.com

Only with no Lego Universe and Children of Dune to show so I would say he's far worse.Should be obvious from educational background alone, Tyler got his Masters from Harvard after all, and is more musically literate than 95% of the people working in Hollywood. But as far as reputation goes, I would put them in the same plate. Same way I would group Giacchino with Yuugo Kanno, based on their projects and popularity, even though Kanno has more talent in his fingertip than Giacchino's entire body.

I wonder if Brian Tyler's general poor track record of music is because of his own abilities or producers telling him what to do.

EDIT: Silly me, turns out Tyler's degree was in history and philosophy, even though he did take quite a few music and composition classes on the side.

I pity Brian Tyler, he has the brains and heart and perhaps could have knocked it out of the park if he was scoring in the 80s but his career is a living prison full of focus-tested assembly line productions where the music is pre-determined by a commitee and almost zero chance of personality. I really believe all of his puplic display is full of cynicism and he doesn't really show any real interest for the projects he writes. If you check out the videos of recording sessions through the ages from JNH for example you can really see the joy disappearing from his face... the warmth and heart of Wyatt Earp will probably never return. And Alan Menken... what a downward slope from Hunchback (I rewatched it recently and damn... what Disney once was capable of)... tragic times. Any composer who works over there and has lived through this transformation process and can fully comprehend just what Hollywood has lost can only resort to cynicism to stay sane (like poor Elfman did).

Only Star Wars and McFarlane remain as entities where I'm honestly excited about any new project. I can see the possibility of The Last Jedi being Williams Swan Song and Broughton without a short deadline like Lost in Space soaring into space could leave a mark in film music history... but ultimately my cynic side sees this as the last flickering embers before the fire fades.

Makes you wonder why Hollywood composers haven't tried going across the world to other countries to try scoring films there. Worked incredibly well for Mike Verta and Steve Jablonsky. It's not like they can't afford it. Even Morricone stopped caring about Hollywood. If Zimmer "clone" #163 Jablonsky can churn out a wonderful symphonic score just by coming to Japan, imagine what other composers of even higher caliber can do. Imagine Alan Menken given a budget for Warsaw to score that upcoming Miyazaki-esque film from Ponoc, and free reign to write whatever he wanted without any worry about temp tracks or focus testing. Imagine Howard Shore being asked to score the new season of Attack on Titan instead of Sawano. We can all dream, but my question still stands.

I wonder if Hollywood will ever have the guts to film and score a scene like this again, animated or not:

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

One word: money. Hollywood probably pays much better than Japan ever will.

Don't forget Mark Mancina's great score for Blood+ which came out of no where in the mid-2000s. I swear I hear bits of Macross Frontier and Avatar in it.

^Nice catch! I also forgot that Morricone scored a Taiga Drama.

I wonder if Hollywood will ever have the guts to film and score a scene like this again, animated or not:

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


It's really amazing that this level of craft will never look "dated" and its from the 50s!!!!. Only the recording quality of the music and sound gives its age away. Then again, with modern equipment I can only imagine Oshima nailing it 100% like those times. Iwasaki could pull it of too of course, but I dread the engrish.

Thing is, I have the feel a lot of Japanese musicians are fond or orchestral music. You tend to find orchestral music even in the most simplest of animes while in Hollywood it's all synth. A lot of anime music pieces that go orchestral tend to be very classical and like the old times. I think it's a matter of money and want. Japan has the musical talent, they may not have the great orchestra.

Well I'm not so sure about that. True, many composers like Sahashi deserve far bigger ensembles but even he worked with the LSO. The absolute cream of the crop has pretty much all their music performed by worldclass musicians. Hisaishi is 95% symphony orchestra. Same with Yoko Kanno. Oshima has many worldclass soundtrack recordings under her belt. Warsaw and London are frequently visited by the Japanese. Kan Sawada has 100% authentic Hollywood recordings for Doraemon. And most truely great Japanese scores are performed by symphony orchestras. The real problem is that there are not enough symphonic-sized ensembles with adequate facilities available for the sheer number of composers who want to write for this size. But even studio recordings do sound much better now than yesteryear.

Tango will disagree but I find this season extraordinary, but for different reasons. Pretty much every show has at least a small orchestral ensemble and a composer who knows what it can do. Some are scored to picture, others like usual, some with 60s disco influences, others straight out of the Hollywood repertoire. The variety of different orchestral styles and personal voices is just astounding. Iwashiro provides opening and ending of a show and from the first few bars you know it's him instantly. Hattori employs some very oldschool TV brass heavy action. Inai delivers a romantic cue in the recent Haine that could be part of a romantic concert. In the recent episode of LWA we have pretty much 5 minutes of uninterrupted orchestral score full of wonder straight out of a Disney film from the 50s. A silly fetish comedy begins with a score cue straight out of a 30s cartoons. Matsuda has very little brass but he refuses to use "synth" and instead writes around it and it really sounds like a fantasy score from the early 90s. Even some fanservice show pays tribute to symphonic metal. Pretty much 95% of music this season is totally fine in the professional sense at the very least. The usual Hollywood RC approach makes up just about 5% of all shows airing this season, and even then it has personality. Like Sawano or not but nobody else sounds like him.

Add to that the recent games from Gravity Rush 2 and Azure Revolution to Nier, Breath of the Wild and Persona 5, and you have a level of variety that has never been greater in quantity and quality. Pretty much every musical style that has been invented in the last century is now more alive than ever. And they all couldn't be further apart from each other in terms of musical voice. Especially Nier Automata, with the usage of ethnic vocals, the "handcrafted" synths and of course the brilliant idea of the entire score being done with retro chipsounds as well so it can be switched on the fly with the live ensemble, is very unique if nothing else.



Just look at two recent trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNPr7NaBLSU (now this is podracing!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH5VvkGVjjQ



Specific historic musical terms like "70s" and "80s" we use on our side are meaningless in Japan, as the 70s and 80s never left. All musical ages and styles continue to accumulate and thrive over there and it is truely the greatest marvel of our times (musically).

It's really amazing that this level of craft will never look "dated" and its from the 50s!!!!. Only the recording quality of the music and sound gives its age away. Then again, with modern equipment I can only imagine Oshima nailing it 100% like those times. Iwasaki could pull it of too of course, but I dread the engrish.Good animation and music is timeless. The funny thing is that that was the only musical number in the Sleeping Beauty, and it was portrayed as a ballet rather than a sing-a-long. Imagine how poorly "Let it Go" will be remembered 50 years from now, as just another pop song. And CGI, unlike hand-drawn animation, also ages very poorly.

Sleeping Beauty is IMO the pinnacle of Disney animated films. Truly one of the few films out there that I would label as operatic. Tchaikovsky's score was the icing on the cake. It's a shame that it flopped back then, and Disney went back to its old ways of talking animal sidekicks since.

Speaking of Iwasaki, I found out recently that the reason he decided to pursue a career in music was because he won the choral composition competition in his local prefecture back in his high school days... and now look at how much of his music uses vocals!

Disney had it's last high point in the late 90s and early 2000s for me, not to mention their last great scores. Hunchback would be one of my favorites if it didn't include the asinine comic relief moments that totally work against the drama and ruin otherwise great moments. The heart of the film is fortunately still great and tearjerking. Mulan's Avalanche scene is still one of western animation's greatest moments (thanks to Jerry) and I also like Atlantis as a conventional adventure only animated. I also especially liked how Treasure Planets main conflict was the internal struggle of a man who never had a son but saw his early self in a boy who desperately needed a father figure in his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Fbfo33mXs (Most of the score did not move me but Howard really did it for me with the Silver and Jim scenes).

Sawano has finally completed his transformation from a film composer to a J-Rock star like Kajiura:

https://twitter.com/R3BR0K/status/852277886446964736

It was announced that the Monster Strike Symphony ~Prelude~ concert will be streamed live on YouTube. The stream will be on April 27th, 19:00 JST at this channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/monsterstrikepr

The symphony was originally performed at a gaming event last year with a smaller orchestra. This one will take place at an actual concert hall with a full size orchestra.

The music is very nice, so I hope they announce a CD afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL_3ymHYBg

If you ever wondered why Attack on Titan's openings have much better "music" in them than the actual show, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Akira Senju arranges for Linked Horizon from time to time. Not to downplay the quality of the band itself, their concert Luxendarc Kikou is one of the greatest symphonic metal concerts I've ever heared (with the emphasis on "symphonic") but especially the last quarter is just INSANE and some of the best Castlevania music ever performed ;)

Oh and Senju orchestrated and conducted the concert. I believe it's no coincidence that shortly after his involvement with Linked Horizon he scored Valvrave and suddenly much rock elements poped up in the score. I guess he liked it :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrIpuaWVAec#t=55m55s





@nextday: Any new info about a cd release of the Seiken Densetsu 25th Anniversary Concert? So many concert projects in the last and coming months and not one has a cd release confirmed :(




EDIT: How John Williams is Scoring The Last Jedi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p5lXJkGqYc)

News: Yamakan's movie reached it's funding goal with 5 days left - https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/11715


If you ever wondered why Attack on Titan's openings have much better "music" in them than the actual show, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Akira Senju arranges for Linked Horizon from time to time. Not to downplay the quality of the band itself, their concert Luxendarc Kikou is one of the greatest symphonic metal concerts I've ever heared (with the emphasis on "symphonic") but especially the last quarter is just INSANE and some of the best Castlevania music ever performed ;)
Senju doesn't really have anything to do with it - he did piano arrangement and conducting, but that's about it. Everything else was done by the band's leader Revo.


@nextday: Any new info about a cd release of the Seiken Densetsu 25th Anniversary Concert? So many concert projects in the last and coming months and not one has a cd release confirmed :(

It's a bit too soon to say for a lot of these. It hasn't even been a month since the Seiken Densetsu concert, Kirby has another concert in June, etc.


Edit: It has come to my attention that Yoko Kanno has written 2 new pop songs for the Macross 35th Anniversary Project. Perhaps she is getting ready to return to the series? One can only hope.

Excellent. Music in a film isn't something you can just slap on near the end of the process... It has to be there throughout the production, where the music can inform the actors, the story, and the production techniques and vice versa.

As regards all this sudden "explosion" of orchestral concerts... the two things 99.9% of them have in common is that the music is terrible and the orchestration is terrible. None of them care about the music, all of them care about the franchise. Do we REALLY need MORE from Seiken Densetsu? Next thing I'll hear there's been a Final Fantasy concert with One Winged Angel and that terrible fake opera... and THAT will probably get a release because nobody cares that Final Fantasy's scoring golden age was twenty years ago and the most recent scores have been utterly awful... IT'S FINAL FANTASY!!!!! I KNOW THAT GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 80'S NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD!!!!!!!!!

Apart from Final Symphony and its associated concerts, there hasn't been a meaningful symphonic album release of anything at all since Gundam Symphony in 2009 - just "Runaway Success ♥ SUPER ♥ LOVE ♥ Crappy Franchise Money Printing Super Orchestra Night Merchandising ★ POWER ★ UP ★" which consists of music that sounds like third-rate J-pop and a dozen different orchestrators who plainly can't muster *any* enthusiasm for what they're doing.

I'm glad the orchestra is there, but make no mistake - nobody cares about it... It's just there. It's a fad. People who like anime go to these concerts because it's fun to pretend to go to the Symphony. And I can 100% guarantee that nobody's going to leave any of these concerts thinking "WOW, I'm definitely coming back for Scriabin's complete symphony cycle in the summer!" - they think "WOW, I heard tunes I knew from this show I like!" and then tomorrow they've forgotten all about it.

Just look at what comes up... 80% of it is 25th Anniversary, 30th Anniversary, etc - the other 20% is dreck like Kancolle, Random Porn Game 3, Miku, etc, which isn't good music - it's bad music written for a franchise that happened to make a shit-tonne of money and now, thanks to the ever-present and criminally under-appreciated orchestrator, 70 piece orchestras are playing it and suddenly we're pretending that it's Beethoven's symphonies and that the future of classical music is saved because they managed to fill a concert hall with rabid cosplaying anime fans who would probably pay �10,000 for a turd if it came in a display box and was marked "limited edition"...

So, changing the topic before the dead horse gets beaten again, what would you guys say is the best work from Sagisu in his pre-Amano days?

I've been listening to his older soundtracks and I must say he is right up there with Mancini as a jazz composer. Such a shame he's been pigeon-holed into the "epic choir and e-guitar" guy when not with Amano.

I still think he's a hack for accepting such a role with zero guilt, but he's not without talent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px7FFMOTtyM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the rare times Iwasaki pulls a Sahashi impression (albeit with synth):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjf-ChOkzq4

God, tango I pity you.

Thank you, I think.

The Zipper - I know I tend to push this agenda... but other push the other side of the agenda without being challenged (everything is awesome, all these concerts are fantastic, we're entering a new symphonic golden age) and I believe that both viewpoints should be encouraged - including the ones I don't agree with.

Now... If I may answer both your questions, including the one you deleted which was a good question too... ;)

1. Sagisu... My favourite Sagisu is actually from the Amano age, but it's Sagisu playing to his sublime strengths - as a pop and jazz arranger. His arrangement of "Smile" for the end titles of "Friends - Naki On Monster Island" is just gorgeous. I usually run a mile from modern covers of old songs, especially when they involve a Japanese singer making a hash of English-language lyrics... but this is just so splendid. Sagisu can deploy a light touch with the best of them, with just the right amount of warmth, old world romanticism, and honesty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2q_x4wIz80 Sagisu becoming the new big orchestral composer was a case of the wrong person being in the right place - or perhaps, the right person being in the wrong place. He's good, just not at that.

2. Best Oshima... I must agree with you - I think Tempest comes in just a tad under FMA - despite FMA's compositional immaturity... I think Tempest (and a lot of recent orchestral scores) suffer from tightening budgets - Oshima's music budget with FMA was so generous that she could really let it all hang out, and didn't have to carefully choose moments in which to deploy the orchestra. (I find that when orchestra time is limited, it usually goes disproportionally to the big apocalyptic battle cues - in FMA, Oshima was able to give us that, plus the romance, plus the pastoral beauty, plus the moments of pure lyricism. I think Tempest is better written, but there needed to be twice as much orchestra time as there was in order for Oshima to properly flesh out the kaleidoscope of ideas presented therein. Other Oshima I really love... Planet Of Life, any of her Godzilla scores. Particularly Tokyo SOS - the end roll is just delicious - who else, today, would have the guts to end a Godzilla movie with a lovely, expansive love theme in Oshima's greatest traditions of heartbreaking, sweeping melodies? Kulta is perhaps a minor entry in her discography, but I really enjoy it... X'amd has the theme to end all themes - two themes to end all themes, in fact - including one where Oshima goes full-on Hisaishi... Snow White is the kind of romance score that couldn't happen anywhere but Japan these days - larger than life, theatrical romance full of big, but honest gestures. Oh yes, and Sayonara Ozu Sensei!!! :D

Released today - smartphone RPG "Black Knight and White Devil"

Music: Yoko Shimomura, Shota Kageyama

[Session in Prague]
Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Adam Klemens
Chorus: Kuhn Mixed Choir

[Session in Tokyo]
Orchestra: Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Shinpei Sasaki
Chorus: Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus

Orchestration: Tomomichi Takeoka, Adam Klemens, Megumi Tagawa, Rio Kohyama, Souhei Kano

Adam Klemens is Mario Klemen's son?

To throw my two cents in on the debate of declining soundtrack quality, I don't believe that the reason is solely that most people in the film/TV industry don't care about music. Rather, I think it's merely a symptom of a bigger problem: the lack of consideration/awareness for elements that aren't the writing and acting. When it comes to TV and movies, especially the live-action ones, the aspects that are seen as most important are the script and the actors who act out said script.

The problem with this, of course, is that film and TV are not just made of the script and acting. There's also the visuals, the set design, the storyboarding, the editing, the use of colour, the sound design, the music, the placement of the music - and those are just a few of the many things that can be used to tell a story through an audio-visual medium. But most people don't consciously recognize those elements, not unless they're really into them, and thus only consider the script and acting to be the only thing that matter. To quote a wiser person than I from a different forum: "Scripts and acting are not the only thing that matter in film and television. They are the only thing mainstream critics understand and perceive."

The sad thing is, this belief can end up creating a weird feedback loop where:

1. Critics consider scripts and acting to be all that matter.
2. Casual audiences will see these critics' opinions, and agree that scripts and acting are all that matter.
3. The creative people look at what audiences think, and believe that scripts and acting are all that matter to them.
4. Critics watch films and shows where the scripts and acting are the only things given importance and effort.
5. Repeat Steps 1-4 until death.

And all you get from this thought process are shows and films were some modicum of effort was put towards the script and acting, but everything else is just barely functional at best. The visual framing just about works, but isn't very notable. The editing isn't godawful, but it's completely uninspiring. And yes, the soundtrack is a wall of noise that serves no real purpose other than to 'fill space'. What's really awful about this is that it not only reduces the role of everyone including the director to mere drones who exist solely to fulfil the writer's whims, but it also reduces the number of reasons to enjoy a film. If you don't like the script or acting, you may as well stop watching the movie because there is nothing else to enjoy (so, goodbye to every Joss Whedon movie, every Marvel Consumerist Utopia movie, and basically every live-action film not directed by Edgar Wright, George Miller, Hideaki Anno or Guy Ritchie).

It's not that people don't care about the music; it's that most people don't seem to be aware of anything outside the (one more time, I swear) goddarn script and acting.

(I'll pop back later to chime a little bit on when music should enter the movie-making process, and maybe answer that Sagisu question. As someone whose few posts tend to revolve around the man, I really should talk about him).

Sagisu and OshimaWow, that was a gorgeous piece from Sagisu. He has a talent for making jazz sound absolutely cinematic somehow. As impressive as Kanno and Iwasaki's compositional acrobatics with it are, Sagisu's jazz has such a grand presence that sounds right at home in a Blake Edwards movie. In fact, I would go as far as to say that although the new Evangelion movies have technically superior music compared to the TV series (thanks to Amano), Sagisu's original jazz and Ikufube-inspired music for the TV series fit much better with the context of the show, since it was a blend of melancholic relationships and campy Ultraman battles, rather than any attempt to sound really """""""epic""""""" like the Rebuilds (though the Rebuilds as a whole don't seem to understand anything about the TV series to begin with). I think a big part of the reason he's undeservedly taken on this new mantle as being a big orchestral composer is because his own range is rather limited. How many shows, anime or live-action, ever ask for Mancini lounge jazz nowadays, other than being used for an elevator scene? Epic choir and e-guitar gets more stints for sure, just look at Sawano.

I deleted the Oshima question because I feel like her name is mentioned every other page (a bit hypocritical on my part since I mention Iwasaki every other page), but as a whole I think her and Senju are the absolute masters of unabashed romanticism in the eastern scoring scene. Of course, much like their scores for FMA, Oshima is the better of the two. But the sound and power of their music is certainly something you won't ever hear in modern Hollywood.

As for Xam'd, this sounds more at home in Ben-Hur than whatever trash that 2016 remake churned out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQMHRD3fIaQ

With regards to Oshima, an impressionistic piece appeared in the recent episode of LWA, if more and more new score cues are poping up, we could have an hour of substantial material.


But back to my Legacy project, which is very close to the finishing line, and as a "byproduct" here is an orchestra album that I dearly wish was not just a fabrication of my mind:





Vinphonic presents:

Symphonic Doraemon: The Film Music of Kan Sawada
Music composed and orchestrated by Kan Sawada
Arranged by Vinphonic





Which is part of this Legacy Collection, which has also Doraemon in FLAC and sorted by individual film by yours truely (with the exception of TV Drama Dog and Mother at 14 being from Herr Salat).



PW: Here'sJohnnyToo (https://anon.click/doyak87)


Aside from Matsuo's recent DRIFTERS, if there's one Japanese composer that can truely write like Williams it has to be Kan Sawada. He has a clear sense of drama and an absolute melodic gift. I find the parallels to Mike Verta astounding: Both have Williams as their idol, both dropped out of college, both had a rough path to get the gigs, both can absolutely nail Williams and yet both are not big players despite their talent :(

For Dorameon he wrote some of the best Hollywoodesque music since 1995 with incredible cinematic moments. Witch Moonlight Mile he crafted perhaps the most "authentic" Hollywood score Japan has ever created. His scores for Yowamushi Pedal are also pretty much Mark Mancina on crack! and his drama scores are full of brilliant romantic moments.

I will never understand why so many Japanese composers like Matsuo, Hamaguchi, Hokoyama and Sawada that have inherited that golden Hollywood gene, are, despite their obvious film scoring abilities, almost never given the opportunity to show what they are made of.

But all pale compared to his work on Doraemon. For years on end he provided a stellar collage of Hollywood's best moments and he still continues to do so. He has an historical drama this year so I hope he can get the chance to fire the guns. As the next Doraemon collection is quite a long wait ahead I hope for something special to happen. Let him score the next Gundam!!!!

No mention of Yowamushi Pedal Vinphonic? For shame. FOR SHAME! >:/

Excellent. Music in a film isn't something you can just slap on near the end of the process... It has to be there throughout the production, where the music can inform the actors, the story, and the production techniques and vice versa.

As regards all this sudden "explosion" of orchestral concerts... the two things 99.9% of them have in common is that the music is terrible and the orchestration is terrible. None of them care about the music, all of them care about the franchise. Do we REALLY need MORE from Seiken Densetsu? Next thing I'll hear there's been a Final Fantasy concert with One Winged Angel and that terrible fake opera... and THAT will probably get a release because nobody cares that Final Fantasy's scoring golden age was twenty years ago and the most recent scores have been utterly awful... IT'S FINAL FANTASY!!!!! I KNOW THAT GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 80'S NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD!!!!!!!!!

Apart from Final Symphony and its associated concerts, there hasn't been a meaningful symphonic album release of anything at all since Gundam Symphony in 2009 - just "Runaway Success ♥ SUPER ♥ LOVE ♥ Crappy Franchise Money Printing Super Orchestra Night Merchandising ★ POWER ★ UP ★" which consists of music that sounds like third-rate J-pop and a dozen different orchestrators who plainly can't muster *any* enthusiasm for what they're doing.

I'm glad the orchestra is there, but make no mistake - nobody cares about it... It's just there. It's a fad. People who like anime go to these concerts because it's fun to pretend to go to the Symphony. And I can 100% guarantee that nobody's going to leave any of these concerts thinking "WOW, I'm definitely coming back for Scriabin's complete symphony cycle in the summer!" - they think "WOW, I heard tunes I knew from this show I like!" and then tomorrow they've forgotten all about it.

Just look at what comes up... 80% of it is 25th Anniversary, 30th Anniversary, etc - the other 20% is dreck like Kancolle, Random Porn Game 3, Miku, etc, which isn't good music - it's bad music written for a franchise that happened to make a shit-tonne of money and now, thanks to the ever-present and criminally under-appreciated orchestrator, 70 piece orchestras are playing it and suddenly we're pretending that it's Beethoven's symphonies and that the future of classical music is saved because they managed to fill a concert hall with rabid cosplaying anime fans who would probably pay �10,000 for a turd if it came in a display box and was marked "limited edition"...



From someone who loves music as much as you do, these remarks are arrogance and it is very unpleasant to hear. I'd like to know how did you draw this conclusion, how did you come to the statistic of 99.9%. Did you made the statement from attending and observing all of the events and talking to every single person, or you listened to the recordings and decided you didn't like it?

I understand you feel violated when seeing anime fan with cosplay coming to see an orchestra, but listen to yourself... the vocabulary you're using, your tone of voice.... how can the ego become this big when it is music we are talking about here. The last time I check nobody is the owner of the music beside the composers. While you're here mocking and attacking people you don't know, there are musicians and copyists and conductors and organizers trying to do their best to do the one thing not many of us can: play an orchestra.

You are a music fan who is attacking video games fans. Are you different from them for liking something so much? We are people who have different opinions but the skimming through some of these comments I can taste the venom toward Yoko Kanno, Hans Zimmer and all the so-called mainstream Hollywood. What is this entitlement we are dealing with here?

Lastly, let me single out the Symphonic Fantasies happened right in your hometown London. I was there. The Barbican has an amazing acoustic and that alone was quite a big feast. You can hear AND feel the bass section from the back row. You are missing all of those experience if you only judge from the recordings. Fans were there, sure, and they asked ordinary irrelevent question... sure... but they addressed them to Yoko Shimomura herself. She was there. If that means "none of them care about the music," and if you listen to the arrangement of the Secret of Mana and Chrono sections, especially the Kingdom Hearts and think it's "utterly awful," well then the conversation ends here.

People here who keep whining about snobbery when it comes to film music have yet to experience other places like the VSL forums.




Sh!!T a fucking brick....or words to that effect. Hahahaha.

What anyone has to understand today for the millionth time is most of the films that were scored by the great writers like Herrmann et all WOULD NOT BE MADE TODAY FOR TODAYS AUDIENCE. THE FILMS! NOT THE MUSIC. THE FILMS.

Have you ever stopped to to listen to a 17 year old female talk? Have you? Most of it is basic fucking nonsense. It's a fucking drivel machine.

How on earth is todays audience going to be expected to cope with the type of scores written 50 years ago? This is the texting community of the facebook era for Christ sake. You might as well get them to try and read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. They would be reading about themselves and wouldn't even realise it.

The reason why there are now so many """""composers"""" out there today is simple. Answers on the back of a postcard if you please.

Forget it.


Mind you, the VSL forums are excellent for learning about film music history and orchestration, at least when they're not whining about how out of touch they are with the current generation.

Very long paragraphs I agree with.

This. I agree with this perfectly. I really can't stand when Tango gets so snobbish and picky and begins to shit in everything else that does not fit his way of "how classical/score/orchestral music should be".. with such a venom, like you say. I couldn't word myself any better. It gets really tiring.

---------- Post added at 02:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 AM ----------


People here who keep whining about snobbery when it comes to film music have yet to experience other places like the VSL forums.

I dunno, I truly see the same attitude with Tango there, except adding some "old fashioned" "baby boomer" attitude to it. "Everything old was better" which I wouldn't be surprised if he used the same argument there anytime.

@Leatherhead: I DID mention it ;) And here I thought I would get roasted for not including Shana to Otani's collection (which is still infinitely better than Pedal). A few tiny bits resembling Doraemon are not enough to make me care and I'm not a fan of this version of Sawada, especially when there are other composers more fitted for this type of show. Deleted the OSTs as soon as I finished I'm afraid. EDIT: Which was a mistake I discovered recently. I hope I'm not rustling any more jimmies as it seems like this thread is a powder keg right now.



Now Tango, I never thought I would have to say this about ANYTHING you post but that was a very "unwise" choice of words (with the reception and reaction I expected), I hope you had not an unpleasant trip to Prague:


- Nobody ever EVER pretended or mentioned that any of those concerts are in the league of Beethoven and the rest of the pantheon. Speaking of which I'm not even sure why I should care about media music at all then when nothing in it comes close to Beethoven's 5th or Mahler's 8th. From this angle I could piss on Silver Age Hollywood composers all I want because they are just watering down and tarnishing the name of "classical" music and are inflating Gustav Holsts The Planets to the point the original loses its magic ;)


- I'm not sure what this "cosplaying anime retards" angle has to with anything other than generalizing and doing a disservice to all concert attendees who follow guidelines and want a pleasant evening with fond memories. (and just so you know Japanese concert hall venues have strict dress codes). Only a small minority of people can not only listen to the music but also take it apart. Don't worry, I tend to forget that too sometimes... And on that note it would be just as ludicrous of me to say "I'm sure most older concert attendees don't really appreciate the classics either, they just go to concerts and listen to classical music because of conformity and that tune in the fourth movement and most just want to wax their superiority complexes. They don't really care what makes Beethoven one of the greatest composers who ever lived".

- I wish we had an "explosion" of anime concerts, only "Girls und Panzer: Herbst Musikfest" and the upcoming "Sailor Moon Classical Concert" count as anime concerts in recent years, unless old WW2 marches and Tchaikovsky's Sugar plum fairy are somehow "third rate J-Pop" too
:awsm:

- If you pick 2009 as the last good orchestral album, are you seriously implying that Yamashita's Orchestral Saga, Shiro Hamaguchi's FF Orchestra album, Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary and the Symphonic Gamers concert are in any shape or form bad music???

- Either Kameoka, Miyano and all others are master actors and filled to the brim with sarcasm and travel the world because of slave contractory obligations or what you implied "lacking enthusiasm" or there is a possibility of another reality. If you check their twitter, facebook, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage there can be little doubt that they enjoy their work. For these anniversary concerts for "video games" for example, there's an enormous effort by numerous people to bring it all to life, from artists, to actors, to musicians. There is passion for these events, whether that manifests itself in symphonic masterpieces or not. It mostly depends on the quality of the original game score to begin with.

- Miku and Traveling August are orchestral pop, and that is a genre that has every right to exists just as any other.



NOW, to Tango's defense: What the hell are you all smoking, Tango praised Zimmer for what he does on numerous occasions and Yoko Kanno??? I don't even...#
And I will agree that most of these concerts coud be a lot better. I still think Kingdom Hearts and Zelda are very much worth it but the recent Tales of and especially Kancolle are wasted opportunities (also note how Day Battle is a watered-down version of Hamaguchi's 2002 FF Medley).

In regards to Mainstream Hollywood: It's been been beaten down to death but Hollywood music of today is not even a fraction as good as it was in yesteryear. Not one score from Hollywood in the last 20 years aside from old veterans like Williams or Silvestri will be remembered as fondly as Back to the Future or Star Wars, or Elfman's Batman, or Goldsmith's Star Trek, or Horner's Krull, or Safran's Last Starfighter, or Goldenthal's Titus, or Kamen's Prince of Thieves, or Poledouris Conan, or Rozsa's Ben Hur, or Korngold's Kings Row, or Herrmann's Citizen Kane and about a billion others.

Please don't talk about me as if I'm not here - that is atrocious bad manners. If you have something to say to me, please say it to me and I will do you the same courtesy.

I will fully respond to banomie's comments in due course.

Vinphonic: Thank you for the Kan Sawada selection! Some, I had... Some, I didn't - and I will be listening to them all intently. :)

Edit 2: Vinphonic again - thank you for your thoughtful comments, and for identifying that I actually wasn't having a good day yesterday and I did allow that to spill over into my post. You consistently demonstrate your kindness and humanity, even when it's probably not deserved - and you think about the person, not the post.

I will absolutely respond to your comments at length a little later today - as I feel that I've been substantially misunderstood and wish to set the record straight. There are also a number of points I consider well made. ;)

MONSTER STRIKE SYMPHONY ~Prelude~

1st Part: https://youtu.be/tDYwt5MyRKw?t=463
2nd Part: https://youtu.be/tDYwt5MyRKw?t=5873

This concert is fantastic. Where is the CD release?

I hope that a proper release of this comes out now there's a good quality recording... (The previous recording made at the open air concert is awful - you can hear wind, audience chatter, and the acoustic is hopeless...) There also appears to be twice as much music at this concert... :O

I dunno, I truly see the same attitude with Tango there, except adding some "old fashioned" "baby boomer" attitude to it. "Everything old was better" which I wouldn't be surprised if he used the same argument there anytime.Well, I don't recall Tango bashing Mike Verta as "nothing more than a poor John Williams knockoff" when he came here. The same thing couldn't be said when Verta came to VSL. And I don't see anyone here claiming that they are "the reincarnation of Bernard Herrmann" either. =/

I'd like to offer up a defense for Tango, if nobody minds. (I'm not sure if I should be addressing this to you personally, Tango. I'll write this post as is, and if you feel it would be a better idea for said post to be addressed to you, I will edit this as soon as I can.)

I'll admit that I've only been reading this thread on a regular basis since about August of 2016, so I won't claim to having any intimate knowledge about Tango (or to know him better than people who have been talking with him for the decade this thread's lasted). But from what I've read over the last eight/nine months, I do believe that Tango is someone who is really passionate about music; someone who really cares about orchestral music and how it effects the games, films and TV shows in which its used; someone who could go on at length about what makes one composer good and what makes another composer not good.

That passion shows in the form of long posts that read intelligently and speak of someone who knows their stuff. I've been around a few forums over the last couple of years, and there are a good few people who also make lengthy, well thought-out posts detailing their views on a franchise, a medium or anything else that compels to keep coming back and discussing whatever topic is at hand. I believe the issue is not so much with Tango, but more with people seeing his posts and misinterpreting them in such a way that they are convinced the man's an 'arrogant snob'*.

And before people get mad at me for saying that they're misinterpreting Tango's post, I genuinely don't mean it as an insult. I'm trying to make this point in a matter-of-fact, 'it happens to everyone' sort of way (though whether or not that will work, I can't say). Sometimes, people will look at text, and with nothing else to look to, they will come to their own conclusions based on the language used and how they personally interpret it. I've seen people on other forums get insulted by posts that I never read as being deliberately mean-spirited, because that's just how I interpret it.

I think people can mistake passionate opinions or long posts as arrogance, but that doesn't actually make it the case. I think the post that's brought up this discussion (not for the first time, apparently) comes from a pretty sensible ideal: wanting to see things be better. When Tango complained most orchestral concerts lately are made for anniversary events or popular shows, or how it's often crappy/overdone music being given the treatment much better scores would kill for, I read that as someone who knew how good orchestral music could be and has been. I read that as someone who believed that orchestral music could resonate with the public on a more meaningful level. I read that post as someone who passionately felt that the state of orchestral music, where it's used, and what composers end up making what masterpieces, should ultimately be better than what it currently is.

I can understand how that can be read as arrogance, but I don't believe that Tango is actually arrogant. Just passionate.

*Incidentally, I don't like words such as 'snobbery' or 'arrogant' being thrown out all over the shop, because they can kill legitimate discussion. By all means, disagree with someone on their tastes in music and their opinions on where the medium is going if you must. But to use words that compartmentalise a point of view into something that can be easily mocked and dismissed just brings all good discussion to a halt, and we end up with posts like mine about trying to defend people I'm making assumptions about. Instead of, you know, actually talking about the orchestral music that makes us happy to be here and having an interesting discussion about it.

I hope that a proper release of this comes out now there's a good quality recording... (The previous recording made at the open air concert is awful - you can hear wind, audience chatter, and the acoustic is hopeless...) There also appears to be twice as much music at this concert... :O
Well this didn't take long. They announced a digital album releasing May 25th: https://event.xflag.com/orchestra/symphony/music_detail.html :)

Splendid! I wonder if a lossless release will appear? I don't really care about physical releases any more - what matters to me most is for a digital release to at least match the quality of a physical release. Selling MP3s in 2017 with no superior alternative is just not on.

See, now that's a start. Makes me wish JAgmo and GSJ would regulary stream their concerts and release them digitally. Would cost almost no effort.

@FrDougal9000: Very much appreciated! I truely want this place to stay a roundtable and not disolve into a bloody riot congress hall! This is about the only thread on the internet that lasted almost 10 years and stayed civilized. We've had people come and go. Some quarrels, a few times things got out of hand, but we were able to come to terms. Sometines some were permantly wishing goodby because of life reasons, sometimes others are entering this thread as newcomers just finding a new favorite subject to talk about. I would like to have this be a place where people can continue to discsuss or express opinions in good company. Well, in addition to being the ONLY place online collecting news and scores about just about anything orchestral/symphonic in the worldwide media business. Granted, talking for years on end why modern Hollywood is not good no more and yesteryear was a better time for orchestral film scores (in the west) has sort of made it difficult for me to explain all points made after countless discussions from 2008 onward to new people whose only previous experience with Hollywood scores comes from today's era. I can only encourage others to dive deeper into the thread or listening to as much scores from the 70s and 80s as possible. (Or just about anything from Williams, Goldsmith and Horner). Most are even on youtube so its very easy to gain access.

One of the main reasons for my Legacy projects is to make GREAT music available to as many people as possible within a few clicks. Yes, this takes away the discovery aspect of film score enthusiasts but even with a physical collection covering an entire section of the house (which I hope is worth a fortune when I go full digital, for example paying a few bucks for Howard Shore's LotR Complete Recordings was perhaps the best investement in my life if I say so myself ;)), I still find much excellent material that I had no idea about, even from my Legacy composers. Especially in the global world where exciting things CAN happen all around the world. The number of orchestral scores in Japan also skyrocketed in the last few years so its still easy to miss and discover stuff.

In regards to Mainstream Hollywood: It's been been beaten down to death but Hollywood music of today is not even a fraction as good as it was in yesteryear. Not one score from Hollywood in the last 20 years aside from old veterans like Williams or Silvestri will be remembered as fondly as Back to the Future or Star Wars, or Elfman's Batman, or Goldsmith's Star Trek, or Horner's Krull, or Safran's Last Starfighter, or Goldenthal's Titus, or Kamen's Prince of Thieves, or Poledouris Conan, or Rozsa's Ben Hur, or Korngold's Kings Row, or Herrmann's Citizen Kane and about a billion others.

May I ask better in what ground? I am big fan of the works you have listed, where it's filled with musical geniuses, fantastic orchestration. But I can't imagine Herrmann, Goldenthal and the likes sitting in front of a moog machine trying to dial some knobs and get a perfect sound. I love Harrmann and Goldenthal, Morricone and Barry, Goldsmith and Bernstein, Bacalov and Riota and many more of the composers in this generation, a lot. I can see where you stand in style and how you approach film music. However I can't help but feeling a lump in my stomach when hearing " not one score from Hollywood in the last 20 years will be remembered as fondly" when you have people like Howard Shore, Thomas Newman, Rachel Portman, James Horner, Zimmer, Giaccchino, Alex Desplat and so many more.

My point is, we are talking about an art, product of creativity, and when doing so personal tastes play a major role. It is absolutely no problem if we say "I don't like this, or that," I do it too, all the time. I just can't agree with stating personal opinions using objective point of view like it is universally acknowledged by everyone.

I wonder when are we getting orchestral Yooka Laylee.

Then let me ease your stomach by pointing out that Howard Shore, Thomas Newman, James Horner and Alexander Desplat also fall under my "Williams and friends". I love many of their works and I have the greatest of respect for what they brought into my life.

In my opinion Giacchino is the most overrated orchestral composer ever and Hans Zimmer is the most overrated film composer of all time... There's seriously articles written by his colleagues claiming him to be the next Mozart or how "Williams is a fossil, Zimmer is always fresh in sound, a genius" for gods sake. Now that does not mean I don't love Medal of Honor or Backdraft, it just means their work on paper and taken film music history since the beginning of the 20th century into account does not deserve this level of praise that overshadows the talent and craft to fully work with an orchestra and distill the best moments from the concert world on the big screen. Especially Zimmer and RC having taken over all aspects of film scoring. I would be fine with them working with certain directors and "doing their thing" but their fingerprints have influenced and banned everything I love about film music, to the point only Japan remains as a haven for the kind of music I love to hear in media.

At its core, my main problem with Hollywood today is actually outlined in that recent video about Williams I posted. Movies are made very differently today. Producers have no trust in artists/composers anymore and follow "trends" and safe things. That Williams is scoring Star Wars like the old days is purely because a board meeting determined it would be "the most safe option" just as the same board meeting thinks bold romantic themes in Marvel movies are "risky, so lets not do that, put that thing from Zimmer on and make the trailer with dubstep and inception horn, kids like that".

A composer of today has almost zero chance of expression in a film today or at least nowhere near as much when producers and directors just hired a composer and said: "do your thing". How perfect I posted Kan Sawada just a few posts back, listen to that and keep in mind its music from the last five years. Now show me a movie made in the last 20 years not by an old veteran who was around in the golden and silver years with the same kind of energy and emotion. I would kill to hear that. Keep in mind that most film composers of the past had their roots in the classical world. They sometimes couldn't help to quote Holst or Verdi, "it was just too good and too right to not do it for this scene". James Horner in particular was a walking encyclopedia of the concert world. Nowadays most film composers have their roots as a pop and rock artist or even "DJ". They don't listen to Mahler, they listen to themselves (And I hold the belief that everyone needs to listen to Mahlers work at least once in their life). What makes matters worse is the fact that a film must not have fully developed operatic themes and emotional resonance with the story but must simply set the mood with an assault on the brain of a classical trained mind with 12 horns, an armada of drums and endless string ostinati upon which nothing is build.

But I can't imagine Herrmann, Goldenthal and the likes sitting in front of a moog machine trying to dial some knobs and get a perfect sound.Are we talking about the same Herrmann?

Nowadays most film composers have their roots as a pop and rock artist or even "DJ". They don't listen to Mahler, they listen to themselves (And I hold the belief that everyone needs to listen to Mahlers work at least once in their life).

This is so apparent that even Robert Kraft, former Fox Studio President of Music, had to touch upon it in an interview.

"... there are a lot of guys from the rock world who show up and say, ‘Hey, man, can I jump aboard this film scoring thing? My record career’s in the toilet.’ I say, ‘Oh, you know, it’s a real skill to score a film. It’s not just being a songwriter.’ But, if I hear that a guy went to Berklee or went to the University of Miami or USC, it puts them one yard ahead of the competition because you see he’s been serious, he’s studied, he’s maybe been an apprentice or he’s been on a student film."

And that was something he said years ago. Just from reading that I get the impression that these rock stars jump into the film-scoring business because they think it's trendy; maybe RCP has popularized that sort of sound to the point that the pop stars feel they can discreetly piggy-back off of it, I don't know. Either way it's a very different story than Danny Elfman's, who, as I understand it, sheepishly moved from Oingo Boingo to Pee-wee and Batman at Tim Burton's own behest.

Well to give credit, being a pop artist is inherently not a bad thing as long as "music" beats in your heart.

To go from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxOnbpWVELU) to THIS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZAk2rfESU).



Do you guys want to know how Silvestri started out :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PLeRclmBao&list=PLRvNbyaYolCN5AbcBfj6vcQzxUI3itDgC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7rHkz3FrbI&index=5&list=PLRvNbyaYolCN5AbcBfj6vcQzxUI3itDgC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ugjoIHgX4&list=PLRvNbyaYolCN5AbcBfj6vcQzxUI3itDgC&index=12



Yes, this man did Back to the Future and would one day conduct in the same hall as Mahler... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPphWCr4ba8




Makes the thought of Hiroyuki Sawano one day on this planet earth conducting the Berlin Philharmonic not seem like the most bizzare feverdream

See, now that's a start. Makes me wish JAgmo and GSJ would regulary stream their concerts and release them digitally. Would cost almost no effort.
GSJ's recordings don't sound very good: http://picosong.com/iH8H/

But it would be better than nothing.

Do you guys want to know how Silvestri started out :DWell, we all have to start somewhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl890jPxhVE

GSJ's recordings don't sound very good: http://picosong.com/iH8H/

But it would be better than nothing.


I've heard far worse... this is totally fine by Japanese standards. Infact the recording quality actually improves it for the fact that it sounds completely like an awesome TV score from the 70s... I wonder what the show was called?!... but in seriousness, this is my favorite thing Kano ever arranged... it actually made my day :D Thank you very much.

Also VERY HAPPY about Kano getting a decent budget, 2018 can't come soon enough.






And to further illustrate what Hollywood is missing and what old films until the early 2000s had in spades and what is the primary reason that draws me to Japan, which has what I want aplenty, is pure unashamed emotion.

Take one of my favorite anime episodes ever made (scorewise): Rage of Bahamut: Episode 10.
From start to finish it is so perfectly scored full of energy and passion (and some score cue versions used here are not on the ost)

But I could kiss the director for this scene alone: EVERYTHING fades, no voice, no sound, no special effects, JUST THE MUSIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY-q_JWbqXo#t=16m30s


So much class and emotion I simply don't feel anymore in movies... and all for an advertisment for a mobile game. Wonderful. Also note that this is not the blu-ray version, which looks miles better.
This is what I mean when I praise a Japanese company like Cygames. There's no board meeting taking the safe route. The whole Bahamut Genesis project is anything but a safe bet in the Japanese market.
The whole show is pretty much a homage to classic Hollywood and iconic film scenes (the first episode begins with a cross of Mask of Zorro and Dead Men's Chest).

This continues with Virgin Soul, as the series starts like any classic adventure film (bad guy invades holy ground and steals object X).
And the score follows suite. Nina's (The dragon girl) theme is basically the romantic theme from How to Train your Dragon, as a musical wink.
Combine that with a Magnificent Seven vibe I believe the first episodes are building up too and that Temple of Doom minecart chase in the preview and we have here a score that can very well turn out to be the best film score of 2017.

And Bahamut is just one example. Hell, one of last years most beloved scores, Last Guardian, was anything but a safe-tested affair. It was the result of Sony having FAITH in Ueda and his project. The same applies to Gravity Rush 2, Nier and Persona 5. All are passion projects with an incredibly personal artistic voice and niche target market appeal at best. Yet Japanese companies just let the game studio, the artists and the composers "do their thing", having faith that it will work out, even if they fall years behind scedule. And you know, the quality of those games, the amount of polish, insane little details and "handcrafted" tailor-made scores that can not be heared in any other film, series or game, speak for themselves.

Take one of my favorite anime episodes ever made (scorewise): Rage of Bahamut: Episode 10.
From start to finish it is so perfectly scored full of energy and passion (and some score cue versions used here are not on the ost)

But I could kiss the director for this scene alone: EVERYTHING fades, no voice, no sound, no special effects, JUST THE MUSIC

I feel the same way about Re:Zero episode 15. I don't know what took anime directors so long to figure out that scoring to picture increases the level of drama and emotion exponentially.

Listening through Toru Takemitsu's work so far has been such a chore for me. Maybe it's because I'm not someone who has much appreciation for atonality and minimalism, but so far I can't say anything positive about Takemitsu's work, and yet he's considered the greatest Japanese composer of all time. Is there something I'm missing here?

Listening through Toru Takemitsu's work so far has been such a chore for me. Maybe it's because I'm not someone who has much appreciation for atonality and minimalism, but so far I can't say anything positive about Takemitsu's work, and yet he's considered the greatest Japanese composer of all time. Is there something I'm missing here?

Hell's Picture Scroll. (https://youtu.be/pWqih7FCbjQ) That's where I first noticed him, watching Kurosawa's Ran. This cue drives one of the absolute greatest battle scenes in all of cinema; no dialogue, no effects. Only this mournful, hopeless dirge. Definitely check out the film if you haven't seen it before. (I wanted to share the actual scene but couldn't find it on YouTube, which is probably a blessing in disguise to avoid spoilers.)

Examples of this seasons versatile quality. Again, no dialogue, just the music:

http://picosong.com/idLF

http://picosong.com/id2R



A recent trend I also noticed from "Otaku anime" is that it slowly switches focus from "enjoying stuff" to "creating stuff". Whether that explains the rise and the effort to put in small orchestral ensembles and quirky big band tunes in even the smallest of shows is of course still insufficent. I can just say I really dig it. In the show from the first example there's a conversation about nerd stuff and its underscored with tremolo strings + piano + cymbals in a way that would get you kicked out of any american television program today that is not parodying 60s spy movies. It's no Lalo Shifrin but at least the session musicians are having a good time. If you also pay attention to the OP/EDs this season, you will notice there's quite a healthy amount of funky brass.


Regarding orchestral scores, the further the season progresses, the more confident I get in saying this is all marvelous:

http://picosong.com/irLB (I LOVE the horn intro. Is that perhaps even a descant horn?! Anyway, great setpiece)

http://picosong.com/idEx (What sweeping romantic gestures! Hoping for far more to appear)

http://picosong.com/idEJ (Some genuinely good SciFi moments in this show, more so than Gundam Origin)

http://picosong.com/idBa (Oshima very rarely disappoints, this is no exception)

http://picosong.com/idx3 (I also really like the powered-up Irish version of Argonaut)

http://picosong.com/idBM (I find Iwashiro very much going back to his roots with this one, that lyrical violin passage is a postive change)

http://picosong.com/idVV (I like how Mizutani sneaks a bit of everything into this score, from Sahashi to Orff)

http://picosong.com/idBv (Matsuda needs yet to show any spark with this one but its fine music. I'll check out the OST)

http://picosong.com/idEH (I really didn't expect Hashimoto to feature an orchestral ensemble so prominently. I love how incredibly out of time the music feels. Perhaps the best I've heard from her so far)

http://picosong.com/idEa (MONACA actually employs an orchestra for some cues. Also a reminder that Denpa Kiyoshi is finally out! Orchestral MONACA is a nice change of pace after Nier)

Also at the end of Granblue Episode 4 there's finally a big orchestral cue with reprise of the Main Theme. So there is a real ensemble and some meat.

And Tanaka is achieving at the very least a nice nostalgia trip, no matter how much of the score is reused or not.

EDIT: Are we really 100% sure that Yamashita is not involved with the new Yamato, because there's a lot more going on in this one aside from the revitalising of the (still great) original 70s score. Perhaps Akira Miyagawa stepped up his game. The new opening is completely orchestral and the orchestra sounds massive... http://picosong.com/irmn



Now, I'm not saying or implying this is all super special great (film) music... well Bahamut, Little Witch Academia and Yamato 2202 are great, but still, I'm just saying this stuff was once heard everywhere in western television and film and is now no longer present unless an old veteran composer can flex his muscles by some chance. I'm concerned about the future of my passionate subject in Hollywood as I hold the opinion it will most likely never return to its former greatness because the next generation of composers who get the gigs are by and large not trained to write Jazz or "real" orchestral music anymore.

So you end up with state-of-the-art engineers, dozens of giant facilities and 100-piece orchestras full of worldclass musicians playing something that would make no difference musically if it was played by 5 people and a syntheziser in a rock studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lc8Jkx1VM (now I know Brian can do it differently and this style fits perfectly with the franchise, no problem from my side, just kind of depressing that this style of music turns up in EVERYTHING ELSE and is still in my eyes a waste of ressources)


So if you love this world of classical film music, you either hope for one or two throwbacks from that one newcomer who still knows how to do it or you are content with pale imitations like Giacchino or you seek some film and concert circles in Europe as refuge. But at this point, especially regarding just what kind of music is heard in Japanese media on this very day and what has been composed there in the last 20 years, there is currently no better place on earth to focus your attention to if you love orchestral music written by people that know what an orchestra can do:



If you want the see a renaissance of classical music methods in media, you love romanticism, lyricism and melody and all flavors of Jazz, Funk and classic Rock and Metal, then just take a look at the Japanese anime industry, as it is currently the greatest assembly of MUSICIANS on this planet. Even old stoic prussian university professors play some Japanese late-night anime tunes because "it's good music".

The Yamato doesn't really scream out Yamashita to me - I would say that it's Miyagawa trying to extend a little. Not such a bad idea. The first series was always going to begin by sticking closely to the original score, but maybe there's a conscious effort to move forward now that grounding has been established.

I'd rather have an original score by Yamashita or someone of Yamashita's calibre... but it's a step in the right direction.


So you end up with state-of-the-art engineers, dozens of giant facilities and 100-piece orchestras full of worldclass musicians playing something that would make no difference musically if it was played by 5 people and a syntheziser in a rock studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lc8Jkx1VM (now I know Brian can do it differently and this style fits perfectly with the franchise, no problem from my side, just kind of depressing that this style of music turns up in EVERYTHING ELSE and is still in my eyes a waste of ressources)

Wow, look at this musicians. They wish they were dead. It's written on their faces. Thirty years ago, this same room-full of people would be playing Back To The Future or Poltergeist. Shocking. :(

As Hokoyama and Amano went to Hollywood, they all pretty much fell on their knees and life sparked from their eyes. "We don't really get to do this anymore" or "their music had so much warmth and life in the studio we don't get often" is the most subtle professional "PLEASE GOD HELP US!" they can muster. There was also this one incident were they played a relatively standard orchestral fanfare and they had to do many retakes to get it right. Can you imagine it, once the world's top leading session orchestra can't even accomplish a simple orchestral fanfare in one take anymore!

Nowadays... well, aside from drinking themselves to�death and wanting to strangle every douchebag that stands on the podium fiddeling his arms around like they would care with their bowstrings, they can do pretty much nothing but accept their paychecks, even if they die inside from it. When JNH and John Williams and Silvestri leave this earth, they are pretty much living a nightmare with no waking up anymore. We still have Japan and Europe, but they will have nothing worth playing that will make them say "that day on the job with JNH when his son was born and we were eager and full of life to do Wyatt Earp, I hope you can hear our tears while we played."

Saw this on FSM: https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7340

One of the greatest film scores of all time, now in complete form. Likely influenced Goldsmith and Herrmann.

Most excellent! Ordered. Now I anticipate the release of Tadlow's Ben-Hur, shouldn't be too far off.


My favorite scoring moment in 2017 so far, only slightly ahead of Bahamut's horn solo. This time it's the 60s. Japan, what can't you do... (http://picosong.com/iGDP)

Also a great reminder just how amazing the original Star Trek cues are from a technical standpoint. Mandatory study subject if you ask me.

I wonder how many musicians are like Tomoyuki Asakawa and Tsuneo Imahori- brilliant composers of their respective genres, but would rather take a backseat and play an instrument as their primary career. Sounds like Hollywood is filled with them, or at least the musicians are of such caliber.

Asakawa's score for Five Star Stories is IMO one of the greatest scores in all of anime; such grandeur and romanticism is unmatched by the likes of even Senju (and this is saying something that as a fan of the manga, I'm very lukewarm about the movie as a whole). A score straight out of the days of Korngold's pirate movies. And Asakawa wrote it when he was only 29! A shame he never became more prolific as a composer, otherwise he would have been one of my favorites.

Oh absolutely. Just as Mike put it, seasoned session musicians are among the greatest players in the world that dedicated their whole life to music... and you can do nothing better than to insult their craft and intelligence by serving them a couple of notes over and over again till their spirit breaks (and that includes Giacchinos infamous Jupiter Ascending action scene, god the musicians HATED to perform that.) When you watch someone like Tanaka in the studio who is ONE AMONG THEM, warms my heart more than it makes me depressed.

At least Asakawa has the luxury of performing for worldclass and top-tier composers in a world where musicianship is highly respected, but your right, everything he scored is timeless masterfully crafted music. Only a truely gifted musician can overshadow someone utterly professional like Sahashi on the same score. And Candidate for Goddess... what an utterly fantastic ride! I believe I've said it before, but he has to return to the composing business asap.

In just a handful of scores, Asakawa became one of my favourite composers, full stop. Vinphonic raises a fascinating point of history; there was once a time when Asakawa was the big name and Toshihiko Sahashi was the "other" composer who did the breezy, poppy fill-in stuff. That score was just two years away from Asakawa's last substantial outing as composer - he peaked and retired as a composer and started a fruitful career as a performer, Sahashi continued to compose, became for a time "the" orchestral score guy, conducted the London Symphony Orchestra not once, not twice, but THRICE, and then disappeared almost entirely except for the occasional musical. I mean, WHAT THE F***? I want him to come back. I don't think he ever will. Even if he wanted to, is there really space for that kind of music in 2017? (Even in Japan...?)

Asakawa is a very good harpist, but he's a GREAT composer and that he completely abandoned this discipline at which he has such a frightening talent... it's one of the handful of occurrences in the scoring world that genuinely brings a tear to my eye.

When Tanaka goes into the studio, there's a similar sensation as when John Williams goes into the studio. Those musicians know that here stands someone who has earned the right to be there, and not one of them would dare to question his credentials. They know that, at the barest minimum, they're going to have a bloody good work-out and a fantastic time, and there's a pretty good chance that they'll get to make some genuinely profound music into the bargain.

By contrast, the video with Tyler is of a group of bored looking people, who are just managing to hide their utter contempt, but you can almost see their thoughts as they play:

"I studied my instrument for decades, I can sight-read Stravinsky, and thirty years ago at the beginning of my career I played in John Williams' E.T. orchestra... And now look at me..."

The stories of the big LA orchestras no longer being able to nail a complicated cue first time... they're highly depressing, not surprising, and coming up more and more frequently. Once upon a time, they were some of the finest session musicians on this planet, and maybe one of only two orchestras in the entire world (with the LSO) who could eat this stuff for breakfast. Now it's Fast and Furious (one of the better-orchestrated scores in recent years - isn't THAT depressing?), the occasional Giacchino monstrosity, with respite coming only from occasional visiting Japanese composers and John Williams... Completely distressing.

I can only imagine what Asakawa was thinking when he played the harp for Gothicmade (which came out a few years ago and was also based off of the Five Star Stories). It's a decent chamber score, but for someone of Asakawa's caliber, the amount of professionalism required to play under a far less talented composer like Seikou Nagaoka on the same franchise that he was once the musical head of... it's like asking John Williams to play piano for Giacchino's Rogue One.

I would love to ask people like Asakawa and Amano as to why they would rather hide their talent as mere orchestrators and musicians rather than taking center stage. They have more talent than most taking that spot. But unlike Kajiura and Sawano, they probably don't have the connections.

Asakawa could get a gig IF HE REALLY WANTED TO, I believe. Amano is at least conducting in Warsaw every now and then. But we all now the truth of his absence is because he just wants to avoid prison... and they don't make bloody gay tentacle rape flicks no more, so why bother.


@Tango: I really suspect a serious personal affair or illness. Perhaps they offered him the new Sailor Moon (he did score the stageplays afterall) but he had to decline because of it.

Only by a miracle will he somehow pop up as an arranger for the Sailor Moon Concert and then appear with FMP and a Gundam Seed Sequel. But then again, Matsuo did take an endless hiatus until he hit it big time (btw Keijo will probably not get a release by the way things are progressing :()




And on the previous subject, this is what scoring a picture once was like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu7_dMhdciw#t=6m40s



And to further put salt into the wound, here the utter contempt from the musicians (and the recording staff) is almost touchable, and even that is the cream of the crop they get to play for these days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLdFNLH-xQM

Makes it hard to believe the following video is considered the same profession (released the same year). Here even second-rate Japanese composers look like Bach compared to almost anyone working today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGnL_cTqD60

I believe. Amano is at least conducting in Warsaw every now and then. But we all now the truth of his absence is because he just wants to avoid prison...Am I missing something here?

Am I missing something here?

Oh, nothing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL8oMlRBOtU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-msHHTioMhc

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yulmgTcGLZw (Wait, that was Otani, nevermind...)



Btw it's joke...




EDIT: You know, even listing and listening to those few examples from better times strikes a very personal chord within me. This is music that makes you imagine your on a grand adventure, you're soaring in the sky and found the love of your life. (And of course the music itself mostly has its roots in the concert world) This music inspired (and continues to inspire) a whole generation of Japanese composers that get to LIVE THE DREAM. I can only imagine what Sawada felt when he got to score Moonlight Mile and Spaceblazer like the idols of his childhood. Or what Oshima and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra felt when she went to Moscow to score one of the greatest scores of the 21st century. Or what Sahashi felt the moment it sank in "I have my own Star Wars Trilogy now". These people studied intensely their symphonic knowledge and put years of hard training into pratice and even composers like Kenji Ito have the HUMILITY to not stand and wave their arms around on the conductors podium out of respect, despite the fact that they are more qualified than Tyler will be ever in his life.

And many Japanese composers honor the fallen Hollywood composers like musical gods while on our side we spit on their accomplishments. That at least the music I deeply treasure lives on and is still being performed and loved somewhere in the world, is about the one thing that keeps me from lamenting what the birthplace of some of the greatest musical scores of the 20th Century has turned into.


This is music that inspired me to one day make a living out of composing music and conduct before the LSO my very own STAR WARS that will leave something in people's hearts and live on for an eternity. After the sessions I would simply turn into a weeping slob and hug everyone in the room (and buy them a beer). Many current western composers before and after me had the same dream and are now rotting away or barely get work, because nobody wants MUSIC anymore. Studio musicians secretly cry and weep: They want to SING and the only thing they are allowed to is to STUTTER.

Now before I make my next point, please understand that I don't hate the Tylers, Giacchinos and Djawadis of this world as people. However, I absolutely despise the circumstances that made it possible that these people are allowed anywhere near a real orchesta without any credentials whatsoever. If you all still think we are all a bunch of arrogant music snobs, please notice that even Hollywood veterans 30 years in the business think the same.

http://picosong.com/iWXb / http://picosong.com/iMEV

It's shocking, it's absolutely horrifying and depressing beyond belief but its the cold hard truth we face that something that ignited a spark in our hearts will die out in our lifetime. It's like witnessing the fall of a once great civilization.

You can still listen to your Tylers and Djawadis, you have every right in the world to enjoy and express your love for those people, even if I think theres something wrong in your brain if you seriously believe that stuff is good music, but PLEASE take notice that the players who perform it by and large despise it, the recording staff and orchestrators drink themselves out of depression because of this stuff and every serious composer and musician that wants you to feel anything more than "isn't that cool shit" gets put on the street because of it.

^"An asshole with a knife is not a surgeon!"

Ha, I love that. I guess Iwasaki's "You can't slap raw fish on top of ice and call it sushi!" rant on Giacchino's music is a common sentiment felt by any trained musician working in the film/TV industry. Just out of curiosity Vinphonic, was that rant from someone you personally know?

That's no rant, it just pure and simple honesty.

It will be inevitably attacked by people who can't cope with the psychological dissonance they feel when something they think is magnificent is universally lambasted.

It's a very human response:

"I like this, why don't you, and if you're saying it's crap that means I like crap and I'm stupid and I'M NOT STUPID, YOU'RE A FUCKING SNOB, DUDE!!!!!"

Sad, true, and sadly, truthfully understandable in a way. Tu

@zipper: Not in person ;)

I would say the ONLY composer alive in Hollywood today that could succeed "Williams and friends" is Mike Verta, who is a better composer, orchestrator, musician and human being than all of those amateurs working today combined. He even once visited the thread to share some of his (nowadays absolutely amazing and brilliant) work. Not unlike Sawada he just couldn't help but sneak in some Empire and in such a natural way you would think for a second its the maestro himself. (On a sidenote, having revisited Moonlight Mile, I think that its probably the most "authentic" Hollywood score Japan has ever achieved.) But Back to Verta. He actually teaches the kind of stuff nobody can do anymore, just check his website. I also believe he thinks himself far less talented than he really is. Tango and I think he's about the only "New Hope" we have, if you forgive the pun.


And to pull up the video from earlier again, hearing one of the best orchestral film scores ever being "constructed" is still like magic too me, just as on the other side of the spectrum, I just can't fathom how Oshima goes with a finished score to Moscow and they just play it ONCE and bam... magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu7_dMhdciw#t=14m14s

But just seeing how Williams mind works and what once did go into the profession is a far cry from just "banging some drums".

*oops*

There is probably no business in the world more overridden with impostors than the Hollywood film-making business. I doubt the influx of young, unskilled charlatans is unique to film scoring alone. Breaking into the film-making business is a very attractive ambition for a lot of people, and the more hacks who “make it” only encourages more hacks to follow suit.

As mentioned in that awesome rant, technology is probably the biggest factor in convincing people without talent that they have talent. Not just the sample libraries, but the social media aspect as well. It's one thing to mock up an orchestra on your computer, but the echo chambers that exist online where wannabe-composers convince each other that they have what it takes to compete with the likes of Williams, Horner, Goldsmith, etc. sped out of control sometime in the early-2000s, and continues to this day.

I was always a firm believer that it didn't matter how high quality your samples were; people would recognize a good melody when they hear it. After all, aren't the soundtracks from early console games some of the most memorable tunes ever, right up there with Tchaikovsky and Williams?

That's what I think is the main difference between the old and new style of composing for films and games. And I also feel this holds true even in the contrasting opinions surrounding old classical music vs. modern classical music: Beethoven sounds great even in 16-bit MIDI format. Mahler sounds great. Williams sounds great. Uematsu sounds great. Kanno sounds great. Want to know if something is well composed? Give it the 16-bit MIDI test. This removes all of our “live instrumentation” biases and really tells us if a piece of music was skillfully crafted, or thrown together in a few minutes. What doesn’t sound great? A bunch of Pulitzer Prize-winning, politically-motivated, second-year composition assignments.

(As a side note, I have to mention that I compose exclusively in 16-bit MIDI because the temptation to fall in love with high quality samples is very real.)

I believe most modern music would fail the 16-bit test. A lot of it is forgettable and will not stand the test of time. But the people in charge of funding and awarding these works are either a) too arrogant or b) too lazy to care. Almost every industry is propped up by those who would consider themselves the final say on what is original (good) and what is derivative (bad), and who are we plebs to question their judgement?

And it’s because we didn’t question their judgement that we are stuck with derivative, electronically-produced film music on one end of the spectrum, and post-modernist/avant-garde classical music on the other. If Williams were in his 20s today there would be no entry point for him into either of those music scenes. He would probably just focus on jazz, or set up shop somewhere in Japan and write for anime.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the year. Same time next year?

As mentioned in that awesome rant, technology is probably the biggest factor in convincing people without talent that they have talent. Not just the sample libraries, but the social media aspect as well. It's one thing to mock up an orchestra on your computer, but the echo chambers that exist online where wannabe-composers convince each other that they have what it takes to compete with the likes of Williams, Horner, Goldsmith, etc. sped out of control sometime in the early-2000s, and continues to this day.I touched on this before, but there is too much truth to this. On the VSL forums, which (as the name implies) revolves around a sample library, you see a bunch of those same 20 to 30-something year olds proclaiming how great their music is and how much better they are than Zimmer and Williams etc. I've even seen one guy who prowls on there and is professionally one of the more accomplished musicians currently getting gigs in Hollywood refer to himself as the "reincarnation of Bernard Herrmann", and then talks about how all his friends and family and everyone online say how similar of a genius he is and how his music is like Herrmann's.

Have a listen to some of his """"Herrmann-tier"""" work:

https://soundcloud.com/evanevansmusic

This is one of those composers that Hollywood musicians wants crucified. Did I also mention that he's great friends with Giacchino?

Mike Verta went on that site for a while too, but they all bashed him for being a "Williams knockoff"- as if ANY of them could ever come near a quarter of his sense of orchestration!

I left that scene a long time ago. Though I use VSL, I never joined up with the forums. I did, however, use to partake in the Northern Sounds discussions in the early 2000s. Out of curiosity I decided to check it out after being away for 10 years. Seems kinda dead.

I don't think I would be able to tolerate the discussions that go on in the VSL forums either. It reminds me of why I stopped posting on the FSM forums. There's too much of this Stockholm syndrome going around surrounding new scores and none of them have the balls to call a boycott on buying new soundtracks until the industry gets its shit together. Even the guy who runs filmtracks.com just gave up and started giving everything 4/5. The internet has really become complacent.

Yeah, I used to frequently post on FSM and check filmtracks under a different alias, but I also recently noticed that EVERY new score by an amateur or semi-competent one like Tyler or Giacchino or whatever score is being praised to the moon and back. I don't even know what's going on anymore either, but its not exactly surprising considering that the standard of music in our western world has deteriorated in general (no grandpa, just FACT). Frankly I don't really care anymore either, as I have found a better world to spend time on ;)

I would say the industry missed its chance to avoid disaster sometime in the early 2000s too. There could have been protests from orchestrators and musicians and fellow composers that were forced into writing things they personally despise but like was mentioned, these gigs simply pay too good and most just think "well I can still play Vaughan Williams at home". See where that got them, in a way they dug their own graves by being too complacent.

Now the people who could have saved it are too old to care or retired. And I guess you could say that about pretty much every aspect of films where they let a complete amateur direct and a complete amateur compose for multimillion dollar projects with hundreds of talented artists and musicians around who have to be put down on their level. From that budget dozens of earnest films by accomplished directors with Warsaw scores could have been written.



Speaking of which, Yamakan's Twilight was a rousing success with a budget greater than anticipated. Kano is VERY EXCITED on twitter. Now, the films subject matter leaves not exactly room for some ballsy action, but perhaps we have something like Senju's Rampo to anticipate.

https://www.twitter.com/taque68/status/858994921386029056

Picture of Iwasaki-San doing the music for the Mahouka movie for you orch fans. if it's more of the show then I'll be friggin' happy. I have been reading this since November and feel too scared to say anything but uhh yeah here.

I'm very sorry if I scared away some people with my endless pages of rant or make it seem we're all a bunch of old man yelling at clouds (well if you count late 20s and early 30s as old).

I rarely get baited into it IRL but just as said, give me a couple of drinks and I would give you a rant that will make heads roll. If a certain someone had Herrmann's personality and was not an incredibly humble and polite person... oh boy, he would be marching in the studio with the imperial march playing in the background burning it all down...

BUT to get to the point. I really wanted to avoid being so negative (as I'm mostly happy with everything these days, to the point Tango has to tame my enthusiasm) but reopening old wounds and personal scars got the best of me and the last pages are kinda contradictory to what I want this thread to be. I love this place because of Tango's / Herr Salat's shares of incredible and hard-to-find music, especially Higuchi, nextdays insightful industry research and hard-to-get marvels, streichs fabolous analysis, Zippers shares of behind-the-scenes of some of my favorite composers and about dozens of other people that share and talk about music they feel something about. The pages and pages of discussion about our favorite classical and film composers and general music artists are fondly remembered. I'm very happy and grateful for everyone present who listened to this negative and depressing outlook and is still here tolerating me shitting on people whose music they personally love. I know its nobodys fault that enjoys and posts music here and really loves Up or Rogue One.

I also hope I don't make it seem like I (and others) are a bunch of orchestral-only-or-get-out people. Far from it, it's true I want to write something of the caliber of Star Wars one day but I would have also loved to be present at the Persona 5 session just witnessing a couple of musicians jamming away and having a swell time and after it get some drinks and laugh (Dancing All Night 2 can't come soon enough) and I really appreciate Nier Automata from a musical artist standpoint. And like streich pointed out, most of us love old soundchip music and 70s and 80s synth. Tanaka's Gravity Daze 2 would not be my favorite thing ever if it didn't sound like the musicians had months of amazing days together.

I believe whether we are all musicians, music teachers, composers, engineers or music lovers in here, EVERYONE should be able to speak their mind on what they feel about a piece of music and NOBODY should be crucified for what they think. Sometimes its insanely helpful to get perspective on things from people with various different backgrounds on the same subject.

Naoki Sato - Train Suite Shiki-shima

https://youtu.be/2la7dJJuYi0?t=29


Edit: Two Oshima pieces, from violinist Emiri Miyamoto's new album.

Kazabue (Orchestra version): http://picosong.com/iWsL/
To a Rainbow-colored Dream: http://picosong.com/iWs6/


Edit2: Evan Call left Elements Garden last year, but apparently he already found a new job as an orchestrator for drama soundtracks.

Chef ~Three Star School Lunch~: http://picosong.com/pHhm/

https://www.twitter.com/taque68/status/858994921386029056

Picture of Iwasaki-San doing the music for the Mahouka movie for you orch fans. if it's more of the show then I'll be friggin' happy. I have been reading this since November and feel too scared to say anything but uhh yeah here.I'm glad to see that the producers are actually bothering to let him compose new music, and not on a dollar budget like those Gurren Lagann movies. I was afraid that they would just reuse the old music like in the trailers. Mahouka is not my favorite Iwasaki work, but seeing him with a potential movie budget and scoring with more cohesive film music sensibilities rather than the typical scattershot cues you hear in his TV works is enough to get me excited. And he'll be doing the same thing again later this year for Stray Dogs. Given how unusually quiet he's been on Twitter lately, I'm going to assume that he doesn't hate his current gigs and has spent a lot of time on the music, which is always a good thing.

I've also been guilty of lurking in this thread for a long time before speaking up; I didn't post anything for a whole 4 years before one day just popping in my first post. The impression I get is that everyone here is generally very passionate and knowledgeable about music, but the fanboyism and immaturity and viciousness that you see in other places where 15 year olds endlessly worship Kajiura and Sawano doesn't exist. People here are fans, but very few are fanboys. And that is why we can have serious discussions about our favorite composers without resorting to "F*CK YOU" every second like some other sites. I dislike this recent trend of people coming in here to call out Tango or anyone about being elitest. If you don't like what he says and can provide some positive (or negative) insights to certain composers that some people here like or don't like, by all means do so! I rarely see anyone ever give Tango a proper reply to his criticisms without sounding more venomous and entirely dismissive of his arguments. I used to hate Sagisu but after a few arguments with some people here I gave his music another try, and lo and behold, I found something new to enjoy. Forums were made for discussion, and that is what goes on in these threads, and that is why I keep coming back.

Mind you, it does get out of hand sometimes, especially when anything Hollywood gets brought up, but even then those discussions only make up a small part of this thread, and are nowhere near the levels of silly nostalgia that you see in places like FSM or VSL.

I welcome with open arms anyone who wants to talk more about Iwasaki. I sometimes feel like I'm the only person who actively brings him up in this thread, so to not have to do that for once is very pleasant.


Zippers shares of behind-the-scenes of some of my favorite composersYou're giving me a bit too much credit ;)

I just come here to talk.

Listening through Toru Takemitsu's work so far has been such a chore for me. Maybe it's because I'm not someone who has much appreciation for atonality and minimalism, but so far I can't say anything positive about Takemitsu's work, and yet he's considered the greatest Japanese composer of all time. Is there something I'm missing here?

I think each person's canon is different/flux. Takemitsu, 1930-1996... Maybe there's a better connection with more contemporary composers and recordings (something akin to the phrase "X = Our generation's Y The Beatles, ...]").

Lately, I've been searching for something useful for "Work OST" purposes (mostly minimalist). So I like a moment from Takemitsu's From Me Flows What You Call Time (https://my.mixtape.moe/cdfchx.m4a) (specifically, the 'breath of air' strings (http://picosong.com/iWwH/)).

<hr>

Since streichorchester mentioned the notion of honing an idea on something simple first (16-bit MIDI format)... There was a YouTube video of a Piano Four-Hands arrangement of Yoko Kanno's Willgelm Take Off / Triad / White Falcon track from 'Turn A Gundam'. We may never get to Kanno's sketches, etc., so this reverse-engineering for the time being...
Piano Four-Hands, arr. 'Night's Pirika' (https://my.mixtape.moe/quaavl.mp4) // Original Orchestral Recording (http://picosong.com/i7Bv/) for Comparison

Since Tomoyuki Asakawa was mentioned a few posts ago, I suppose now is an appropriate time to share a few things.

Asakawa is a composer that was born too late. He's a master of that old Hollywood/Broadway style of music which unfortunately went out-of-fashion right around the time when his career was blossoming.


- Let's start off with an overture from the 1984 film The Island Closest to Heaven. (I think I've posted this one before, but it never hurts to post it again!)



Download: Tomoyuki Asakawa - Melanesian Overture (http://picosong.com/iWyw/)
I absolutely love this piece. They don't make music like this any more. Even the concept of an overture has faded.


- Second is Kizuna, one of his last scores to be released on CD (1998 - it's almost been 20 years). All tracks composed by Asakawa except for 1, 10, 12, 13, and 19.



Download: https://mega.nz/#!wB1gEQTJ!1NmlATwuITzBilndCS0NBtWk4HGIhU8jNmK6kps-DjU



- Third is an European-style album by clarinet player Tatsuzo Akasaka. Includes 2 compositions by Asakawa. There's also a gorgeous piece composed by Toshiyuki Watanabe!



Download: https://mega.nz/#!oYFHVBJT!BJTzXSPx_nz1zObA2yLB_DBuUrUm12Chk-YiXB63OR8


As usual, everything was ripped and translated by me (except for the first track which I graciously received from a friend).
By the way, Tomoyuki Asakawa has a YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1GA9HLsqm9S4HEQl54XxA). Be sure to subscribe to him for occasional harp videos!

Download: Tomoyuki Asakawa - Melanesian Overture (http://picosong.com/iWyw/)I'm at a loss for words. This is stunning. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. My god, it sounds like it came right out of Robin Hood or The Sea Hawk. The orchestration is absolutely splendid, and that flowing melody is to die for. I love Kanno, but even now I'm having a hard time thinking of pieces she wrote that were on this level.

And this is from 1984... you mean to tell me Asakawa was ONLY 24 when he wrote and orchestrated this? He really is a prodigy.

However, I have to disagree with you about the music sounding dated; even nowadays there are still many anime that try to emulate this style of scoring, even though they don't come anywhere near this level. This is a powerful piece, but perhaps maybe too grandiose to be used for a TV anime with quick cuts.

---------- Post added at 02:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:32 AM ----------


I think each person's canon is different/flux. Takemitsu, 1930-1996... Maybe there's a better connection with more contemporary composers and recordings (something akin to the phrase "X = Our generation's Y The Beatles, ...]").Takemitsu (and to a lesser extent Sakamato) seem to embody a lot of traits to their music that a westerner who doesn't listen to much music would perceive as being "representative of Japanese culture and way of thinking" and then using some really generic Japanese phrase like "ma" to describe it. Which I find bizarre since both Takemitsu and Sakamoto are deeply rooted in western music (Takemitsu even hated Japanese music in his youth because of the war and avoided listening to it until the 60s or so). At least Sakamoto uses a lot of eastern melodies like Hisaishi, but even then I can't really understand how these three are representative of Japanese musicians as a whole when the pool is so much more diverse. I think it's just a matter of mainstream appeal since all three have worked on big movies that were taken seriously outside of Japan and have some separate careers in the concert halls, though I'm not sure if the Beetles is an apt comparison.

Wow, lets start with Sato: Everything about this is utterly utterly wonderful. You can almost see their tears!!! And not even NAOKI SATO thinks himself fit to take over conducting from a professional conductor :0

And those Oshima and Asakawa pieces make me question why I was even getting worked up the past days.


I absolutely love this piece. They don't make music like this any more. Even the concept of an overture has faded.

You say that while Keiji Inai has written an Overture for Sword Oratoria and possibly Haine "just for the soundtrack" I suspect (I don't even know who posted that news ;))


And fascinating that Evan Call pretty much went "Going back? Are you nuts! This is the dream". I hope he doesn't become yet another orchestrator that should be a composer.


@Zipper: I would say you need to be in a specific mindset to appreciate Takemitsu. Like Tazer said, a film like RAN definetely helps to get you into his world.

There's also some truth to the difference in scales and melodies the east and west share. For some one style is harder to get into than others.


I must also confess I did Leatherhead great injustice. On his reminder I checked out pedal again and what was I smoking the first time through, I must have had a real bad day when I glimpsed over the OSTs, they are quite good! Pretty much Mark Mancina on crack! And the recent film has some big orchestral pieces: http://picosong.com/iWmZ/ / http://picosong.com/iWmQ

Still, Sawada on Gundam would be the most amazing gig ever after Masaru "well, it's very rythmic and there's lots of unison parts" Yokoyama. But I guess, Yugo Kanno still has to score that G movie.


And finally, at this point, perhaps we should add mobile games to the new wonders of the Japanese scoring world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aALk-ml9gQI

There is a lot of discussion over the last few pages that gets quite detailed. While I could get into the same sort of discussion quite easily, I generally prefer to enjoy what I enjoy and revisit things I don't enjoy right away when I can and see how things evolve. If I grab some new album lovingly shared here it either grabs me or it doesn't. I tend to be a bit of a complainer in real life but energy can be better spent being positive about the things that are worthy of mention. In my local beer community you rarely hear anything about the breweries that are coming out with sub-par beer. Nobody talks about them. The simple assumption around here is if you hear of it, it is good, and if you don't, don't bother. Same can be said through this thread.

I think that is a very insightful comment. Perhaps it's best to completely abandon lamenting the past and what goes wrong or could have been and put all focus on what goes right elsewhere. For example I've played games my whole life and I feel RIGHT NOW we have never seen so much quality games in sucha short span of time: from Bloodborne to Last Guardian to Persona 5... why should I complain about Call of Duty X when I can't change the way things are, no matter how many people acknowledge that something needs to change, especially when I can get the amazing experiences I personally yearn for, somewhere else, tenfold.

Nonetheless, I still believe it had to be said. In my eyes things need to change, but if they don't in my lifetime then so be it then. I will not care about this industry by this point anyway.

Ultimately, as long as those with power, influence and money have the final say how each industry operates, we can only hope they have a change of mind.




Speaking of games, lets get all gears fired up about what goes right in the world, a keypiece being this insightful essay that you simply have to read to believe:


http://vgmland.com/blog/misc/essay-vgm-orchestras-japan/

"The amount of game music orchestras in Japan is relatively big. According to Ichihara, Tokyo has close the 500 amateur orchestras and ensembles, and over 1000 exist in the entire country.[37] If 20 or more of them perform game music, it doesn’t seem like a big percentage. But the UK has 1213 amateur orchestras and ensembles and only one of them has listed that they perform game music alongside other music.[29] In this sense, 20 or more in Japan is a huge number.

Most of the music performed by Japanese game music orchestras comes from Square Enix games. Ichihara says that Square Enix has made a lot of games that sold well, so a lot of their music has stuck with people. If you want to make sure that everyone in the audience knows at least one song, you have to include Square Enix games.[37]

Another company with well-known and successful games is Nintendo, but game music orchestras rarely perform their music. The reason could be that they are so protective of their music. In a blog post on Gaming Rocks On[30], the author writes, “Unlike Square Enix and a plethora of other companies, Nintendo very rarely releases any of it’s music.” Thomas B�cker, a long-time producer of game music concerts, has said that obtaining licensing for concerts is difficult and when Nintendo does give permission to a concert, they review and approve all the steps involved.[31] So if obtaining the rights to perform music is difficult in general, it must be even more difficult with Nintendo."

https://otakumode.com/news/538dd502f25e8e3c5a0000fd/Interview-JAGMO-Producer-Tadakaz-Mishiya

"JAGMO’s vision is to make game music a part of culture and give it its place in music history. In the future, I’d like to keep working to bring about things like instructional books on playing game music and schools dedicated to game music. In order to accomplish that, I think we need to not just produce something for consumers, but to have each performer put their life into it and make music that stirs the souls of the listeners. Even now, we’re all in the process of making that kind of music [...] I’d like for us to be an orchestra that even people who aren’t familiar with video games will listen to. In order for that to happen, we need completely new techniques and arrangements. I’d like to try mixing two songs that we currently do separately or fuse classical techniques with game music and do variations using various instruments. For example, I’d like to mix the “Golbez” and “Big Bridge” themes and bring out even more of what makes these pieces great. For that we need an excellent arranger and performers who really understand video game music, so we will have to expand the orchestra beyond where it is now." (JAGMO Producer Tadakaz Mishiya)

http://vgmland.com/blog/interviews/yusuke-ichihara-2014/

"I’m a conductor and love orchestral and classical music. For 200-300 years, classical music has been handed down and its fascination and force is immeasurable. At the same time I love game music. I am of the generation that grew up together with games getting more advanced. Every day I listened to the music that flowed from the game consoles. The music that I’ve listened to the most in my life might be video game music.

Orchestral music and game music. If the two kinds of music that I love unite, something wonderful must come out of it. That thought is why I want to perform game music with an orchestra. Maybe you could simply say it’s my hobby. Anyway, the answer is “because I love it”. (Yusuke Ichihara, founder of New Japan BGM Philharmonic Orchestra)


The New Japan BGM Philharmonic Orchestra is currently also working as an "Orchestral Video Game Music Session Orchestra" (and I guess performs for anime too)




And regulary performs at concerts almost every month:



Examples: http://njbp.org/soundcloud.php / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_5joDfgMRk

NJBP (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqcI_sHzwyEXleAcVcK60Fw/videos)


And I imagine, that for the big budgets, Jagmo will eventually be more than ready to perform for games and anime too



Examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Ab4xv2n7k / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KskKzdiuvQ4

http://jagmo.jp/


The concert where a "one-shot orchestra" of amateurs (probably not worse than LA session players of today because they had to master classical pieces for audition) dedicated full four hours to Final Fantasy Tactics and performed THE ENTIRE SCORE live out of love for the music! Sakimoto surely had nonstop-flowing tears right after: http://www.2083.jp/concert/20110320hoshirabe.html

EDIT: Here are some examples from this almost entirely exclusive scene: Toho: Septette for the Dead Princess (for Symphony Orchestra) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-rkGLDfaEU) / Sailor Moon Moonlight Densetsu (for Symphony Orchestra) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM4602K2tb4) / Super Mario Galaxy: Wind Garden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpyGi8bKnC4&list=PLNtBujsDHmA4Q0ujHAZP3_lajtMdk5Tjq&index=18) / Bad Apple for Chamber Ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuATjyNvRR8) / Toho Medley for Chamber Ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqAs6d08sJ0#t=1m27s) / NICONICO Prima Stella Orchestra (Anime/Pop Medley) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vY1MWyUg5Y)


Can you imagine it, an industry of musicians who are not only pretty much all hardcore for their subjects of interest but also get to express their love almost every day, fighting over what piece from Chrono Trigger they should play and if no one agrees the result is... fuck it! Let's just perform the whole damn thing, I've got no plans for the evening anyway. And Mitsuda is buying drinks! And right after having having a session performing Mobile Academy or whatever with a smile on their face or tears flowing during the whole gig, and right after talking about their favorite games and game scores and what they love about the music they performed ... and all in a world that loves traditional orchestral music to the moon and back and has insane respect for classical and old Hollywood music and has a love for playing instruments that its present in all aspects of culture and media (Hibike Euphonium was not a massive hit for nothing)... an industry of passion and not commerce! What a future!

And if money is a concern: Just make our orchestra a stock company or "let’s hope we can gather many fools (meaning it in a good way), who don’t care about money"... brilliant!


Currently we are living in the age of the "4Gamers" movement that is going on and is a collaboration of artists, game designers, game directors, game producers, musicians, composers and orchestrators to make game music leave a mark in history. Its thanks to their effort the number of game concerts skyrocketed in the last two years and we will have much more orchestral game scores in the future than ever before. Perhaps its no coincidence recent Japanese Games have been of exceptional quality and there's currently a demonstration of love for the medium and celebration of music that is almost unreal. From solo concert performances, to band ensembles and symphony orchestras, from indie groups to professional ensembles, most are just hopeless fools (meaning it in a good way) living their dream.

And I sure don't mind that orchestral fan albums (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhSMI0cIe6g) and orchesteral pop concerts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aPw7URL5c) are a thing.

And the storm of orchestral concerts shows no sign of stopping, quite the contrary. Coming up in the next weeks are concerts for the Atelier games, Ace Attorney, Kancolle 2 (hopefully with music from the anime), Game Takt 2017 (collaboration of video game composers from Uematsu to Mitsuda), Undertale and many more. And Sugiyama (THE LEGEND himself) is currently busy being part of it, visiting many concerts, arranging new pieces for the 30th anniversary of Dragon Quest and also occupied with his upcoming symphonic album.

And each and every of those concerts features extremely passionate people and insane attention and dedication to detail:




The thought that we only really get to hear 10% of what is actually being performed and recorded (but not commercially available because of licensing issues) is both AMAZING and at the same time very disappointing.


Even if a similar movement does not exist for anime at the moment, things are slowly heading in the same direction. Hamaguchi has another Girls und Panzer Orchestral concert in the works and Sailor Moon and other classic franchises are slowly getting concerts too. If the P.A Works concert (which Hamaguchi also attended) is any indication, many animation studios will be looking into holding their own celebration concerts too.

Another thing I would like to add that makes Japan's future secure is what Hollywood lacks. A very serious approach to the profession of composing, arranging and orchestrating. There's numerous associations and links to music institutions, dozens of companies FOUNDED by composers and orchestrators and an active music scene insuring that NO AMATEURS can get into the business easily, or at least that the ratio is 1/10.

And the fact that almost every composer, arranger and orchestrator from almost every field of music over there knows each other, is friends with each other and drinks with each other is very VERY endearing. And it doesn't stop there, even company CEOs are sometimes there for a drink too. If the president of SONY and other influental people in the industry have the greatest of respect for Tanaka and Oshima and personally attend many symphony concerts of their own games and are activily pushing this "4Gamers" thing, then something went insanely right.

The current legends in the industry are now more busy than ever and getting the highest praise, respect and honor, working in the concert hall, the recording studio or the lecture hall and teach a whole new generation how to do it right.

And thanks to their effort we have a next generation of composers that can inherit and preserve their Legacy and give those passionate musicians, from orchestral players to operatic singers, the time of their life: https://vimeo.com/190616091

Oh, and here's an example of the VERY FRESH generation who made it into the business: https://soundcloud.com/tayannu/2015ayamarikoten (Ayana Tsujita, arranger of Miku Symphony and Kancolle)
About as much away from "banging some drums" and "playing DJ" than one can possibly get in this very same realm of existence (although she has some very ecclectic tastes but then again, didn't hurt Kanno)





Now, I cannot say if all that passion and dedication and promising talent will result in GREAT music (or even GOOD music) that will be remembered decades or centuries in the future, but I sure am more than happy to find out.








EDIT: And here's the rehersal of the 23rd GSJ Concert tomorrow. I hope it gets out one way or the other.

And for those of you who aren't familiar with the Vaughan Williams score that was linked to here, you can sample it with an earlier Chandos release from 2002, which is on Spotify.

You say that while Keiji Inai has written an Overture for Sword Oratoria and possibly Haine "just for the soundtrack" I suspect (I don't even know who posted that news ;))
Fortunately, there are still some that cling to the old ways. Inai is one who is particularly inspired by Hollywood. :)


And finally, at this point, perhaps we should add mobile games to the new wonders of the Japanese scoring world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aALk-ml9gQI
Hideki Sakamoto has actually had a couple orchestra recordings this year. Surely some interesting projects in the works.

https://www.facebook.com/hideki.sakamoto.3591/posts/1460341310665558
https://www.facebook.com/hideki.sakamoto.3591/posts/1401061819926841

Regarding Overtures being a lost art... some still remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbpDRk_OAPU (where else can you find this stuff anymore).


I'm also now entirely sure Sahashi based his "Frontier" entirely on Conti, in particular when he saw the movie while scoring Koi Ni Ochitara: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q06MreDHwus (and who can blame him, damn good one too, Space Brothers referenced it a couple of times)

Ohhhh! The Last Guardian! LOVE that music. I just recently got the soundtrack, with the Crayon Shin Chan Movie OST BGM soundtrack. I hope I can rip them soon.

Ohhhh! The Last Guardian! LOVE that music. I just recently got the soundtrack.
Me too. Takeshi Furukawa's website says he is currently working on an album of chamber works. Hopefully it will be interesting.

Akira Senju: Tetsujin 28 The Movie Soundtrack
FLAC|CUE|LOG
NOT MY RIP


Amazon Japan Entry (http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%89%84%E4%BA%BA28%E5%8F%B7-%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B8%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%8 2%B5%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9% E3%83%83%E3%82%AF-%E5%8D%83%E4%BD%8F%E6%98%8E/dp/B000765MTG/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1365743238&sr=1-5&keywords=%E9%89%84%E4%BA%BA28%E5%8F%B7)

Mediafire Part I (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?exbthlbl2xl7vt8)
Mediafire Part II (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?7fhxcixjr9zwc7i)

Track 6 and 20 mildly quotes the above Youtube track from V Gundam. There's nothing much to say about this one except that it's a very solid album written strictly in Senju's established style. Track 17 in particular is very good (sans the repetition). :D

Any chance we could get a re-up on this? I missed the original and the only other link I found in the forums was also dead.
Also, does anyone happen to have the music from the original release album or the 2007 movie? I've been searching for those two for a while, and any news on them would be awesome!
(The first one particularly for its instrumental versions of the OP/End themes)
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71u8cLBmggL._AC_UL320_SR318,320_.jpg

Does anyone here have the Bincho-tan Character CD Volumes 1 and 2? They both contained a few tracks not on the OST. Someone uploaded it years ago but the file has been deleted since.

Thread 130741

Regarding Overtures being a lost art... some still remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbpDRk_OAPU (where else can you find this stuff anymore).

This is shameless rip of Leonard Bernstein's Overture to Candide. :D

(Tomoyuki Asakawa - Melanesian Overture / Kizuna / Clarinet Pieces)

Publisher: Nippon Columbia / Release Date: 21.02.1988 / Catalog No.: 32CA-2134
Score composed & arranged by
Tomoyuki ASAKAWA
MEMORIES OF YOU
(Love Story o Kimi ni // 1988, dir. Shin'ichiro Sawai)

Studio Orchestra, Hiroshi Kumagaya (cond.)



Sample: Overture (00:34) / Yama no Uta (2:00) (http://picosong.com/MwHt/)

Occasionally, the audio is turned down to feature dialogue from the film. While annoying, one can listen how Asakawa may have solved to score cues to dialogue / locked picture. More for completion's sake.

Source: Personal Collection
FLAC / LOG / SCANS: https://anon.click/midir22
(MediaFire Behind Capcha)

<hr>

Publisher: Mellowdrama Records / Release Date: 13.03.2006 / Catalog No.: MEL108
Score by
Jeremy Sams
ENDURING LOVE
(2004, dir. Roger Michell - Based on the novel by Ian McEwan)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Austin (orchestrator, conductor)



Sample: Passacaglia: Working It Out (http://picosong.com/MwHW/)

Since the romantic score above can be cloying , here's something with more serious/dramatic vibes featuring the tried and true passacaglia (Hindemith (http://picosong.com/MwUS/), and ....um... James Newton Howard's "Eye for an Eye / Watch the World Burn" cue from 'The Dark Knight', etc.).

The other highlights, the final two tracks (Pastorale & Finale) which also exists as a re-recording koala123 shared Suite (Pastorale & Finale) in MP3 -V0 format (Thread 112077).

Source: iTunes Store
iTunes AAC: https://anon.click/xexiz49
(MediaFire Behind Capcha)

<hr>


(Re-Up Request:
Miki TORIROU - Tetsujin 28 (Theme Song, arr. Senju) [2004 TV] (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0001M6I4Y)
Akira SENJU - Tetsujin 28 (2004 TV) (http://vgmdb.net/album/58494) // 2005 Geneon Ent. (USA) ✔
Akira SENJU - Tetsujin 28 (2005 Film) (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B000765MTG) // 2005 King Records ✔
Tetsujin 28: Hakuchu no Zangetsu (2007 Film) // Compilation of -inter alia- Akira IFUKUBE music (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B000M5B9Y4))

Score composed & arranged by
Akira SENJU
TETSUJIN 28
(2004 TV, dir. Yasuhiro Imagawa // 2005 Film, dir. Shin Togashi)



Sample: Tetsu to Yuuki 1 (http://picosong.com/Mw7L)

The 2005 film score album is in range rip format and the tracks are in Japanese/unromanized.

Sources: tango (Thread 57893)treats (Thread 57893) / Unknown (via Akashi San (Thread 57893))
FLAC: https://anon.click/puyuq97
(MediaFire Behind Capcha)

Legacy of Japan
Shiro Hamaguchi
Film and Concert Selection



PW: PanzerVor! (https://anon.click/viqip86)

Shiro Hamaguchi is a brilliant film composer and fantastic arranger, worldwide famous because of his excellent Final Fantasy arrangements which still set the benchmark for orchestral Final Fantasy music and his three orchestral albums of Final Fantasy music brought us some of the best “neo-classical” music Japan can offer. I would go so far as to say his collaboration with Nobuo Uematsu (who is a LEGEND in his own right) brought forth some of the greatest orchestral media music in history (the full version of Aria in particular) and his collaboration with Kohei Tanaka on One Piece brought us hours of fantastic seafaring romance.

Just like Sirusjr and streich pointed out, if something is genuinely good, people remember it and will survive the test of time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGl4FqUeFS0

Because of his amazing talent and successful career I forgot Hamaguchi is actually THE YOUNGEST Legacy composer I shared so far which makes his early career all the more amazing. If we have a bright future then there’s still decades of film and concert works waiting for us.

He has been and still is involved in numerous orchestral media projects such as Monster Hunter and Soul Calibur but sadly rarely employs an orchestra when he is taking on the role of a composer. Still, he has nonetheless a distinctive voice and an excellent sense for drama. Some of the most excellent film scores of the anime business are under his belt:

Ah! My Goddess is his magnum opus elevated in sound by the Warsaw Philharmonic, composed when he just turned 30. A beautiful Hollywood-esque choral work with some sublime romantic moments.

Princess and the Pilot is a great homage to Goldsmith’s and Horner’s Americana scores with some wonderful film music magic moments with a flying theme up there with Patema and Escaflowne. Seriously, he has the potential to be one of the greats. But to this day, sadly unreleased.
Still, you simply have to see this scene and always remember these people are still around in the business: https://vimeo.com/215996472

Girls und Panzer is the ultimate charming feel-good orchestral score in the anime business and a homage to Elmer Bernstein with much patriotic WW2 flair mixed with some serious war sound straight out of a Goodwin or Bernstein film. I’ve carefully remastered it to professional Hollywood sound, as it previously didn’t even hold a candle to Monuments Men in the sound department, despite being the more enjoyable pastiche ride (in my opinion).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa-S1At1eeg

Shirobako is a lighthearted, a bit rose-colored but absolutely genuine insight into the industry if the various interviews from directors to artists to composers can be believed. It also has some real good music. In addition to really thrilling Jazz and Funk Hamaguchi also recorded some real tasty orchestral score, tragically missing the horn section to make it truly shine. Still, it has a lovely theme and a rousing uplifting finish. I’ve also remastered it with a more pompous sound and to see how far I could go before it washed up. I don’t think its that successful but at least it sounds more bombastic.
Here's an example: http://picosong.com/M3K3/

For Crayon Shin-chan Hamaguchi delivered a gorgeous beautiful adventure score that makes you wish he would get far more opportunities to score films like this. Thankfully Ponyo will share with us this excellent ride in flac soon :D

Kiddy Grade is reminiscent of his collaboration with Tanaka and straight out of the One Piece soundworld.

Okiku Furikabutte is a damn good sport score with some downright Top-Gun moments and delicious 80s synth patch and piano.

For various series with pretty much no orchestral score he recorded some showpieces, for example Galilei Donna’s Main Theme or his Bach homage On a "Sunny Day", but the best has to be Ray of Light for Hanasuka Iroha, straight out of his Goddess score and wonderfully ethereal and Christmassy: http://picosong.com/M3kA


Currently he is quite busy, having scored new music for One Piece and Girls und Panzer and in best Japanese brilliance, they will actually rerecord GuP der Film with the Tokyo Philharmonic. But I hope he will get another chance to go all out as a film composer sometime soon.

And before I finish here is a sweet little scene that makes it really obvious why I love the anime medium, with cameo from Hamaguchi himself: https://vimeo.com/216011482






And just for interest, regarding Tanaka. As much as I anticipate his upcoming concert work it would be really nice to see him returning to locked-picture scoring, like Ike does now, worked wonders:
https://vimeo.com/215999547 (also how about a glorious Sakura Wars comeback, Japan :D)

Occasionally, the audio is turned down to feature dialogue from the film. While annoying, one can listen how Asakawa may have solved to score cues to dialogue / locked picture. More for completion's sake.
The full soundtrack for the one I posted is the same way. Only 3 tracks are dialogue-free (the overture, a reprise of the overture, and 1 other track). I suspect all his early soundtracks are the same way, which is why I've refrained from obtaining them.

Here is the other track: Tomoyuki Asakawa - Island of Light (http://picosong.com/M3Nx/)


Edit: One other thing. His early harp CDs, while not orchestral, are still lovely - http://picosong.com/M3KH/

If you've ever wondered who sings the operatic vocals in Yasuharu Takanshi's work as well as recent Mizutani soundtracks, now you know (if memory serves well nextday posted the news but I believe it was never shared here)




Remi (Tanaka) & Hiromi Mizutani
Budapest Symphonic Scoring Orchestra
Soprano: Remi
Conductor: P�ter Pejtsik



Amarantine (http://picosong.com/MFUx)

The composer of Ice on Yuri - that composer who was pictured with Iwasaki was critical of John Williams's The Force Awakens (and recent work in particular in seems), here are the things he wrote about the score when it was released - he thinks someone else is responsible for much of his recent scores or something:

あとストラヴィンスキー、レスピーギ、チャイコフスキーとか。

誰がやったかは知らんけど、ホルスト、ワーグナー、リヒャルトシュトラウス、コルンゴルド、プッチーニ、ヴ ェルディ、プロコフィエフ、バルトーク から50年代のハリウッド映画のスコアまでもっと勉強しておけよ、、ほんと。

内情は知らないけど、今回ジョンウィリアムズほとんど仕事やってないと思いますよ。リンカーンあたりから怪 しかったけど今まであれほどのものを作った人がやってきた書法と違いすぎる。あの人の書法はスケッチの時点 からスコアまで完璧に想定されているし。仮に手抜きだったとしてもああはならないです

あー今日はだめだ、作曲すすまない、、、
どんなやってもスターウォーズが脳内で邪魔する。

Here's a wonky Google translation of that:

I do not know about internal circumstances, but I think John Williams hardly does work this time. It was dubious from around Lincoln, but it is too different from the way the person who made such things came up until now. That man's writing method is assumed perfectly from the time of the sketch to the score. Even if it's omission it will not be ah.

I do not know who did it, but learn more from the Holst, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Colungardo, Puccini, Verdi, Prokofiev, Bartok to the scores of the Hollywood movies of the 50's, really. Also, Stravinsky, Respighi, Tchaikovsky.

Ah, I can not do it today, I will not compose music ,,,
Star Wars interferes in the brain anyway.

Hello masters of symphonic pleasures, could you please re-up the Ultraman Max Ost 1 and 2? I can't find them anywhere and the links from this thread are dead :( Thanks for all the music and information that you provide, i love this thread! :)

The composer of Ice on Yuri - that composer who was pictured with Iwasaki was critical of John Williams's The Force Awakens (and recent work in particular in seems), here are the things he wrote about the score when it was released - he thinks someone else is responsible for much of his recent scores or something:First off, can you show us the picture and source of the original quote? I've never seen YoI's composer before. In fact, I recall YoI had THREE composers.

Second, while I am not a big fan of The Force Awakens, the sound is unquestionably John Williams. Not as bombastic as he was in his prime, but that's how it tends to be for many composers as they get older.

Nichijou's OST is a fucking joy and it's a pity it's not available separately and it's only obtainable physically through getting the very expensive BD sets..

Our best option is to wait a few years and hope for the best, some BD soundtracks do get official releases eventually. But Nichijou, Tempest, Princess and Pilot, King of Thorn and Captain Earth are probably my most requested.

I will pronounce Korngold as Colungardo from now on.

Our best option is to wait a few years and hope for the best, some BD soundtracks do get official releases eventually. But Nichijou, Tempest, Princess and Pilot, King of Thorn and Captain Earth are probably my most requested.

I don't have any hopes. The anime released in 2011. It's been a few years now.. seems that somehow, (although the anime is pretty great) Nichijou didn't sell very well, and Kadokawa is the type of company that wants to stop supporting altogether what doesn't sell, although this year they have released another BD box of the anime, I think. I dunno. I am certain the japanese like OSTs - I would've thought with such a wonderful music that probably was expensive to produce, they'd at least bother to release **SOME** of it separatedly for anyone to get it..

Also, never heard of the others you mention.

If you've ever wondered who sings the operatic vocals in Yasuharu Takanshi's work as well as recent Mizutani soundtracks, now you know (if memory serves well nextday posted the news but I believe it was never shared here)




Remi (Tanaka) & Hiromi Mizutani
Budapest Symphonic Scoring Orchestra
Soprano: Remi
Conductor: P�ter Pejtsik



Amarantine (http://picosong.com/MFUx)

Why is it sung in Italian?

Because its an aria?... oh well, here's your contemporary version (funnily enough, this is listed as "J-Pop"): http://picosong.com/MRXp/


But in seriousness... class!




Also, if anyone has Ultraman Max in FLAC, I would second that request... and atlantean1, you're very welcome :)

Also, if anyone has Ultraman Max in FLAC,

I do. ;)

Please stand by!

Edit: The tags are shit. I will fix it tomorrow, it's 1am and I'm going to bed now... Sorry folks, good night! :)

First off, can you show us the picture and source of the original quote? I've never seen YoI's composer before. In fact, I recall YoI had THREE composers.
He's here pictured with Iwasaki https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1221778974595788&set=a.153755038064859.32617.100002910916248&type=3&permPage=1
He said that in form of a few tweets, you'll have scroll back to mid dec 2015 here to find them: https://twitter.com/YutaBandoh He worked under the name Taku Matsushiba on Yuri and did what I think we most can agree with the best tracks.

Ayana Tsujita (in the same picture as Iwasaki and Matsushiba) also wrote a mini-opera for one of the concerts I mentioned:

"Sleeping Princess" -30min


I guess we should call them the operatic trio from now on.


@Tango: After I checked Sahashi's facebook profile after a long time Silly me, that was his website, Sahashi didn't have a facebook page until recently. But back to the point, I can say that illness or personal affairs are nonsense. He just stepped back from active scoring for education programs, concert works and stage musicals.

He's still busy working



Oh and of course he's a Trekkie too :D

I'm sure FMP was just a schedule delay and recently Hitman Reborn announced its 10th anniversary. He will be back ;) (I should also mention that Kan Sawada had an early career in theater before scoring Moonlight Mile and Doraemon, explaining that crystal-clear sense of drama that was just too perfect to have from day one)

EDIT: Of course Sahashi ALSO WROTE AN OPERA: http://anne-opera.net/director/2017/01/30/02/ (a message from the master himself)

It was always meant to be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzRpyslp0F0)

He's here pictured with Iwasaki https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1221778974595788&set=a.153755038064859.32617.100002910916248&type=3&permPage=1
He said that in form of a few tweets, you'll have scroll back to mid dec 2015 here to find them: https://twitter.com/YutaBandoh He worked under the name Taku Matsushiba on Yuri and did what I think we most can agree with the best tracks.I see, a bit strange how he had to use a pseudonym, though it may be more common than we think since Joe Hisaishi did the same thing for his debut. It's cute seeing all the "notice me senpai!" moments in his Twitter whenever he talks to Iwasaki.

https://twitter.com/YutaBandoh/status/709067523774226433

Speaking of YoI, the full soundtrack is coming out next month:

http://www.taghobby.com/archives/188084

And Sahashi is joining the opera game too, man what a resurgence!

I wonder if Hisaishi will ever write an opera again as well, would be a nice surprise for Ni No Kuni 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sef0PKDqvXk

Well, it worked... Iwasaki is their senpai now :awsm:

Ayana Tsujita (in the same picture as Iwasaki and Matsushiba) also wrote a mini-opera for one of the concerts I mentioned: Going through her Facebook I can already see ties with Souhei Kano and Akira Senju, it''s amazing just how close-knit and filled with young talent the Japanese orchestra community is. We definitely don't have to worry about it dying out anytime soon unlike here in the west.

I would advise you all to read my previous post about game concerts again if you haven't already because after some research I just had to expand it a great deal. I was able to obtain some pieces from this scene... and for AMATEUR FAN ALBUMS, this is unreal:




宅庵-TAKUAN (from that crazy NicoNico Prima Orchestra)
Chamber Fantasia: The Dead Princess and the Dark Ruler
Arranged and remastered by Vinphonic

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=386x1024:format=jpg/path/s617f3fdf8bda1fb7/image/i46c35e247ce11c2b/version/1474007204/image.jpg

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

HQ Download (https://mega.nz/#!Hhlz3KDD!JlR7x7ePJjtRn3IuAa4Z3CJEmYrK96fJ47FX06WzubQ)

https://takuan-web.jimdo.com/

Takuan is a group of musicians that was formed to play new arranged pieces from games and anime.
For interest, the original pieces were arranged by Haluca OGUCHI (who plays the horn) and she was also involved with Gametakt 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhnO8kZg_Y4

Oshima composed music for a smartphone game. This might be the Budapest project she talked about (she said it was for a game).

The bad news: A limited soundtrack was given to only 50 random people on Twitter, so we will never hear it. Main theme (from official website): http://picosong.com/MkE4/

I think some of you people said you like stuff by Yuya Mori, well he done the music to the OVA of Black Clover so I reckon he'd be doing it for the show.

Wow, so much fantastic!!!! Oshima in such a short period of time! We just have to hope it will be out somehow eventually.

I also notice an increasing cooperation between Eastern Europe and Japan in the music department. Which is a great development.


And the good news simply don't stop no more

Tanaka and friends from IMAGINE are currently setting up a new music label to make score sheets (I "imagine" concert suites) available FOR FREE, probably by request from all those passionate musicians.



And there's numerous new programs and projects started that are just amazing:



The first volume was with Yoshihiro Ike, who BTW had a recording with soprano and tenor for Virgin Soul :D

"Today I also recorded soprano solo and tenor solo for 10 episodes ❣️ Director cried ❣️ wow amazing, really amazing! ️ Please tell me absolutely what you think.
It's like an opera" (wonky google translate)