I was disappointed by the amount of synth present in the samples. I was hoping for a complete re-recording but I guess they went low-budget.

I agree. But the songs that went live orchestrated sound real neat! I guess recording the whole soundtrack live would've been way too costly and problematic.

I'm quite surprised actually they even managed to fit in some live recordings in there, at least Sakimoto didn't had just another "Odin's Sphere" situation, were the only "major" changes of the music was mostly simply updating to more modern sounding orchestral libraries. Sakimoto's music has always been deserving in my book of getting more chances for live recordings (I'd say even more than Mitsuda lately), like come on, doesn't this sound like a piece (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkkgR3DEZVw) worthy for a better brass section rather than those dry samples?

It's rather strange to think that music of this caliber doesn't get the treatment it deserves, while back at 2015, a mobile game like FF Brave Exvius, a first time composer in the series gets a full recording at Los Angeles with Natsumi Kameoka & Evan Call at the arranging department, not like the music wasn't necessarily bad or anything (Celestial Battle is great), but Sakimoto gives a better use and range at the orchestra in my opinion. All in all, still looking forward for the release.

Edit: Hey at least some of the tracks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcu0_8CRuu4) of Zodiac actually sounds passable for the most part... until the fake brass kicks in at the very end, sigh...

TOHO-Studios recording facilities are not entirely demolished! Suehiro recently finished a recording over there.

TOHO-Studios recording facilities are not entirely demolished! Suehiro recently finished a recording over there.
As far as I know, it's a new one created some time within the last 5 years (when Toho formed their anime music label).

Ah, perhaps my dream of a (Toho) anime studios park with ten great halls modeled after Hollywood with recording staff trained at Abbey Road could see the light of day in my lifetime... such wishful thinking.






Legacy of Japan / Runner-Ups
Yugo Kanno
Orchestral Selection



PW: Everybody!Yugo! (https://anon.click/fogol50)


Yugo Kanno is a true “modern” composer in a sense. He’s an allrounder and and experimentalist, trained in every field of music, from classical to Jazz to EDM. You can find everything in his work, a range from a bit of Henry Mancini to a bit of Gabriel Prokofiev.

He’s also founder and company president of a composer company that employs many promising talents that are steeped in classical (and film) music.

Of course, my collection focuses on his orchestral (film) music. He’s also increasingly approaching the concert world in recent years and wrote many classical pieces for his recent TV work and even attempted a Symphony, that while a bit simple for that kind of gravitas name, is still a worthwhile listen that satisfies.

He can successfully combine many modern elements, an armada of electronics and drums that still maintain musical cohesion. They are not included here (well Psycho-Pass and Jojo to a degree) but I think they work far better than their Hollywood counterparts.

The first part starts with a collection of his best work for TV with some concert arrangements by myself woven into the mix. He's really the king of the bouncy, uplifting, happy afternoon TV drama theme. But it’s more an introduction album.

The Border (provided by nextday) and Kanbee demonstrate his ability with a full symphony orchestra (for better or worse) and Birdy, Shaolin Girl and Library Wars demonstrate his very best TV scores. Kanno still has not reached the same height as those three albums again but I think Gundam Reconquista in G, Jojo and Psycho-Pass are his best recent efforts with some great classical setpieces among very well done modern Hollywood scoring.

Finally Kanno is also a true composer in the sense that he’s also an entertainer, with many classical and hybrid fun concerts he holds and conducts annually. Some great fun (or just plain weird stuff) can be found here. The video was provided by tango.

Kanno just recently turned 40 (and that's one year younger than Takaki), so he has not even reached the midpoint of his career (the point where most composers really get good) for an orchestral composer and he has already much to show for.

I still see much potential for him to grow and who knows, perhaps next year’s Lodoss will be that gamechanger.

The problem I see is an overexposure. He’s simply accepting every project he’s offered and you really notice this with his recent work. He’ll focus on one or two setpieces and writes filler around them. I just hope he takes some much needed timeouts because he wouldn’t be the first Japanese composer to burn-out.


Anyway, enjoy the ride!

I'm going to get a lot of flack for saying this, but Yuugo's become something like the Giacchino of Japan (even though he is at least 50 times more talented). He's been given too many prestige projects in recent years like Psycho-Pass, Reconguista, BLAME, Kanbee, that Ghibli commercial, and various others, and in most of those he's struggling to keep the music as interesting as their premise. I was especially disappointed with Jojo's which felt like he was trying too hard to emulate Iwasaki rather than bring his own voice. And now he wants to become a serious symphony composer? I respect that ambition, but like Giacchino, it's not where his talent lies. I don't think he's made anything that has been better as a whole than Birdy.

My favorite work of his in recent years remains this sole piece from Rain. Quite different from the Yuugo I'm used to hearing nowadays, but it shows that he hasn't completely lost himself yet.

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

Gordy Haab Star Wars: Battlefront 2 OST 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZtanwfUZzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l9esgzeLgs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qakVouS85o8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAGCZZp0LtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch1xVx0Tkmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ7cKAXzVs8

Composer By Gordy Haab 'Star Wars Themes By John Williams' Performed By The London Symphony Orchestra

6 extrait inedit super

Has anyone heard Seasons After Fall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKMYF0jHkvA

Yugo Kanno Orchestral Selection
Bonus: Yugo Kanno Main Theme Collection 2003-2013 (https://mega.nz/#!UdVUgJAQ!XuZy5D_ZWHC5d1pTwAuMVnhiynEbHHWFzxC3z_2s97M)

My own compilation, mostly of main themes he wrote. I compiled it in 2013 so it's not up-to-date. One of my favorite themes not in this collection (from 2014): Mai Hanasaki Speaks Out (http://picosong.com/WLkt/) http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif


TOHO-Studios recording facilities are not entirely demolished! Suehiro recently finished a recording over there.
By the way, do you have his latest work? He's a fairly competent Yugo Kanno clone (but still a clone nonetheless): Samples here (https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/id1235478083)


Has anyone heard Seasons After Fall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKMYF0jHkvA
Yeah, I think it was shared here a while back. An interesting - and unusual - game soundtrack written entirely for string sextet.


I'm going to get a lot of flack for saying this, but Yuugo's become something like the Giacchino of Japan (even though he is at least 50 times more talented).
I can see the comparison, even though Kanno is more of a TV composer and Giacchino is more of a film composer. They both have the tendency of putting all their effort into one piece (main theme for Kanno, end credits for Giacchino) and then doing filler for the rest of the score. Most of the time, at least.

Gordy Haab Star Wars: Battlefront

Gordy Haab is a nice change of pace for Abbey Road but although I praised the original Battlefront because of the seemless blend of Williams material, it still has one crucial problem that carries over to the sequel: NO VOICE!! Its basically a robot putting snippets from Williams toolbox together to form a soundpalette that screams Williams but in irony lacks the very thing that makes Williams special. More so than even Giacchino, why should I listen to this when the original seven Star Wars scores exist? I commend the effort and hearing this sound in a game is wonderful, but in a sense it's a waste of Abbey Road that is more hurting than all those Marvel movies because Gordy Haab has the chops and has the greatest ensemble and place in the world and could potentially give us his own Star Wars but is not allowed to do anything with it because he is now under surveillance and Williams is the music guard. Star Wars Kinect was the closest he got and even then it had to be modeled after the film scores. And although it may surprise you, I don't want to necessarily hear ANY Williams themes in a Star Wars project. I want to hear a score of the same caliber, not a score that is only impression and imitation. In my opinion they could have saved a lot of money and just used the film material. But I get the temptation and Gordy Haab probably had this dream forever and those Battlefront games rely only on the film material so there's not al lot of room for expansion. I can only hope the story mode gives us something I want to hear from Haab. But let ONLY Williams be Williams. The whole Giacchino mess happened because people wanted so desperately to have a next Williams. The very best things about Star Wars come from composers that try to to do something a little different:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM6iZvsoCJ0





@nextday: I actually think based on his recent dramas (I only have sound samples from amazon) that he's even more classical than when Kanno started out and Kanno never crossed Morricone with Bartok to my knowledge ;)


@Zipper: I can not deny that he's recently in a slump but the man is pretty much a mini-business. As I mentioned he's just 40 and already established a composer company for all kinds of media projects and although he's president he still scores projects left and right. He lives for his work as a musician and composer and lives music everyday, either alone or with his own ensemble and that is worlds apart from anything Giacchino can do who struggles with counterpoint, the most basic of basics. I recently listened to his "Overture" from Book of Henry and if that is an overture then Rozsa was a DJ. It's laughably bad just how much nothingess it expresses. Meanwhile Kanno did this, while in a slump, amidst a sea of electronica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lk22bKRk0. Not even deserving of comparison in my opinion. Also, apart from some semi-popular manga adaptions I don't see how he has ruined any prestigious series like Giacchino has. I think he did not embarass the NHK Taiga drama scene last time I checked and the disappointing (I disagree somewhat) Gundam followed Kawai who did not do a better job to follow in Sahashi's footsteps either. And last time I checked my favorite composers get work left and right, Kan Sawada is still attached to Doraemon and Kow Otani to Shin-chan, Yoko Kanno recently did a Taiga drama and the biggest Japanese event movie of the year has music written by a Horner fangirl. So he hardly ruins anything. If Lodoss disappoints then he has truely ruined something for me on a personal level as an artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM6iZvsoCJ0
Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 :D

Not even deserving of comparison in my opinion. Also, apart from some semi-popular manga adaptions I don't see how he has ruined any prestigious series like Giacchino has.It goes without saying that Yuugo is far better than Giacchino (even though I did say it before). I would go as far as to say that he is more skilled than 90% of the current crop of Hollywood composers. The reason I compared them was because like Giacchino, Yuugo is getting incredible projects that just demand more than he is capable of. It's like asking Mancini to write the score to Ben-Hur- he's great at what he does, but in that situation he would flop like a fish and embarrass himself, much like Sagisu when not doing a jazz score (which is why he had to hire Amano). I feel the same way whenever Senju is assigned to an action/sci-fi show, which doesn't suit his talents at all, and I consider Senju one of the best composers out there. And for all my gripes about Sawano, so far I have to say that there has yet to be a show he worked on where his style didn't fit.

It's true, Yuugo didn't ruin anything he scored for, but others could have done far better. His recent efforts have been rather forgettable.

At the very least, his Gundam score was better than Yokoyama's, and leagues above Gundam 0080, a score so terrible that it would have completely ruined the OVA had all the other aspects of it not been excellent.

@nextday: I actually think based on his recent dramas (I only have sound samples from amazon) that he's even more classical than when Kanno started out and Kanno never crossed Morricone with Bartok to my knowledge ;)
Well he sure seems to love giving his tracks classical sounding names. Just like with Re:zero, his latest score has tracks with names like minuet, etude, waltz, agitato, allegro, andante, nocturne, etc.

He's also twitter buddy with Kan Sawada, but I don't know about RL. I wouldn't put it past Suehiro to consult/or study under Sawada because he truely cares about the craft at least! He's slowly coming into his own, and unlike Kanno his recent drama scores are not just Main Theme and filler ;)


@Zipper: Oh I wasn't trying to diminish your comparison, I sense a certain element of truth to that I try not to admit ;) With "comparison" I meant to compare Giacchino's "attempt" at classical writing (Henry's Overture) with Kanno's Psycho-Pass Symphony, not your initial comparison. But I just think its vastly exaggerated, is all. He ain't that bad... at least I still see potential (as I mentioned earlier).


@streich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KskXS9euKQY&t=20m23s :D

Ooh baby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd_lntWTK5g (my Favourite)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZC8cR9zUY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1kDrSl6YBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuYsXdWoubY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQvIIFqpDEc

I want more Library Wars and Ajin's more than anything. And Re:Zero's.

Ha, same thought :D

I believe Library Wars was a good fusion of classic Hollywood with modern RC and Kanno never quite matched the ingenuity of that score (and Birdy) again (as far as Hybrids go).




Shuji Katayama
Saga of Tanya the Evil
Studio Orchestra / Remastered



PW: Frontschweine (https://anon.click/gugef25)

Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRHCOWMOjYM)


Here we have another "modern" style score I really enjoy. But be warned if you don't immensely enjoy Blood+ and especially Re:Zero with their mix of RC with classical writing (I do) then I feel this won't do much to change your opinion. But regardless it's pretty good for a newcomer. He even smartly uses what little budget he has pretty effectivly I would say. It's just hilarious that THE ONE staple sound style Hollywood produces these days is not even that hard to adapt into something more sophisticated (or just with more meat) and yet we ain't getting it.

Yugo Kanno


What about his work for the TV Drama Galielo? There's some pretty good themes that can be added as well to the collection, like this (http://picosong.com/W2Yg/) one.


I was especially disappointed with Jojo's which felt like he was trying too hard to emulate Iwasaki rather than bring his own voice.

I don't see what he's really "emulating" from Iwasaki, adding dubstep and electronica to orchestral cues does not really mean he was trying to emulate him but rather, he was just following the musical direction and instructions that the show was going for after part 1. Sure, Iwasaki blends it way seamlessly and natural than him, but Kanno has a pretty recognizable voice even if his work for JoJo was below impressive for me. Hiroshi Takaki was also following this trend a little in Princess Precure, gotta expand a little those genre horizons to get jobs left and right after all.

If there was an instance of someone who I recall very close to emulating Iwasaki's trademark, then you should listen this track from Hiroyuki Sawano he "did" back then at his GF days: http://picosong.com/W2C4/
The chord progressions starting from 0:31 to 1:05 are so characteristic from Iwasaki, one has to wonder if Sawano would've wanted to take some inspiration from him back then (Which we all know that until today, that has not happened at all :P).

I have a better candidate for a japanese Giacchino: Masaru Yokoyaka, he's been getting the double, even triple of the projects that Kanno has received.

I don't see what he's really "emulating" from Iwasaki, adding dubstep and electronica to orchestral cues does not really mean he was trying to emulate him but rather, he was just following the musical direction and instructions that the show was going for after part 1.The thing is, Jojo's had no dubstep or prog-rock cues until Iwasaki stepped in mid-way for part 2. Hayato Matsuo did his own thing for part 1. Iwasaki did his own thing for part 2. And after that whole Twitter fiasco with Iwasaki, I am more than certain that the directors and producers didn't actively encourage Yugo to attempt to sound like Iwasaki. And with Iwasaki, you can always see how his style and interests change as he goes from one soundtrack to another. His first foray into dubstep was Jormungand, and he liked it so much he brought to Jojo's, and after Jojo's he went even further with it in Gatchaman, and then Noragami, etc. All of these works came in consecutive order, which is why the dubstep doesn't feel forced in any of them. Iwasaki actively integrated it into his music, rather than merely using it just because "musical direction and instructions" demanded it. Yuugo had never touched prog rock or dubstep in any of his works, yet for some reason he felt compelled to do so for Jojo's? There were so many other directions he could have went with electronica, jazz, orchestra- his usual traits in his usual voice. For a show that revolves around characters named after famous musicians from various different genres (http://jojo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_JoJo%27s_Bizarre_Ad venture), sticking to one sound palette goes against the very core identity of Jojo's.

That Sawano example you posted is a bit characteristic of Iwasaki, but it is merely a single piece, and not representative of the overall style of Cyber Formula or other Sawano works (for a better example of Iwasaki imitation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMBspf7dSkI), just have a look at Gundam Build Fighters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FWqD68otp0)). And Iwasaki's chord progressions didn't come out of the blue either (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-kcczAff40).

(I consider Yokoyama to be the Tyler Bates of Japan.)

Yugo Kanno has single-handedly redefined what the easy-going Japanese television drama sounds like - that's where his skill lies, and in that genre he genuinely has no equal - even Yamashita adopts aspects of his style in his drama scores. Trouble is, there's more to scoring than writing catchy tunes - and there are only so many catchy tunes a guy can write before a) he has to start actually doing something interesting with them, b) he becomes chronically repetitive, or c) he gets boring - in Yugo Kanno's case, we have a mixture of the final two options. He has the most limited range of any composer currently working in Japan - occasionally he tries out a "new" sound but inevitably he's at his best writing big, bouncy, anthems fitting the same template - fanfare, theme, subtheme, theme, modulation, theme, fanfare. Sometimes you get a bit more orchestra, sometimes you get electronics, sometimes you get something rocky, but the underlying structure, melodic style, and harmonic movements are the same.

This was Gunshi Kanbee's downfall, for me - nicely orchestrated, well performed... but looking at the substance of the music, it was only just barely ahead of being an album full of drama themes played by a big orchestra. It wasn't, by any stretch, the worse Taiga score (Taiga scores have recently tended to be magnificent main themes and sod-all else - but Kanbee turned out to have enough great main themes for the next decade - it's a pity there was barely any score)- but if you compare it to others, particularly the most recent one by the original Kanno, even Yugo himself must hold his head in his hands and despair.

And there is a passage in Birdy Decode which is, for a good minute, almost identical to a piece I wrote myself about five years previously but which I only ever played to one person - I am not for one second suggesting Yugo plagiarised it off me (such a claim would be insanely egotistical not to mention completely impossible) but it doesn't half unsettle me!

He has the most limited range of any composer currently working in JapanI wouldn't go that far, not when the likes of Sawano and Kajiura still exist.

Speaking of what I said before about Yokayama and Build Fighters, I'm surprised Sunrise never caught on to how the main theme of IBO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-q36ohz3i0) was a poor knockoff of one of Build Fighter's cues (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1j_uM5rN4). And it's literally the only decent cue in the entirety of the IBO soundtrack... Yokoyama really is the Tyler Bates of Japan.

The thing is, Jojo's had no dubstep or prog-rock cues until Iwasaki stepped in mid-way for part 2. Hayato Matsuo did his own thing for part 1.

Except the first two parts were released consecutively, meaning the music was already done and planned by that time rather than just actively integrate it. Sure, they both composed it with their own flair of composition, but I don't think not even Iwasaki, knowing the hardass nutcase that he is, would've been unwise enough to do the same type of music he did overall for Jojo like for, say, Black Butler. As much as he likes to manage and experiment fully every aspect of what he does in his work, you still need a general idea for what are you going to exactly compose for in the first place, you can't just go with the music of Akame Ga Kill in a series like Gatchaman and vice versa, and he knows that. Would you think he suddenly did that gorgeous 3 minute opera piece known as "Il mare eterno nella mia anima" just because he actively integrate it all by himself without no prior knowledge that it would serve as a requiem for one of the main characters? Iwasaki has the proper mind of a genius and adequate skills to create it, but he definitely was told in some way or another that they'd need a piece like that, as they were aware of his musical background, otherwise why hire him in the first place?(too bad he didn't end up in good terms with the franchise because of the misuse of his music).

So I think the musical direction was pretty much intended (Egyptian cues all around in Stardust Crusaders), now if Kanno succeeded musically on Part 3 & 4? That's another story, and I agree Yugo was not at his best in Jojo, but that doesn't take away that it's his own flair of music and is currently in an experimental phase, especially considering Psycho-Pass and his introduction to the JoJo franchise is almost one year apart from each other.


That Sawano example you posted is a bit characteristic of Iwasaki, but it is merely a single piece, and not representative of the overall style of Cyber Formula or other Sawano works (for a better example of Iwasaki imitation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMBspf7dSkI), just have a look at Gundam Build Fighters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FWqD68otp0)). And Iwasaki's chord progressions didn't come out of the blue either (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-kcczAff40).

Forgot about Yuki Hayashi, yeah, that seems like also an example of what Iwasaki does, though, I was pointing out more in terms musical structure rather than "genre", and that excerpt of piece I showed just sounded something like what Iwasaki would sound, if not mentioned that this was Sawano's, who sounds nothing alike nowadays, just a little observation there.


it's a pity there was barely any score)- but if you compare it to others, particularly the most recent one by the original Kanno, even Yugo himself must hold his head in his hands and despair.

It must've been a dreadful feeling to be in Yugo Kanno's shoes when Naotora aired and see how he got severely outclassed by someone as Yoko Kanno, in which this was one of the few instances that she didn't even had Warsaw under her belt, and yet, ended doing the better end of music for a Taiga series.

Edit:

Changing a bit the subject, I'm curious to know as to what do the fellow members of this thread think of Makoto Yoshimori? He's not very known to be proficient in an orchestra unlike others mentioned here, and his tracks are at times just plain weird noise, but I actually like some of his work in Baccano, Natsume Yujincho and some from Durarara. His style reminds me of Randy Newman at times.

Except the first two parts were released consecutively, meaning the music was already done and planned by that time rather than just actively integrate it. Sure, they both composed it with their own flair of composition, but I don't think not even Iwasaki, knowing the hardass nutcase that he is, would've been unwise enough to do the same type of music he did overall for Jojo like for, say, Black Butler. As much as he likes to manage and experiment fully every aspect of what he does in his work, you still need a general idea for what are you going to exactly compose for in the first place, you can't just go with the music of Akame Ga Kill in a series like Gatchaman and vice versa, and he knows that. Would you think he suddenly did that gorgeous 3 minute opera piece known as "Il mare eterno nella mia anima" just because he actively integrate it all by himself without no prior knowledge that it would serve as a requiem for one of the main characters? Iwasaki has the proper mind of a genius and adequate skills to create it, but he definitely was told in some way or another that they'd need a piece like that, as they were aware of his musical background, otherwise why hire him in the first place?(too bad he didn't end up in good terms with the franchise because of the misuse of his music).
I don't really see what both Iwasaki and Matsuo working on the same series at the same time would have to do with musical direction (and from what I read in his blog, Iwasaki got hired on Jojo's based on Matsuo's recommendation, both being great friends). It's not like they collaborated with each other. They were probably both given storyboards and scripts and had the manga to look upon, and came up with two completely different soundtracks. While it's true that the producers may have requested certain cues, I doubt any of them were as specific as "write an Italian opera piece please". It would just be something as basic as "tragedy, action, dance number". That Italian opera piece was not even Iwasaki's first one- that was from Black Butler I and II (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXd6kA6qeIw), which he finished composing for only a year before Jojo's started airing. Iwasaki mentioning in his blog how producers recommended him to make the score for Black Butler around a harpsichord like in the PV- Iwasaki told them to piss off and went about business as usual (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLB5Oog9qd0). If Yuugo wanted to, he could have wrote anything for Jojo's.

Even if the producers for Jojo's were familiar with the composers they hired and their styles, then hiring Yuugo Kanno makes even less sense if they wanted a dubstep/prog-rock soundtrack. Why hire a guy who writes fun dramas to tackle music completely outside of his range? If this was an isolated case like Jojo, I might understand the lackluster quality, but when he's phoning it in on other big works like Gundam, I have no choice but to put the blame on him and not his producers.


Forgot about Yuki Hayashi, yeah, that seems like also an example of what Iwasaki does, though, I was pointing out more in terms musical structure rather than "genre"He touched upon Iwasaki's structure a bit here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1S6Yip4NE8) too, up until the one minute mark.

For all the talk of Spiderman recently, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that Elfman's been confirmed for Justice League.

I have no expectations, but there's something truly depressing seeing the guy who gave Batman his iconic sound 30 years ago having to become a Zimmer clone on his own baby.

Hahahah... Knights and Magic is such an Escaflowne RipOff:

http://picosong.com/WVp3

Unfortunately, in typical anime fashion, the score is all over the place, still, anticipate the OST. Pretty good start for a summer season.
(I know I said I wanted mechs as knights again... but could there be some gravitas next time please...)

SAHASHI HAS COME BACK FROM THE GRAVE?!?!

https://twitter.com/AlphaJarmel/status/881284706330828800

SAHASHI HAS COME BACK FROM THE GRAVE?!?!

https://twitter.com/AlphaJarmel/status/881284706330828800
Too soon to say. That track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqK3CSawdj4) is from the 2nd season soundtrack. They still haven't announced the composer for the new season.

And yes, there have been cases where they've used the original composer's music in a trailer, only to announce a different composer later on.

Yeah, it's not over until the fat lady sings, so to speak... Still, this may have *slightly* increased the Sahashi odds just a little - even if simply to say that the production team of the new anime are good being associated with Sahashi's sound. If they felt that strongly about it, I'm sure they could've commissioned a couple of minutes of PV music from someone. Just because they haven't announced, it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't signed someone or at least got a name in mind. I am quietly wondering that, if they want Sahashi but he turns them down, we could get Go Sakabe?

Sahashi back on FMP would be nice... but what would be even nicer would be to see him regularly scoring anime again and making contributions that stand with Gundam Seed, Simoun, etc. Until that happens, even if he appears on FMP, I will still think of him him as a retired anime composer who very occasionally scores something that particularly interests him or that he has a historical connection to.

At this point in time, Kohei Tanaka, who felt like he was winding down and about to disappear ten years ago, is still on the scene and Sahashi, who was doing his BEST WORK ten years ago, has all-but vanished.

Nothing would make me happier than to see Masaru Yokoyama and Tatsuya Kato disappear, Toshiko Sahashi and Masamichi Amano to make a resurgence, and Kosuke Yamashita to reverse the recent trend of orchestrating for bad composers and scoring cheap colourful children's shit, and get back to writing substantial, serious anime scores which develop his technique. Puzzle and Dragons was fun (and actually had some pretty good orchestral moments - though it STILL hasn't been released or even announced) but, well, it's no Garasu no Kantai, is it? (Tanaka, too - he's really busy these days but we need more proper symphonic scores from him, badly.)

Also, Souhei Kano needs to become a regular, Yoko Kanno needs more Warsaw anime scores, Oshima needs to go back to Moscow, and Joe Hisaishi needs to wake up and show everyone how it's done. His most recent scores have been depressingly lightweight.

It doesn't even air until April 2018 so they most likely haven't even hired a composer yet. Music is generally one of the later stages in the anime production process.

It would be nice see Sahashi but I wouldn't get my hopes up for him returning, simply because he isn't active these days. Don't be surprised if they hire someone like Tatsuya Kato instead.

Oh, I thought it was a this-year thing. At least it's happening now. :)

You're not wrong. It was supposed to air this October but it got delayed or something.

Ajin is a shame because he has some great musical ideas but outside the show it is barely listenable except for a few highlights.

Also, new British score just released by Tadlow in conjunction with Quartet. Stephen Oliver's Lady Jane. The tapes were found and they sound quite good from the samples even though each sample is only 30 seconds. It will sound great along with my Duel in the Sun and Bernstein's Cecil B. DeMille American Epic, both of which are wonderful to dig into.

EDIT: I have a Yugo Kanno score to share that I just grabbed elsewhere and is blowing me away right now. Was Tokyo Tarareba Musume included in the sampling posted above?

EDIT 2:


Yugo Kanno - Tokyo Tarareba Musume OST
Orchestral|Regal|Sweeping
Reminiscent of Yoko Kanno at times

Download (https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/0NIMMCLT/YKTTMST.rar_links)
No password - Try Dropjiffy first.
This is a score to a Japanese drama aimed at teenage girls. This show is apparently based on a manga for girls that has been running for a while. Yet there is some gorgeous music in there. As usual it requires some edits to listen to the highlights only. No surprise that track 7, the longest track on the album is also one of its best. Then track 11 follows with a gorgeous piano concerto. I had chills folks.

Recommended tracklist - Delete all but Tracks 3-5, 7, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 24.

I also would appreciate some input on whatever host ends up working well for you. Don't feel obligated to test them all though, that would be excessive.

Is ID-0 the most frustrating anime score in existence?

On the one hand it "sounds" absolutely gorgeous for an anime score (maybe recorded at Toho?) and it has absolutely sublime classic wonderful Hollywood SciFi moments:

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


BUT 90% is just weird, you have a cue that has wonderful elements in it but goes off the rails either right from the start or partway in: http://picosong.com/WgSh/

Hattori could have given us a genuine great Hollywoodesque film score but refused to do so. This can't be dictated by someone because of the wonderful pieces we still have on the OST.

Don't get me wrong, it's still all good stuff... but this could have been so much more... WHY???


EDIT: Thank you very much Sirusjr. It's definetely up there at the top of his live-action game, alongside Galileo and The Curtain Rises. As host I use MEGA for quite some time now but considering my mediafire links from over ten years back still work, I suggest either mediafire or mega.

All this talk about Sahashi and then he announces today that he's doing the music for a mobile game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBaMFKSPzFM

Is this real life?

We certainly live in strange times. Smartphone games are getting full-blown orchestra scores and concerts, hiring world class composers like Oshima, and now awakening sleeping giants like Sahashi.

I know both of those sites exist but I prefer to not tie an e-mail of mine to one of those accounts, even if it is one I create just for that.

All this talk about Sahashi and then he announces today that he's doing the music for a mobile game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBaMFKSPzFM It's strange how a smartphone game gave him a larger budget and ensemble than 90% of his anime work. I don't expect the LSO but this has the potential to be one of his best works to date.

If he really is going to return to FMP as well, then I guess his hiatus is finally over.

I wouldn't even be surprised if Asakawa gets revived as a composer at this point. Maybe on one of the dozens of smartphone games featuring swashbuckling pirates?

lady jane !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Distant Worlds IV: more music from FINAL FANTASY



Download (http://www.mediafire.com/file/28wvxq4d5xkky8d/Worlds+IV.hikarinoakariost.zip)


Source & PW: www.hikarinoakariost.info


Sample (http://picosong.com/Wgd5/)

The fourth installment of Distant Worlds has arrived, I'd say just one quarter of the selection is new, unfortunately, the new tracks are mostly coming from FF XIV & XV, which in my most honest opinion, fall short in comparison to the previous franchises, and there's really nothing new or innovative in terms of arrangement that could enhance the original music that it came from (Perhaps a little in XIV, but XV sounds pretty much as the same as it was originally recorded). My favorite tracks from DW IV is probably "Zephyr Memories - Legend Of The Eternal Wind", "Festival of the Hunt" and "Main Theme Of Final Fantasy V", especially the latter which has a glorious Williams-esque fanfare entrance. I would've wished XII getting more love rather than just repeating what they played back in 2013.

(Me, a few months ago) Hattori Takayuki - THE most frustrating composer in Japan. The composer with the widest gap between what he's done and what he's capable of. When he scores anime, he still manages to command a good-size orchestra... so why does he consistently abuse it so badly?

Following the conversation around Giacchino's work with some interest, particularly around the extent of Tim Simonec's involvement in the Medal of Honor scores. Are there any sources (interviews, articles etc.) that back up the 80% Simonec / 20% Giacchino equation for these scores and their success? The reason I'm asking is that I have a number of Giacchino soundtrack reviews on my website and of course would like to give credit where credit is due. Thanks!

Another big franchise bows down to Yokoyama- he'll be scoring Fate:Apocrypha. Kawaii and Kajiura's contributions were far from amazing, but somehow even Yokoyama feels like a downgrade.

Well I still like his stuff and think he makes good tunes. (Though more Nobunaga The Fool and Queen's Blade plox)
He said on Instagram "sometime I Think I'm a composing machine" which is true I guess. What do people think about is partner in crime Tsutsumi?

me Likey ID-0 though it currently hasn't surpassed Gundam The Origin or Nadesico yet.
And next in unpopular opinions: While they both have some bangers, I prefer the soundtrack to Aquarion Logos than the other two, like the main theme is just fire. (go Tight, though is my jam)
Then since everyone likes it, what his everyone favourite Gundam soundtrack than ISN'T SEED?

^Unquestionably Victory, followed by either G or Turn A depending on my mood. I'd go as far as to say that Victory is Senju's finest score to date. Such a shame that the recording quality of the soundtrack was so terrible.

SEED was a somewhat cookie-cutter score typical of Sahashi, much like Cyber Formula and FMP, and I didn't really appreciate it until Symphony SEED (The LSO recordings). To be honest, I feel the same way about most of Hisaishi's music up until Spirited Away as well. For some reason most people seem to believe in their minds that the music they heard from films like Kiki's and Totoro sounded like the Budokan concert when in reality it was just a ton of synth and chamber ensembles with really great melodies. I re-listened to the original Princess Mononke soundtrack the other day and was surprised at how much more synth was in there than I remembered. Hisaishi didn't fully pick up the mantle of symphonic film maestro until Howl's (not counting his earlier Works album).

For Giacchino: There's no concrete evidence per se (unless someone spills the beans or snaps like Nic Raine) but there are very little things I'm feeling suspicious about. In his interviews about Medal of Honor he never mentioned Tim Simonec's involvement, despite him being a concert composer and classical film music trained orchestrator who was vital for the success of the game score's "sound" and (as I credit to him) "narrative". Even the allmighty John Williams always gave credit to his orchestrators (Spencer). Not to mention Simonec conducted the sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHonMUpV47Q

Not ONE Giacchino score after Medal of Honor came even close to this Williams level of storytelling through the music. Just take the Nazi motif and compare its appearance and development to the rest of his work. At the very least Simonec should be mentioned together with Giacchino. I mean he basically orchestrated almost everything Giacchino produced and is responsible for his "sound" (which I think is what people are mostly impressed by, because it sure as hell ain't the notes on paper) and yet nobody mentions him.

But enough talk about Giacchino, I've long given up expecting the same level as Medal of Honor ever again.





Gundam: Without question Turn A and Tanaka's Praha Symphony for me. Then follows Victory and After War X. But Sahashi's three London albums are still my number one. But I would say SEED (the TV score) is a cut above Sahashi's usual work. I think it brought us the best of all his different quirks and there's a great thematic narrative in SEED that is a bit lost in Destiny. Nonetheless Destiny can't be beat for the sheer number of quality orchestral score cues straight out of Williams and Goldsmith's SciFi soundworld.




Also, since the kickstarter campaign was going to be successful right from the start I didn't bring it up earlier but in case you didn't know Chris Huelsbeck actually did another crowdfunding for Turrican I-III and currently we're close to the 100000 mark, which means additional recordings (same orchestra as last time). You can still save a copy and support the project if you like: https://www.megafounder.com/turrican-orchestral-selectionsnew-amiga-cd
Digital should be out in December (and some trivia, Natsumi Kameoka is a also a Huelsbeck fan ;))

Totally missed Saegusa Gundam!
Summer - Symphonic Suite ''Tokyo'' 2nd Mov. / Shigeaki Saegusa (https://mega.nz/#!wUBDBArT!N6ipKuWLkYXSJ3jcnB0jhVSkxOqAvn3fKx0iq0zvak8)


Symphonic Suite ''Tokyo'' (1986/2012 Remaster)
Yuzo Toyama, Shigeaki Saegusa, Maki Ishii, Yasushi Akutagawa & Ikuma Dan
Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!NBRyxDIZ!xTjeOu-LYajQNKhIEgNqKmZK6sngN1jiVQiMWbDrfaU)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vQz4Xz6q8

=/

Here's your painkillers: https://www.amazon.com/Montreal-Years-35-Box-Set/dp/B017V92WX0



@amish: Merci :)

Interesting... no Prokofiev or Poulenc.

Barely makes a percent in terms of musical talk, 99% of flashy unrelated babble and 100% of full nonstop nonsense. It sure is a screaming banshee, and not in a very flattering way to my ears. Is this the general consensus of what most people see as a theme nowadays (and yes, that was mostly applied to Hollywood)? Because that is quite frightening to be honest.

@ amish: Very appreciated, more Saegusa is more than welcome!


While it's true that the producers may have requested certain cues, I doubt any of them were as specific as "write an Italian opera piece please". It would just be something as basic as "tragedy, action, dance number". That Italian opera piece was not even Iwasaki's first one- that was from Black Butler I and II (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXd6kA6qeIw), which he finished composing for only a year before Jojo's started airing. Iwasaki mentioning in his blog how producers recommended him to make the score for Black Butler around a harpsichord like in the PV- Iwasaki told them to piss off and went about business as usual (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLB5Oog9qd0). If Yuugo wanted to, he could have wrote anything for Jojo's.

Wanted to give a little closure on this because I couldn't manage to catch up sadly.

Oh, the piece being an "italian opera" was of course entirely on Iwasaki's input undoubtedly, pretty sure the producers were just as vague as "write something tragically beautiful for this character" and then he went with that and come up with his own agenda. Point I was trying to make was, regardless of the creative liberty that he takes, he's not foolish enough to make music that's out of place on the established setting he's doing it for, either if it's orchestral, electronic or both. Even his work for Binchou-Tan (which still contains some electronic elements), he knew that adding suddenly some rap vocals like Kekkaishi would've been totally out of place in the calm and serene setting that was Binchou. As for Kanno, perhaps, that's what the producers were looking for, someone who could tackle main (and repetitive) themes while having a little degree of eclecticism in their music or who was starting to show it (They even made him do the ending for Part 4), it gets the job done for what they want nevertheless. The producers were not exactly sure what they wanted, but they had the general idea I suppose, and Yugo wasn't a very "grand" leap of change in comparison to say, hiring Yokoyama & Sawano for doing the Gudam franchises.

And now for a new post, I saw someone in this thread mentioning that there was a kickstarter of some sort of Tomb Raider's orchestral music concert? And I noticed that this wasn't posted on this thread at all:


Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
Composed by Martin Iveson, Peter Connelly, Arrangement by Peter Wraight, Conducted by David Snell

London Symphony Orchestra



Main Theme Sample (http://picosong.com/W6Kt/)



Download (https://mega.nz/#!RQIiDTLK!M0gdxoJHZb-I89rqleTRlAsAWjN7ahNvnOl9fk-nV08)

Back in 2002, The Tomb Raider franchise took a leap into the realm of orchestral music, based on a setting of 14th century alchemists to serial killers in modern day France, which lead to the nature of the music you hear here, non stopping tension and action a la Indiana Jones (almost). The highlight of the score is of course the main theme, and I think to this very day is one of, if not, the best interpretation you'll hear of Tomb Raider's theme, mostly contributed by the stellar performance of the London Symphony Orchestra as usual. A tragedy really that this series was discontinued and then rebooted just to be replaced, yet unsurprisingly again, by another RC clone. Though AOD is not among the best video game orchestral music you'll hear, but is certainly the best among the TR franchise and hopefully we can see that same caliber of music if that kickstarter ever succeeds. Here's an excerpt (https://youtu.be/mPQCdrDwbPU?t=6m15s) of the documentary during the recording at Abbey Road Studios for AoD. As usual, enjoy!

Mary and the Witch's Flower - Takatsugu Muramatsu


Download (http://www67.zippyshare.com/v/9Wos5NwO/file.html)

Source/Password: www.hikarinoakariost.info

Anybody else heard this? Just giving it a first listen now. Nice main theme, and, unsurprisingly, often similar to his score for When Marnie Was There.

Thanks for Tombraider, pensquawk, while its not the best game music ever its still better than most stuff the LSO gets to play for these days.

Mary: Should have gone to Akihiko Matsumoto, Akira Senju or Jun’ichi Matsumoto in my opinion, this is too generic from the samples, despite some nice melodies. Also this is the kind of modern style I don't like, the soundworld of Yokoyama, Tatsuya Kato and Hiroaki Tsutsumi. What worked effective in Tanya and Re:Zero for me is completely absent here. The drum machines are completely in opposition to everything else I feel, and the rest is just vaguely witchcrafty nothingness to my ears. But the theme is nice and one or two moments I enjoyed. But not at all what I was expecting this to sound like. Similar efforts like Yoyo&Nene by Go Shiina are much much more full of personality and at least have a great moment or two. Not a composer I particularly enjoy so far.




EDIT: So now that Emeraldas is getting a new film, I guess its confirmed that Oshima will be a working bee until at least 2020 (and then perhaps is busy with the Olympics).

Mary and the Witch's Flower - Takatsugu MuramatsuThanks for linking this, but I have to agree that this is rather underwhelming and surprisingly very much in the vein of modern percussion-loving, violin-scraping Hollywood, with the usual "kid film" cliches like the twinkling chimes. Vinphonic was spot on with the Yokoyama comparison- track 2 (http://picosong.com/Wb2B/) sounds like it came right out of Gundam IBO. Muramatsu also scored Yuasa's Lu recently, I really hope he doesn't become the next big name for anime films.

To even think this would be able to stand with Oshima's work on LWA is embarrassing.

All of the recent discussion of Michael Giacchino in this thread reminded me of the video linked to below. I'm of two minds regarding Giacchino. I find his scores for the Medal of Honor games and "Secret Weapons over Normandy" to be downright great, and I also like some of his Pixar work fairly well. But I find many of his other scores to be merely "all right". Not great, not bad. Just good enough and nothing more. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about music as some of the other people here (I can't read sheet music, for instance), but I somewhat agree with the general consensus here that most of his recent work isn't all that impressive. I have yet to watch "Rogue One" or listen to the entirety of Giacchino's score for it, so I do not yet know what my opinion of it is. Nonetheless, I found the video in question very interesting, and would like to know what the more learned folks here think of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGVqPP-52No

On the topic of suspicious compositions, is anyone else confused by the orchestrations in Jeremy Soule's Total Annihilation? They are very advanced, and stylistically unique, in that I can't say for sure what would have inspired them. Cutthroat Island?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGVqPP-52NoThat video has more to do with how Giacchino reused William's themes rather than of the quality of Giacchino's own actual contributions, such as his themes or orchestrations. It's as useless as that Wonder Woman video. Funny how both of those "analysts" were more interested in how the work in question homages older works rather than how it stands on its own.

The summer anime Made in Abyss was recorded in Vienna and Boston apparently:
https://www.facebook.com/synchronstage/posts/1868828713386462
https://www.facebook.com/soundtrec/posts/1207124832766156

Though I can't really think of anything interesting that Kevin Penkin has done. The guy is only 25 so he doesn't really have a large resume.

Kevin Penkin, huh. Another foreign anime composer I had no idea even existed, and like Evan Call his credentials are no slouch either (currently getting his Masters in composition at the Royal College of Music- maybe Tango can go say hi to him?)

We already talked about this but I hope this trend continues and more outsider composers become aware of the anime music industry.

He's one of those people that had his career kickstarted by Nobuo Uematsu. At the age of 18 he was scouted by a Japanese producer and got to work with Uematsu on his first couple projects.

Needless to say, it made it easy for him to break into the industry.

That video has more to do with how Giacchino reused William's themes rather than of the quality of Giacchino's own actual contributions, such as his themes or orchestrations. It's as useless as that Wonder Woman video. Funny how both of those "analysts" were more interested in how the work in question homages older works rather than how it stands on its own.

THIS says so much about Giacchino. That's all he ever does; "homage" aka repeat the patterns, imitate the original and fail at it.

Wow, Ponyo :D



@Kevin Penkin: Interesting, he's completely in the shadows as far as my opinion goes but he has also done quite a few concert pieces hidden in a sea of modern/electronics: https://www.facebook.com/PerthSymphony/videos/906824826090191/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

If Made in Abyss is his first orchestral anime score then all bets are off. Judging by his samples he could take the minimalistic/modern approach or pay tribute to Uematsu. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another Mary.

EDIT: Apparently Hisaishi and Oshima are among his favorite composers. Let's see if that is apparent in any shape or form.


@streich: Do we know who conducted the recording session, could be a sign ;) Quidditch World Cup was conducted by Alan Wilson and surprise, these two are my favorite Soule scores. Also what happened to his "mighty" Symphony?




AND Cheer Fruits :D Orchestral Funk! Granted it's not Sahashi (or even Go Sakabe so far) but who knows, perhaps he has a guest appearance at this point and hey, at least the sound is out there (on that note, what the hell happened to Megumi Ohashi???)

@Kevin Penkin: Interesting, he's completely in the shadows as far as my opinion goes but he has also done quite a few concert pieces hidden in a sea of modern/electronics: https://www.facebook.com/PerthSymphony/videos/906824826090191/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

If Made in Abyss is his first orchestral anime score then all bets are off. Judging by his samples he could take the minimalistic/modern approach or pay tribute to Uematsu. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another Mary.

AND Cheer Fruits :D Orchestral Funk! Granted it's not Sahashi (or even Go Sakabe so far) but who knows, perhaps he has a guest appearance at this point and hey, at least the sound is out there (on that note, what the hell happened to Megumi Ohashi???)

Cheer Fruits is Hiromi Mizutani. Our boy Kev I liked his stuff in the Norn9 show especially "Don't Cry For me, Sky Duel & Race Through Spacetime" also he's from Straya. Represent! The only other overseas dude I know who does anime kinda is that Gabriele Roberto. Well it's been a while so I guess it doesn't count but IDK.

The tunes in the new Touken Ranbu show is pretty good too I think.

Wow, Ponyo :D

What? :P

I thought we were supposed to be all elitist freaks for hating all the time and there you go properly describing Giacchino's style. One of us!

AH... Vatican Miracle Examiner... another potentially great score ruined by fake brass... that's twice in a row now. Don't tell me Fujisawa actually likes this sorry bee wuzzle excuse for brass. How can anyone sane hire a full choir, strings, winds and even celeste and somehow forget the brass...

Regardless, from start to finish the most balls to the walls christian kitsch since Death Note (and the writing is much stronger than GATE so far, which makes the fake brass somewhat bearable).

I thought we were supposed to be all elitist freaks for hating all the time and there you go properly describing Giacchino's style. One of us!

There's hope! :P

Good god. There he goes again (Giacchino) in his new Apes score. Pure Black Hole (Barry) at times.

not quite.john barrys the good the bad and the hairy

AH... Vatican Miracle Examiner... another potentially great score ruined by fake brass... that's twice in a row now. Don't tell me Fujisawa actually likes this sorry bee wuzzle excuse for brass. How can anyone sane hire a full choir, strings, winds and even celeste and somehow forget the brass...

Regardless, from start to finish the most balls to the walls christian kitsch since Death Note (and the writing is much stronger than GATE so far, which makes the fake brass somewhat bearable).
It makes no sense why they do always this. I mean, why is it so difficult to hire a small brass section? It makes a huge difference and costs very little.

It's sad to think about how much music has been ruined by cheap synths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb8gv8YYs_o

It's like they didn't even tried, not even orchestral libraries (or barely) at all from what I saw in the first episode. What a waste of well hand drawn gothic inspired visuals to be complimented by an utterly uninspired soundscape of synths and bass sequencers from the score. Supposedly, during an interview with the showrunner, they wanted to make it as "faithful as possible to the source material", where's the music in that aspect then? Why is this just another added to the list of the thousands of these generic RC clones that keep taking over all these popular well known franchises, with potentially good music from it's source material to be arranged in such?

Would you imagine Amano or Hirano, knocking it out of the park arranging, or even less likely, composing for that linked Berserk-esque blood fest of a scene? Because I sure did (http://picosong.com/WExs/), wasted opportunities all around.

Edit: Yuki Hayashi scoring for a dancing anime, I'm not really sure how to feel about this. On one hand, we could get something more elegant, refined and choreography based music a la Yuri On Ice from him this time around, I liked some bits of Death Parade. On the other, and judging by just the first episode, it's not looking very much that way, not while I keep hearing the unnecessary strumming and drumming from a theme that could use more substance in orchestration, then again, he was never well known to excel in that area.

(...) I'd especially like to do a commentary on the first movement of the symphony, which has a sort of medieval, Conan (the Barbarian)-like tone that greatly appeals to me. The mental images I have while I listen to this piece are those of an adventurer on his mount, slowly approaching, then entering and progressing through a big, busy medieval city; then he eventually reaches the huge, majestic gates of the central palace (this is when the striking fanfare outburst occurs). There are also other interesting cues to be heard through the score, like a nice lively choral piece in OST 2. Overall a good Tanaka with some astounding highlights.


(...) Compare it (Jeremy Soule's 'The Waterfall' track from the cancelled "Amen: The Awakening" game soundtrack) to the first movement of the Bastard!! symphony. See how the different parts of the orchestra contrast and then work in sync. The manipulation of the melodic material as it moves between the sections of the orchestra seems much more controlled, and the rhythmic string parts compliment the melodic material in the woodwinds in a much more complex manner before shifting the parts around the entire ensemble. Far more varied, far more developed, and far more interesting to concentrate on. THIS music was written for an orchestra (or at least properly orchestrated!).


(...) The first track here ("Kishin the Symphony" event) is actually from Silent M�bius, but was performed live at this concert. Later on the entire score for Kishin (1st episode) was performed live with the movie on a giant screen a la John Williams and E.T. The Kishin score is a good effort by Kaoru Wada to take the Western approach to scoring a kid's film and make it his own.


Publisher: Pioneer | Media Format: LaserDisc | Release Year: 1993

Composed & arranged by
Kohei TANAKA
BASTARD!! Symphony (1992)
4th movt. Golem War ~ The Seal

Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, Kohei Tanaka (cond.)
Live at Hitomi Memorial Hall, Tokyo (as part of the "Kishin the Symphony" event from Feb 2nd, 1993)



This is Kohei Tanaka's special guest performance from an event featuring various music for Japanese animation. Conducted by the composer himself: the final movement of action from his Bastard Symphony, though I think the 3rd movt. of love is a better standalone piece. Regarding the whole symphony: I just wished there was an additional movement inbetween...something of mystic � la "Atlantean Sword" or "Map Room: Dawn".

I'm highlighting this piece because I'm likely to listen to Tanaka more than Kaoru Wada (the other composer whose music was also played). So, in a bracket Tanaka would move forward for me in that division. Then comes the Elite Eight which consists of...

Anyway, others have noted Wada's (over)use of drums in his Kishin Corps work, so I thought of Alexander Mosolov's Iron Foundry from 1928. More unrelenting, maybe more suitable when discussing Brad Fiedel's Terminator and what have you... *Records on Voice Recorder*: To do... Bracket on Best Score to an Arnold Schwarzenegger Film...

- Tanaka: Bastard!! - Golem War ~ The Seal (YouTube) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3we_-vX1yR8)
- Mosolov: Iron Foundry (Chailly, cond.) [PicoSong] (http://picosong.com/WE6e/)

What's also included in the folder below:
- History of Orchestral Anime Scores / Composing for the Orchestra (Wada & Tanaka 6min Talk) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvNqUBzG86o).mkv | Japanese, no subtitles
- Kishin the Symphony (1993 Pioneer LD).vob | Japanese, no subtitles
- Kishin Corps Episode 1 (2001 Genoen/Pioneer R1 DVD).mkv | Japanese with English subtitles
- Mosolov - Iron Foundry (Chailly) [1994 Decca].flac
- Text File with Further Links for Others' Shares (Complete Bastard!! Symphony Studio Recording, Kishin Corps Scores, Kishin the Symphony CD Recording)

Source: Personal collection
MKV with FLAC Normalized -1.0 dB (Derived from Lossy AC-3):
https://anon.click/lasiq98
(MediaFire Folder Behind Capcha)

Distant Worlds IV: more music from FINAL FANTASY




Fang's Theme performance here completely misses the mark on Hirano's orchestration... But thanks for sharing!

Jumping on this late, but for me, the best Gundam soundtrack by far is Turn A Gundam. The scale, melody, harmony, and orchestration - there is no competition. Tracks like "Girls Rule" and "Quiet Landing" already leave most soundtracks in the dust.

And I don't know how I missed this track up until recently (holy fuck, is it good). Wolf's Rain - Float (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-lci9z4PZU) I want more stuff like this. Is this too much to ask? :p

Also, any general first impression on the music from this anime season? I haven't kept up for ages, so probably missed a few gems...

All allegations of plagiarism and ghostwriters aside, does Kanno even have any weaknesses as a composer? No matter what genre or style she tackles she does it flawlessly.

Just going by her music, she is in theory unquestionably the greatest musician who has ever lived.

In my humble opinion,

Kanno ≈ Hirano's rare hits (FF13/11 arrangements, etc.) >>> Our other Japanese darlings (Oshima, Iwasaki, Hisaishi, Yamashita, Amano)
>>>>> Everyone else = Non-relevance > Horse-dung >>> Sawano, Yokoyama

:awsm:

Muchas gracias, Mr. Salad :)

Yoko Kanno

If anything, Yoko Kanno constantly demonstrates to the world what MUSIC can be and let's be honest here, very few people these days could even call upon and channeling the world's best classical, TV, film and band music like she can. In that aspect she is an unparalleled genius in the media world and perhaps the greatest media composer who ever lived.


Also, any general first impression on the music from this anime season? I haven't kept up for ages, so probably missed a few gems...

Other than Masato Coda ripping off (Yoko) Kanno and Fujisawa giving us hilarious christian kitsch full of classical writing... not much so far. Made in Abyss has only like a minute of music that interest me but it's a venture into minimalistic Hisaishi which is a surprise, love that little score moment. But Yoshihiro Ike is consistently keeping the season(s) afload (if you're into Hollywood film scores).

Other than that, Taro Iwashiro recently had some stellar moments in Kado: The Right Answer but unfortunately, if something is (truely) good anime music, it will most likely get Blu-Ray or not get released at all (like Matsuo's recent cracker). Tempest still hurts.

If we're talking about 2017, other than Drifters, Izetta: The Last Witch and Yuri on Ice, not much happened recently aside from the Old Guard (except Hattori) delivering (the usual) great stuff. But be sure to check out "Monster Strike Symphony: Prelude" if you haven't , it's good stuff :D

Oh and I also like the music from this newcomer, has potential: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34jUaFHQKFY

But so far I'm waiting (excited) for Oshima's LWA, Tanaka's Anime and Game Symphony (if it gets out) and Senzoku Gakuen Composer Festival 2017.

Also, glad to see you again... fine taste but Makoto is still best ;)

The "educated guess" about the Giacchino/Simonec connection is not documented to my knowledge, but seems to be a very good theory that explains how the relationship worked with Giacchino, a rank amateur and all-round terrible composer, and Simonec, a qualified and highly skilled musician. Giacchino's earlier, better, scores were the very dictionary definition of being substantially written by a skilled orchestrator - consciously very similar to the style of another composer (Williams) and completely lacking a real individual personality, but showing remarkable skill in construction. Where they were once highly derivative but highly professional, they are now less derivative and highly amateurish. Logical conclusion - Giacchino is trying to do more and more on his own.

If I'd been asked to score Rogue One, I wouldn't have done it - why? Because I know I'm not good enough - not by a LONG shot. I am pretty much nobody, and compared to John Williams, I'm even less than that. There isn't a composer on this planet who wouldn't salivate at the chance of scoring a Star Wars movie... but to me, some things are more important than this ego masturbation to which Giacchino is addicted these days. In the parallel universe where I'm offered Rogue One, I'd be painfully aware of my own shortcomings and I'd contemplate calling on friends considerably smarter than I am so I could still "technically" score the thing... but ultimately my respect for good music, John Williams, and the musical integrity of the franchise itself would take over and I'd say "Look, I could do this, but I'm not very good - these guys are heaps better..." - and then, fast forward to release date, Rogue One debuts with Music Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted By William Ross / Brad Dechter.

I wouldn't want to be the person who was a God to people who didn't know any better, and the guy who destroyed forty years of unbroken musical excellence to people who *do* know better.


All allegations of plagiarism and ghostwriters aside, does Kanno even have any weaknesses as a composer? No matter what genre or style she tackles she does it flawlessly.

Just going by her music, she is in theory unquestionably the greatest musician who has ever lived.

Well, you can't really ignore the plagiarism (fact) and ghostwriters (theory) as they are both very direct influences on how the music sounds. She *would* be one of the the greatest musicians who ever lived, *if* none of these things existed - but they do, so she isn't. She (individual or entity) is an extremely skilled mimic and seems to know pretty much everything it is possible to know about composition and orchestration, and she has splendid dramatic storytelling sense - but I am yet to be convinced that she outclasses Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, etc, or that she is a "genius" on the grounds that she's good at hopping genres.

Tango any thoughts on the release of Lady Jane by Quartet/Tadlow? Are you familiar with the score already by chance?

I wasn't at all, but I just listened to samples and I'm fascinated to hear more. Hearing that it's remastered by Tadlow and that deaf idiot Gareth Williams dulls my enthusiasm somewhat, but it sounds like the score might be so good that it surpasses the inevitable sound quality problems... :D

Great timing on bringing Yoko Kanno, regardless of the noticeable plagiarism (in which she's been restraining herself more from doing so as years have come by for her to mature) and supposedly ghostwriting (not on the boat with this one), she has set a remarkable standard that I have not seen from many composers who ever wanted to strive this far, pushing towards a level of quality of music that really blew me away the first time I heard her work... it led me to question on why Hollywood has never nowadays produced something of this magnitude. Speaking of the very first work I heard from her, the next post is actually about that :D:



Wolf's Rain - Paradise Suite
Composed by Yoko Kanno, Arrangement by me

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra






Download (https://www.mediafire.com/?2c3x8d2fadj3kyo)

I'm not sure if Vinphonic already won me on this one in terms of a story telling suite for this, but I wanted to do one myself anyways. The first time I was ever introduced on hearing Kanno's music piece by piece in an album (My first one on TV was Escaflowne) has got to be Wolf's Rain. A world revolved in a futuristic fantasy post-apocalyptic setting with travelling wolves as protagonists, seems like an abstract concept and opportunity to bring on a composer whose work excelled in such, and Yoko Kanno did it with flying colours. Make no mistake, this is not her best if compared to her grander scale works such as Escaflowne, Macross, Brain Powered, Turn A. But I like to think that there's one particular aspect that is worth mentioning of Wolf's Rain's music, and that's the overwhelming emotionality that it conveys, to me, it's Kanno's most colourful and melodic score to date. Before I continue, it's important to point out the amount of evident plagiarism (http://picosong.com/W8t4/) of the piece you hear in the first few minutes and others in most of her pop songs.

Here, Kanno channels her inner Horner at full (Sad Moon), a little of Prokofiev (Night Owl & Tip Toe Waltz) with a landscape of beautiful melodic textures that never ceased to project the feeling of amazement (Float & Rain Of Blossoms) that are complimented with a sweet tenderness that I haven't heard since Brain Powered's "Morning Grace" (My Little Flower). Then comes full dramatic gut wrenching moments that bring a sense of inevitability when the full orchestra breaks in (Shiro Long Tails) and melancholic vocal and piano sections (Amore Amaro), to finally end in a grand emotional finale of "Paradise's" reprise (Go to 'Rauken') that brings a satisfying conclusion (The Story Of Escaflowne - End Title and Naotora's 14 minute tone poem will always be my favorite among Kanno finales).

As always, I made this into a one track 30 minute orchestral suite in order that it could follow and tell a story through it's music. I made some changes this time around such as "Paradise" and "Amore Amaro" in which I add a little of reverb to balance it with WPO's recording concert hall stage, hopefully the results didn't ended up ruining the original pieces as I try to restrain myself from adding too much of it. Enjoy!

I wasn't at all, but I just listened to samples and I'm fascinated to hear more. Hearing that it's remastered by Tadlow and that deaf idiot Gareth Williams dulls my enthusiasm somewhat, but it sounds like the score might be so good that it surpasses the inevitable sound quality problems... :D

Well mine is on the way.

All allegations of plagiarism and ghostwriters aside, does Kanno even have any weaknesses as a composer? No matter what genre or style she tackles she does it flawlessly.
Yes, she sometimes makes poor decisions on sfx added to orchestral music. The worst offender is that baby crying in Brain Powerd.

Speaking of Tadlow, Ben-Hur should be soon.

But as far as Hollywood scores go, I long for the day Michael Kamen's Prince of Thieves will finally get justice.



And worry not Pensquawk, I did not ;)

You know its really sad that no one over in Japan thinks: "Hey, wait a minute, this orchestral anime stuff is pretty great, lets all put it on "Yoko Kanno: complete orchestral works" or something with 12 CDs and charge 10000 Yen." Or "Kanno is a big name, lets make Prokofievesque suites off her anime work and release those on cd, like those Final Symphony guys did, that made a lot of cash. And market research indicate Miku Symphony is what kids are into these days, so fire it up!!""

If I were to take the majority of my favorite veteran japanese composers and classify what they all have in common with anime scores, I would best describe their style as Orchestral Fusion. There's Neo-Classical (Kohei Tanaka), Orchestral Funk (Toshihiko Sahashi), Orchestral Rock (Kow Otani, listen to his Gundam Wing and Outlaw Star scores). I mean, no wonder I think that most background music is anime is better than most BGM's in american cartoons. They know what genres and instruments they're using and craft them masterfully. I may not have as much of a trained ear as some of you, but I too know which instruments are real and which are synth. I, personally, am in full preference of using real instruments as long as they are played professionally and impressively.

Well, you can't really ignore the plagiarism (fact) and ghostwriters (theory) as they are both very direct influences on how the music sounds. She *would* be one of the the greatest musicians who ever lived, *if* none of these things existed - but they do, so she isn't. She (individual or entity) is an extremely skilled mimic and seems to know pretty much everything it is possible to know about composition and orchestration, and she has splendid dramatic storytelling sense - but I am yet to be convinced that she outclasses Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, etc, or that she is a "genius" on the grounds that she's good at hopping genres.If we're just going by her music, Kanno is the greatest musician who has ever lived. This is indisputable. NOBODY has ever commanded such mastery of every genre to exist and more often than not even surpass the originals. I'm not just talking about using the symphony orchestra, Kanno's "understanding" of other genres like rock, electronica, rap, opera, ethnic vocals and percussion, hell even J-Pop is on par with the best of their respective masters. Her execution is always flawless and full of virtuoso. Did I mention that she's an incredible singer too? She doesn't have to "study" anything like Iwasaki- everything she does she perfects it one swing.

But like I said, that's just going by her music. Because all the above is too good to be true. The actual Yoko Kanno I firmly believe is a fraud who relies on ghostwriters, but I'd rather not bring up that argument again. Even then, I have yet to see a single convincing argument that has proven how this woman who has had zero formal training and plays the piano/conducts like an amateur and also claims to never listen to anyone else's music ALSO happens to be a master of every existing musical genre known to man and is always given world-class resources and ensembles without question right out the gate.

Iwasaki even once made a slight jab at Kanno in his blog while he was talking about Gurren Lagann's eclectic soundtrack- "This may surprise you all, but I didn't use a ghostwriter for any of the music".

Wow, I didn't know about the Bill Evans music in Wolf's Rain. Wikipedia says it was arranged by Claus Ogerman (awesome name, BTW) who has some pretty good original compositions himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnYPQvyFugw

What? That is not true (unless I somehow messed up the translation).

She studied music in earnest at an university (alongside literature and other subjects, explaining why she has great knowledge of vocal music of any kind and does her own songlyrics). She played in band (and just like many upcoming Japanese talents today, had a very ecclectic taste) and (if her interviews are not lies) listened to chorals, arias and other classical music since she was a child. She also began playing an instrument at an incredible young age and was scouted early for an upcoming composer by Kohei because sometimes Japanese companies search for musical talent. If you compare her first game scores with Naotora, there's a clear evolution of style and orchestral proficency. She wasn't that good from day one. In fact Escaflowne was her channeling all those "christian classical music" she loved since childhood and she did it not alone, but together with an at least very gifted serious composer (Hajime Mizoguchi). When he left, Kannos voice still remained the same, she has trademarks and quirks, just like anyone else.

I attribute the genius level that unlike Horner, she ALWAYS knows what fits each and every scene and show the best in ANY genre. That's the only thing I will give the ghostwriter theory. If she had a comitee board solely dedicated in finding the best music of each genre, even the most obscure stuff possible and suggest it for her to arrange that... that would at least make her a normal composer somewhat. But I doubt it.

I also never heard from her that she doesn't listen to other stuff. From the interviews I could find, she names her inspirations quite clearly and they align with what we can hear.

I am of the opinion that Kanno is the real deal. Regarding orchestral stuff... she's not even the first... technically James Horner was the same kind of classical library in flesh and was just as much guilty of plagiarism as she is, made even worse by the fact he recycled his own work over and over again, something Kanno never does.

Wow, I didn't know about the Bill Evans music in Wolf's Rain. Wikipedia says it was arranged by Claus Ogerman (awesome name, BTW)
ROFL Bill Evans & Claus Ogerman - Symbiosis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcgryxW91DM) - the most obvious moment starts from 25:05, but this is a fantastic album and Kanno really knows where to get the good stuff!


Iwasaki even once made a slight jab at Kanno in his blog while he was talking about Gurren Lagann's eclectic soundtrack- "This may surprise you all, but I didn't use a ghostwriter for any of the music".
This is interesting. Do you have the source for this by any chance?

This is interesting. Do you have the source for this by any chance?

http://ameblo.jp/soundtrack-maker/entry-10042274700.html


僕の作るサウンドトラックは、往々にして多様なスタイルを一つのＣＤに詰め込むことが多いんだ けど、
ホントに全部一人で作曲したのか？とさえ、疑われそうな勢いだけど、
残念ながら、当分ゴーストを使うつもりはない。

My soundtracks often pack a variety of styles in one CD. Did I really do all of this alone? Some people have suspected me of such a thing recently. Unfortunately, I do not plan to use a ghostwriter for the time being.


Vinphonic, I would rather not go down this rabbit hole again since I already went though it a few months, but most of these interviews where Kanno claims she does not listen to music were linked right here in this thread. There's also the mystery of the pianist who also happens to share the same name as her that some people get mixed up when crediting her education. I would like to get more into this, but I would rather not add fuel to the fire.

I am not even accusing her of plagiarizing at this point like Horner. My beef with her revolves around her mastery of every musical style. There is no western composer I can compare her with in that regard.

EDIT:

Small correction, this Kanno ghostwriter speculation came from this ancient thread 9 years ago, with the two investigators being none other than our own Tango and Streich: Thread 47636

The pianist Yoko Kanno, who studied at Waseda University: http://www.kilie.com/yoko/

AND HOLD THE PHONE, why is "Our" Yoko Kanno talking about going to Waseda University in this interview (http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/11/yoko-kanno-interview) when she clearly is NOT the other pianist Kanno? And to confirm my suspicions, she says herself that she never got her degree in music, but in literature.

The rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper.


Q:So as an entity, “Yoko Kanno” exists as a denizen of many different works and artists throughout the world in a way.

Kanno: That’s why I’m always interested in which “me” my clients have brought a proposal for. I deal with many clients, some of whom know me through my film work, but don’t know of my anime work. Or vice versa. For example, I did music for the NHK television novel Gochisosan and there are people who think that is all I have done like, “Oh, Ms. Kanno I was not aware you did work for anime.” [laughs] Depending on which door a person came through to reach me determines how differently they view me and my music.

I'm stunned how blunt she is about this.

Not only that, but her interviewer is a music producer named Akihiro Tomita, and it seems he's quite a big deal since composers like Iwasaki, MICHIRU, and Satoru Kousaki follow him on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/tomitaakihiro

The only way to acquit Kanno now is for someone to prove that the Red Bull interview is fake, which is unlikely given the interviewer's reputation.

I didn't want to dig deeper for the sake of her fans in this thread, but man, this is really damning stuff.

You know its really sad that no one over in Japan thinks: "Hey, wait a minute, this orchestral anime stuff is pretty great, lets all put it on "Yoko Kanno: complete orchestral works" or something with 12 CDs and charge 10000 Yen." Or "Kanno is a big name, lets make Prokofievesque suites off her anime work and release those on cd, like those Final Symphony guys did, that made a lot of cash. And market research indicate Miku Symphony is what kids are into these days, so fire it up!!""

As much as I would die for getting my hands over that sort of compilation, I don't think that would boat very well on the numbers, considering her prime success resides on pop singles, which I'd say it sells 10 or 20 times more than all her orchestra recordings united. I can certainly bet with all confidence that Naotora, being Kanno's best work in YEARS, will sell exponentially lower (regardless of being a big thing in Japan such as a Taiga drama, but very low for western audience) than say, Terror in Resonance which appeals to a much broad audience. Sad but true.


Wow, I didn't know about the Bill Evans music in Wolf's Rain. Wikipedia says it was arranged by Claus Ogerman (awesome name, BTW) who has some pretty good original compositions himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnYPQvyFugw

And here's the full symphony, pretty fantastic stuff!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyRD7GgE-7M

(Just realized he passed away last year :( what a shame).

Now that I think of it and from what I'm reading right now, he also worked with one of the prime figures of bossa nova genre, Antonio Carlos Jobim in such popular recordings as "Wave" and other jazz musicians as well (Michael Brecker & Bill Evans). Wolf's Rain soundtrack consists of also a series of tracks of the same genre, did Kanno just based Ogerman's full musical history as primal influence for it?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1572092496166214

Meanwhile, on the same day, Toshiyuki Watanabe has to record his score for Mazinger Z in the cramped spaces of Sound Inn.

Star Wars-John Williams no Sekai
Ryusuke Numajiri (conductor) / The Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra lienupoad please

@Zipper: Oh no harm done, even if it turns out it was all just the greatest hoax ever to bring glorious music to anime, game and live-action projects. But it would pain me greatly that I credited her wrong on my Legacy collection ;)
Okay, on Piano's official website, every composer like Matsushiba has education credits, except Kanno, which is strange. But I see not enough concrede evidence to change my describtion (yet). Maybe it's best not to get worried about it too much. Afterall, we are getting glorious music. But if one day someone spills the beans that Ogerman wrote Wolf's Rain and Kanno took the credit... well at least that would surprise only few.

Also some trivia, Wolf's Rain is actually the one Kanno score that is part of the German National Library... don't know who put it there...

Still, I believe she's a real composer, she has a clear distinguishable voice, style and quirks and has matured over the years. Afterall, Hajime Mizoguchi, a REAL musician, would not have married a fraud and worked together with her for so long if she was just a fake idol. We've seen her conduct, we've seen her play and we've seen her sing... she can do all those things at least reasonable. Also depending on if the Red Bull interview was translated or not, that could change the meaning of what she said quite significantly.




@nextday: The world is not fair, more news at eleven... sigh.... ok my equipment is ready :D (but no amount of equipment can fix Yokoyama :p)

JOHN WILLIAMS FILM SPECTACULAR SOUNDTRACK 2017



(Ryusuke Numajiri, Taizo Takemoto, Shigeo Genda (conductor) / Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra)

01. Main Title - Superman (4:25)
02. Disaster Movie Suite Main Title - Earthquake (2:24)
03. Disaster Movie Suite Main Title - The Towering Inferno (2:58)
04. Disaster Movie Suite Main Theme - Jaws (3:08)
05. Main Title - JFK (5:12)
06. Theme - Schindler's List (3:41)
07. March - Midway (4:13)
08. Prayer For Peace - Munich (4:29)
09. Main Title - 1941 (4:27)
10. The Tale Of Viktor Navorski - The Terminal (4:18)
11. End Credit - Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (6:45)
12. Theme - Angela's Ashes (6:32)
13. End Credit - Far And Away (9:02)
14. Main Title - Star Wars Episode 4 New Hope (5:36)
15. Main Theme - Jurassic Park (5:42)
16. Main Theme - Lost WorldJurassic Park (3:33)
17. Somewhere In My Memory - Home Alone (1:37)
18. Holiday Flight - Home Alone (1:17)
19. Prologue & Ultimate War - Hook (4:11)
20. Opening & Ending - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (5:04)
21. Frying Theme - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (3:57)
22. Theme - Memoirs Of A Geisha (5:27)
23. Theme - The Patriot (7:20)
24. Hedwig's Theme - Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (5:12)
25. Window To The Past - Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (4:44)
26. Harry's Wondrous World - Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (4:57)

https://hotlink.cc/mv6j520u32du/JWilliamsFilmSpectacular.zip.html

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1572092496166214

Meanwhile, on the same day, Toshiyuki Watanabe has to record his score for Mazinger Z in the cramped spaces of Sound Inn.

Already? o_O We don't even have a release date of the movie. Isn't the score usually the last thing to be done with movies?

Already? o_O We don't even have a release date of the movie. Isn't the score usually the last thing to be done with movies?
Already: https://www.facebook.com/arakikozo/posts/1397306713655890

Unlike with television, films are typically completed well ahead of their release date. It's set to be released this year so it won't be too long before a date is announced.

Bugger, it's a movie? :(

does her own songlyrics.
Tim Jensen does a lot of her English lyrics.


Also some trivia, Wolf's Rain is actually the one Kanno score that is part of the German National Library... don't know who put it there...
What? How?

I stand corrected.





Unfortunately it's just audio, was too good to be true:

https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D359028306

Some interesting bits at the Yoko Kanno facebook fan page, someone attended at Anime Expo this year apparently and asked the Director of Wolf's Rain & Darker Than Black about his work with Yoko Kanno, credits of course goes to the one who made this post, but considering it's a closed group, I rather keep the person anonymous for now:

I was at Anime Expo and asked Tensai Okamura (director of Wolf's Rain, Darker than Black) about his impressions of Yoko Kanno. I'm paraphrasing because I unfortunately didn't get a chance to properly write down what he said, but some of the things he said were, roughly:
- She's a very unique character.
- She would attend meetings about the series, but she didn't care what people were saying in the meetings. She would be busy watching people and reading their body language instead.
- She would read him and then make music he didn't ask for (but he didn't make this sound like it was a bad thing--maybe like music he wanted but didn't actually ask for?)
- I feel like he said something else about her, but I was unfortunately exhausted when I attended the panel and now I can't remember... I'm hoping I'll recall later if there really was something else!
- Only somewhat related, but he also said that making Wolf's Rain was extremely difficult and he didn't think he would want to make a series like it again. The person had asked if he had any good memories relating to the production of Wolf's Rain and he didn't come up with anything. I thought this was interesting, if a bit sad.

Kanno: That’s why I’m always interested in which “me” my clients have brought a proposal for. I deal with many clients, some of whom know me through my film work, but don’t know of my anime work. Or vice versa. For example, I did music for the NHK television novel Gochisosan and there are people who think that is all I have done like, “Oh, Ms. Kanno I was not aware you did work for anime.” [laughs] Depending on which door a person came through to reach me determines how differently they view me and my music.

You are reading stuff into this that clearly isn't intended. Kanno is saying that she works in a variety of genres which don't, as a rule, overlap - so, for example, a fan of her J-Pop work would be surprised to hear that she works in anime, a fan of her anime work would be surprised to hear that she's done NHK drama, and her NHK drama fans would be surprised to hear that she's done video games.


AND HOLD THE PHONE, why is "Our" Yoko Kanno talking about going to Waseda University in this interview when she clearly is NOT the other pianist Kanno? And to confirm my suspicions, she says herself that she never got her degree in music, but in literature.

It is entirely possible that two different people with the same name attended the same university at some stage - Waseda has 50,000 students. I used to work at a University which had 8,000 and while I worked there we had two people called Venus Williams (and one, unrelated to the other two, called Serena Williams) and two called Lisa Simpson. Conspiracy? Or coincidence? Waseda is prestigious.

And yes, I'm aware that I was there at "the beginning" of all this ghostwriter theory, but time moves on - I've had ten years to get used to Yoko Kanno's music, digest it, and (try to) understand it.

There are plenty of unanswered questions, to be sure, but it is not logical to believe something extraordinary without extraordinary proof to back it up. Absence of X does not imply the existence of Y.

I'm fascinated by the topic, but I will admit to saying that I literally have nothing more to say about Yoko Kanno that I haven't already said. Every single time Yoko Kanno comes up in conversation, Person A says she's a genius, Person B says she's a thief, Person C says she's an international conspiracy, and the three battle each other until the end of time.

I don't think she's a genius, and I don't think she's an international conspiracy. She definitely is a thief, and that is one of the reasons I don't think she's a genius - creating original things on an artistic level with things created by known geniuses, all else being equal, would suggest a genius - but creating convincing pastiches (but nonetheless, pastiches) of things created by known geniuses does NOT suggest a genius, and as we are all acutely aware with the Kanno situation, all else is not equal.

It is said that the Japanese are the world's finest imitators - and it is also known that Japan has a very different attitude to artistic "borrowing" than other nations - more akin to the older Western classical tradition which thought nothing of recycling a piece of music a dozen different times for different occasions, pinching themes and ideas, and pastiching the styles and techniques of other composers - sometimes for comedy value, and sometimes for nothing more complex than the belief that music is music. Anybody can imitate something if they're paying attention. They can even imitate something very specific in such a way that isn't particularly conspicuous.

A genius, as a rule, is endlessly creative - I do not see much creativeness in Kanno's music. I see an encyclopedic knowledge of the ways other people have been creative, and a possibly unsurpassed ability to leverage that "raw material" and use it in the construction of wonderful things...

Naotora is the closest I feel like Kanno's got - but I honestly don't throw around the term genius. It puts someone on a level with Einstein, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, etc. Kanno is good at what she does - excellent, even... but not a single note of her music convinces me that the mind which created it works at the same level as Einstein's.

I give Kanno the benefit of the doubt and will continue to list her among my favourite composers until I have reason to do otherwise. I do, however, believe she has ghost-writers or ghost-arrangers or ghost-orchestrators in some capacity because of reasons I've stated over ten years ago (in case anyone is still interested in such an exhausted topic):

1. The level of ability is that of a serious composer who studied under another serious composer. It is not something accomplished alone, and suddenly. It takes years and years of mediocrity before reaching genius levels (just listen to early Horner, Williams, Silvestri, etc.)

Anyone familiar with film scores and classical music will tell you Macross Plus is the work of an experienced composer. The jump from her Koei synth work to live orchestrations is too extreme. If we had never heard of Shiro Hamaguchi, I would have similar suspicions about Uematsu's FF8 OST.

If she would just show her composition process, her books on orchestration she's read, her love of Western film scores, her book shelf full of short scores from Ravel and Prokofiev, anything, it would definitely put my mind at ease.

2. In that case of the above in which Kanno is a proven genius, why does she neglect the opportunity to do more? Naotora is great, but why wait for so long to do stuff like that? Her orchestral music suggests a love of orchestral music, yet she only wants to flex those compositional muscles once every ten years? Even with the incentive that whatever she does will be performed by a top-tier orchestra?

No, instead she would rather write pop songs and commercial jingles... What?? That makes no sense. Okay, so she's an eccentric genius who might be a tad loopy, but her Naotora music is mature and refined as if written by John Williams himself. But unlike Williams her next project isn't some big epic movie. It's probably a silly Japanese commercial for some canned beverage. It's frustrating to think about.

I didn't want to get into another argument full-fledged about this same damn topic again, but...

You know, for all the people pointing their fingers in this thread at composers like Sagisu and Giacchino and dozens of others for having their orchestrators be their ghostwriters, I am truly baffled that the same people would find it far-fetched that Kanno wouldn't have her own ghostwriters as well.

Let us recap her background:

-Had no interest in music and claims to have never wrote anything from ages 13-20
-Pursued literature as her primary love in college and did a few keyboard gigs for a band at the same time, but never received an actual formal musical education
-Shares the same name as someone who not only happens to be a trained classical musician, but attended the same university as her around the same time
-Claims (according to a reputable conductor who worked with her) to have never orchestrated a piece of music in her entire career until her anime debut in Macross Plus for the Israel Philharmonic

Now, you can come to various alternative conclusions- that the interviews are fake, that Kanno is lying, or that she is deliberately hiding something. But you see, none of the above can be waved aside with dismissive glares. At this point, I am convinced that Kanno is not creating all this magnificent music herself.

You guys are all infatuated with Naotora, I understand. I like it very much as well. But for some reason, you are all also quite dismissive of Kanno's non-symphonic work. I've seen a lot of dislike for Terror in Resonance here, which most people here do not appreciate because they don't understand the context of the Icelandic rock genre. It is a flawless representation of that genre. A pastiche of previous styles like those of Sigur Ros? Yes, but nobody else out there has been able to create such a convincing pastiche of that genre, nevermind some woman from Japan. The same can be said for Ghost in the Shell or Cowboy Bebop- flawless forays into electronica and jazz and urban rock. Flawless pastiches. But think about how much technical know-how is needed to create such flawless copies of all these genres. Kanno is like goddamn Elmyr.

At this point there is nothing new I can say about Kanno's strange background and eclectic musical mastery that has not already been gone over like in that thread that I linked before, so the only thing that is going to convince her fans here that Kanno uses ghostwriters is if she outright spells it out in at least twenty interviews.

And here is what bothers me about how you all treat Kanno- why does the possibility of her using ghostwriter get treated as if it is complete heresy? Ghostwriting is not a crime. Producers and directors do not care how many people she has to help her write the music as long as they get it on time. If they did care, Zimmer would have never had a career.

And that is how I see Kanno- her business operates like some combination of Zimmer and Horner. Like Zimmer, the actual Kanno is probably musically proficient to a certain extent. After all, being able to sing, play piano, and conduct decently are not skills that came out of the blue. But to believe that she herself is this single-handed monster who hops into high level pastiches of classical, jazz, rock, rap, etc- and NOT have help on her side is just silly.

Still, Vinphonic put it best, she creates great music, so who cares if she's a fraud?

We know Sagisu uses Amano as a ghostwriter because every single piece of orchestral music with Sagisu's name written over the last decade sounds like Amano. We strongly suspect that Giacchino uses a ghostwriter because of solid reasons already said many times. There are no "other" names regularly credited alongside Kanno - no Tim Simonec or William Ross, no ever-present orchestrator or conductor, no regular collaborator with whom we can compare musical styles. All we have is a need to reconcile the irreconcilable - how is this all possible?

Of course ghost-writing isn't a crime - and I don't for one moment doubt that Kanno enjoys relationships with musicians - but I think of these relationships as more like John Williams and Herb Spencer, and less like Shiro Sagisu and Masamichi Amano. Yoko Kanno's stye has been recognisable pretty much from day one, and shows signs of clear development. I cannot understand how such consistency in the music could be possible if it were all being hammered together by ghostwriters.

The problem is... There's nothing wrong with ghostwriters, and there's no shame in having collaborators - everybody receives their credits. Kanno never credits anyone. so, explanation - she's just THAT MUCH of a dick that she won't compromise her "brand" and her ghost-writer/s have been happy for the past thirty years to anonymously write masterpiece after masterpiece, have developed their own compositional voices through blood, sweat, toil and tears but have NEVER recorded one single note of music outside of the Kanno brand and have never been interviewed, got pissed off, and gone public about their collaboration? Or that Kanno, for all of her faults and confusing contradictions in her story, simply doesn't use them?

I don't care if she does or she doesn't - well, that's not true... If she does, I'd like to know who they are and I'd like to know why their ASTONISHING talents have been so shamelessly and for so long exploited, simply to maintain a corporate image. I have never treated it as heresy - merely, I have repeatedly stated that jumping from "there are unanswered questions" to a completely formulated alternative explanation of something based completely around the fact that you can't think of a better idea is, at the root, illogical reasoning.

My attitude is to withhold belief of something until it has met a burden of proof. I'm not for one moment suggesting that there isn't more holes in the Kanno story than in a chunk of Swiss cheese, but in my opinion we only have enough information here to question whether what we are told is the truth - we do not have enough to be convinced of an entirely different truth. I'm not saying she does or she doesn't. I'm saying I think she doesn't because I've yet to see convincing proof that she does.

AAAAND... now for something completely different...

Masato Coda already took the right of passage in action scoring in paying homage to Holst with Chain Chronicle but now he did it again (with a better piece), which leaves me to suspect he really likes Mars ;)
Anyway, 90% of the episode is orchestral cues and I very much like what I hear, been some time since we've heared a true orchestral Hollywoodesque TV score by someone not from the usual suspects. Give him a few more years and a symphony orchestra and he's good to go. Will definetely check out the OST.

And Ike continues to keep the level very high. The last episode was just delightful. I think Bahamut and Knights and Magic are enough to fulfill the quota of Hollywood music for a season and Vatican Miracle Examiner despite the brass could turn out really good. I also have some interest in Made from Abyss, that could turn out either way at this point but I believe there will be some some interesting highlights. Like I've illustrated with my little intermezzo HERE (http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?t=217397&highlight=), there's also a great amount of Jazz (Evan Call being the best one for that so far) and classical infused music this season. Nothing out of the ordinary or really noteworthy (although I really like Cheer Fruits, and Symphogear) but again, the sound is out there and it just dominates over the RC style (Altair, Re:Creators). Also check out Centaur no Nayami and remember, this cheap ass show has classical pastiche with real brass and Vatican doesn't. The composer, Tak Miyazawa, is on my watchlist (if you like quirky Kosaki).

But holy hell, Kajiura continues to be a waste of an ensemble. I wish she would stop with this electronic nothingness, especially in a cyberpunk setting of London, escpecially when she has a big band and string ensemble. If only Iwasaki was available.

Kanno and many others don't credit ghostwriters because they're called "ghost" writers for a reason- and I don't see how this practice is surprising to you at all, since it's become the norm in Hollywood, like I said before about our dear Mr. Zimmer.

You keep saying that Kanno's compositional style shows clear signs of growth- while that may be true in how she writes her symphonic works, that is most certainly not the case for her other genres. What previous works led her to develop a flawless sense of Icelandic Rock for Terror in Resonance from day one? What was the predecessor to the J-Pop in Macross Frontier? And most importantly, where is the connection between these different genres that prove that they are all created by the same person? An Iwasaki work for instance, regardless of whichever genre he dabbles in, will usually feature many of his trademarks, whether it's his densely harmonic strings or certain chord progressions. Even in something as cheesy as this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yesbbJxDmKw).

That sort of connective tissue does not exist in Kanno's work. Each genre is so clearly segregated, each one being a pastiche of an existing style. It's not hard to believe that these are all composed by different individuals, each specialized in a certain genre.

But I digress, this talk has gone on far too long with nothing new to add.

[]

Zimmer doesn't use ghostwriters
If you don't believe me, maybe you will at least take Mike Verta's word on it.


Just a small point of clarification, here - Hans Zimmer only writes a small percentage of "his" music. Most of it is done by a stable of ghost writers. He makes no attempt to hide this. He will openly say to a director, "Oh for this romantic scene let's use my guy so-and-so, he's great at the romantic stuff," etc. There's actually quite a lot of that in town. A few of the "big composers" are just name brands.

_Mike

https://www.vsl.co.at/community/posts/t19979p2-Question-about-Agents-Representation-from-you-professionals?=#post139485

I rest my case.

Would it be a stretch to suggest Kanno is some sort of musical savant? It would certainly explain her uncanny ability to mimic the style of other composers. Especially with her lack of a formal education.

I know that there's some other composers in the industry with rare cognitive traits. Kohei Tanaka has sound-to-color synesthesia, for example.

Yoko Ohno.
Has anyone considered that Kanno is a cosmic entity that has met and absorbed people who excel at different genres and fused with them to become the all wielding Yoko Kanno? Terror in Resonance? The force has changed? The world may never know...

Not to derail the Yoko Kanno debate, but does anyone have any orchestral soundtracks from games, anime, movies, TV, and so on that they would personally recommend?

We're kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place on this. Either a) she's a genius who works alone or b) she is being helped in secret by some really talented individuals. In that regard, a) she is a genius who doesn't care to compose anything beyond her one project per year, or b) the ghost-writers don't care to compose anything beyond her one project per year. Neither seems like an acceptable explanation, which is why this topic is so fascinating.

It's a fun thought experiment. That's all it is. I have the same crazy theories about Horner, with my favourite example being Nonnie's Revenge from A Far Off Place being ghost-written by Silvestri (or some sound-alike.) The thing about Horner is he was a genius AND he used ghost-writers from time to time. Or maybe it's more "orchestrators who are given a lot of creative freedom." The only difference is he credits his orchestrators, whereas Kanno apparently goes at it single-handedly when she has absolutely zero reason to. Taking on a prestigious project like Naotora without the aid of an orchestrator or two seems very risky to me.

The other Kanno-Horner similarity is the tendency to borrow from classical music. Especially Prokofiev. It's the weirdest thing. Is his music just that tempting?

Rumiko Takahashi - richest women and most famous mangaka in Japan, living as hermit that no one really sees or does public apperances, aside her other shadow influence on manga world (from Toriyama to Togashi), at one point ventured out by creating a pseudonim persona and started working as Megumi Hayashibara.

As time goes on, her older persons give less and less apperances - since actual Rumiko looks younger thanks to plastic chirurgy (lets not forget she is richest woman in japan).

So Rumiko no one seen for long, Megumi Hayashibara now only appears in grimm occasionally.

After Hayashibara and new surjery, her next project was Yoko Kanno. Though she could not limit herself to just one persona - so played three at once - Yoko Kanno, Gabriella Robin and Maya Sakamoto. Though here she had to hire double for public apperances at times.

Her newest facade is Mari Okada.

What will based Takahashi do next?


My absolute favorite tinfoil hat Kanno theory, and I didn't even come up with it, but since I love it so much I'll do what Kanno does with others' music and make it my own.

=)

Interestingly, I have been reading the transcripts of the interviews for SCORE a Film Music Documentary (in full, not just the ones shown in the film) and in the interview with Zimmer he essentially suggests that film composers have a duty to record orchestral scores as they may be the only thing keeping orchestras around and relevant. Then he also indicates that he has a profound respect and appreciation for the talents of Morricone, Williams, and has a solid understanding of classical music such that he can recognize a great performance and conductor. Yet he doesn't do things traditional because he gets easily bored and thus needs to constantly experiment and try new things with his work.

If you don't believe me, maybe you will at least take Mike Verta's word on it.

I do wish you wouldn't selectively quote me, particularly after I've deleted the post in question so people are unable to see the context and the rest of the post. I have said that I wish to withdraw from this conversation as this horse truly has been beaten to beyond death - you know that the quote you chose misrepresents my opinion and putting words in my mouth then attacking me for them forces me to defend them, draws me back into the topic. Not to mention, it's your classic straw-man argument, and it's downright lazy - you're better than that. :)

This springs to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGFaOeUm2A

A ghostwriter who is known and celebrated for what they do is not a ghostwriter - at least not in the generally accepted meaning of "ghostwriter" as someone who secretly works on behalf of another person with the explicit understanding that their involvement will be completely undisclosed; as I said in the original post (which clarified why I used the words "Zimmer doesn't use ghostwriters") I clearly said that, for all of his faults, what Zimmer does is different - he takes on a scoring job with "Hans Zimmer" as a kind of brand name and then sub-contracts work to members of his studio; he makes sure they're fully credited and more often than not, people who worked for him in this fashion go on to have careers in Hollywood.

This is quite different to what you're proposing - that "Yoko Kanno" is a brand name with a dozen of some of the finest musicians who ever lived working tirelessly behind the scenes with no recognition and no career outside of the brand name, some of whom have been in post for three decades without so much as one complaint, one careless hint "accidentally" dropped in an interview, or a full-out Takashi Niigaki blowout.

Also... John Williams used ghostwriters - perhaps he still does. We now know that a few fairly substantial passages in Star Wars were composed partially or fully by Angela Morley, etc. Nobody is under any impression that Williams is a secret imbecile and employed Morley because he was too dopey to do the job himself - just that he was too busy (today's "composers" wouldn't know a thing about the kind of hard work that John Williams did and does - with no fancy tools beyond a piano, pencil, and paper) and leant on a very good friend a little more than usual in order to get the work done.

I don't want a fight with you and I don't understand why you're getting so aggressive - I don't know what I've said that irks you so.

Cake, anybody???

I am sorry but I agree with The Zipper, Zimmer does use ghostwriters. Sure, some of them get a "additional music" in the credits that no one ever sees. But the big name is Hans Zimmer and most people think he did all the music, when in reality it might have been just the melodies and everything else, his group of composers. Though I'll say it doesn't matter; because at the end is for good; half of these composers who "ghost write" under him end up later working on his own greatly because of being under the baton of Zimmer. So I guess they can't complain. It's just that in a lot of Hans Zimmer scores you wouldn't believe the amount of other composers credited for work that isn't Hans, but Hans gets all the major credit.

@streich: Maybe Prokofiev is just THAT good ;) Kanno, Hisaishi, Oshima, Williams, Horner, Korngold and Herrmann seem to agree.

@CAlexM: Here you go: http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?t=198723&highlight= / http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?t=213790&highlight= (new collection up soon) / http://forums.ffshrine.org/showthread.php?t=215484&highlight=

@Tango: I don't think Zipper had any ill-intend, just Kanno is probably the most fascinating aspect of today's scoring world. That stirs up the mind... I also hope you have Black Forest cherry, I kill for that.





EDIT: And the madmen did it again: http://vgmdb.net/album/69575
Certainly an odd way to rerecord your score constrained by stuffy tincan studio but hey, if it works... Also curious what this "Grand Symphony" is, probably just orchestral pop by Japanese standards.

Point taken, although the issue with people not knowing who wrote substantial portions of Zimmer's scores isn't Zimmer's fault, nor is it by design - the information is there and it is not deliberately hidden - "casual" fans aren't looking for it and barely care. The definition of "ghostwriter" is someone who works on the down-low, usually on the understanding that they will not be credited. To my knowledge Zimmer has never claimed credit for something he didn't write, nor has one of his co-composers done anything without being credited - if there are any examples of cases where this intentionally happened I'd happy withdraw my statement. (Getting credit for something because fraudulent documentation says you did it, and getting credit for something because of misconceptions held and propagated by the ill-informed are, of course, very different kettles of fish...)

It's the same barely-engaged interest that has given us gems like "Jeffrey Goldstein", "John Goldsmith", and "James Horny" - and "Hey, that Star Yoda Trek War Enterprise thing with is on, you like that, don't you?" and "That Chinese thing with the big teddy bear monster thing" (Totoro) (all delightful manglings made by well-meaning but ultimately disinterested members of my family.) :D :D :D :D


@Tango: I don't think Zipper had any ill-intend, just Kanno is probably the most fascinating aspect of today's scoring world. That stirs up the mind... I also hope you have Black Forest cherry, I kill for that.

I know, I just wanted to deflate any potential argument - I know only too well how quickly and how enormously these things can escalate. :)

The Kanno scenario is indeed the most fascinating - and probably also the most damned frustrating - conundrum of the scoring world. There are unanswered questions up the wazoo, discrepancies, contradictions, things that don't make sense, and a general sensation of "something" going on that I just don't get with any other composer. I wonder if this is exactly the way Kanno likes it. It seems obvious that she plays up the innocent schoolgirl persona (even into her fifties) but this doesn't give us much to go on as regards deciding how much of the talent that shows in her music is actually hers. If somebody else is writing her orchestral music for her... we need to know who that person is! And we need to know how it's possible that a) that person has never - in history - written any other orchestral music that may've given the game away, or b) they do and they have a successful "double-life" career and somehow manage to write music that doesn't show any of the Kanno hallmarks. (The hallmarks that have been present in thirty years of orchestral writing and the style which has demonstrated a clear process of development and improvement whilst at the same time remaining completely idiomatic of the "Kanno" sound.)

That and Kanno has *dozens* of collaborators and has no qualms about crediting them all, showing them off at concerts, talking about them in interviews, etc - why on earth would she hide THISof all things?


Taking on a prestigious project like Naotora without the aid of an orchestrator or two seems very risky to me.

It's nuts. Even the mighty Joe Hisaishi uses an orchestrator (often Yamashita) every now and again - why on earth wouldn't you unless you were a masochistic workaholic, a superhuman, or a stinkin' liar?

Is this the Yoko Kanno interview we all read?

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/11/yoko-kanno-interview

I do wish you wouldn't selectively quote me, particularly after I've deleted the post in question so people are unable to see the context and the rest of the post. I have said that I wish to withdraw from this conversation as this horse truly has been beaten to beyond death - you know that the quote you chose misrepresents my opinion and putting words in my mouth then attacking me for them forces me to defend them, draws me back into the topic. Not to mention, it's your classic straw-man argument, and it's downright lazy - you're better than that. :) I'm not sure how you took this as an attack, especially when it was addressing one of the points of your argument. Nowhere in this entire argument did I say a single word about you as a person.

The reason I mentioned only the Zimmer part is because I already said I was done discussing Kanno. I did see your other Kanno arguments, but that line is more or less the only thing you wrote about Hans, and the only context of which is to say that if he does no ghostwriting, then why would Kanno? The Kanno argument essentially boiled down to "I hear this and you don't"- which is incredibly silly to go back and forth with as an argument, and was over before I even made my post. It is not intended to be a strawman, but to address a separate argument, which is exactly as you hear- Hans DOES use ghostwriters. How you can take something like that as an insult is beyond me.

As for your counterargument, you have now shifted the entire spectrum of your original idea from "Zimmer doesn't use ghostwriters" to "Zimmer does use ghostwriters, but he credits them". These two are not the same arguments. For the matter, how they are credited- "additional music"- does not necessarily imply that those names to which received "additional music" are the same people as the ghostwriters. This credit can range anything from sound designers to sound mixers. Your counterarguments rests on the fact that if Kanno uses ghostwriters, why are these people not more well known? What is to say that they are not? What is to say that they are not the same orchestrators who worked alongside Williams or are working with hacks like Bates and Giacchino right now? Kanno already works with world-class resources and ensembles. Terror in Resonance was recorded in Sigur Ros's own studio in Iceland. It would not be far-fetched to believe that she would have access to similar resources as what some of Hollywood's composers have today. Like Zimmer, Kanno is indeed a brand name, just look at how many other brand names she created herself- "Gabriella Robin", "The Seatbelts", "Raich� Coutev Sisters', etc.

Also, there is one fairly public incident where a ghostwriter was not credited: "Chicago Joe and the Showgirl"- where Shirley Walker wrote the ENTIRE score but Hans slapped his name on it "for legal reasons".

And all this boils down to my point, which you reinforced with the Williams example- what is wrong with having ghostwriters? Directors and producers do not care, and if skilled composers run into serious time constraints, they will also have to rely on outside help. But Williams is not questioned because outside of his actual music, his education and long experience working from the bottom to the top speaks for itself. Kanno's backstory and musical education and career choices are as spotty as a Dalmatian. If she is willing to lie before, there is nothing to stop her from doing it again, over and over.

Dang. Just found out Seiji Yokoyama passed away. Such an excellent composer of Captain Harlock, Dairugger XV, Saint Seiya and Ohranger. Rest in peace.

Truly terrible, first MSG's original composer and now another fellow veteran, both in the same year. Now all we have left is the OTHER Yokoyama...

BTW it was recently announced that there will be a number of concerts of Shin Megami Tensei music for the games' 25th Anniversary. It will be interesting to see if any of that gets recorded and/or released.

I think if she was a genius, or a group of geniuses, there wouldn't be all these instances of her/them being caught copying stuff, and she/they would have a much higher quantity output.

Instead, I think she IS skilled (but not genius-level), and also clever - many of the things she's caught copying seem intentionally chosen from what, to the Japanese, is the most obscure foreign stuff. The "oh she's so eclectic!" thing is a cover story for this bouncing around between styles. The gaps between projects and the never dwelling long on any one new style? That's because the mimicry does take some time and effort; and because it's mimicry, rather than mastery, she can't keep up the use of a borrowed style for too long.
And since it's only marketed to the Japanese, it doesn't affect her reputation if a bit of copying is caught by the French two years after it's already done airing in Japan.

Speaking of concerts... isn't Kirby soon?


@Yoko Kanno: leave it to her to lit this thread on fire without even lifting a finger...

So, The Book of Henry is the most impressive Giacchino score to come out in a while. Though that doesn't say a whole lot. That theme for piano is lovely. Listen to the track Peter The Great as well as the early tracks. Yes it is simplistic at times but he gets the emotions down for once and wrote an interesting full length theme.

Is this the Yoko Kanno interview we all read?

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/11/yoko-kanno-interview

That interview is full of canned responses and downright confusing statements.

--

"I just wanted to give Tomino-san “real” music. After half a year of going back and forth with him, I simply decided that what he was telling me was “Just give me the ‘real.’” I believe there is a big difference between Japanese anime music and Hollywood film music. Hollywood needs its music to be background music which assists in the climax, but anime music is required to become a part of the film – and add to the emotions of the scene and the characters. Whether it’s climactic or not is simply a byproduct and not the goal."

This was not said by Kanno. This is something said by someone who doesn't understand music and has the wrong idea about Hollywood film music. Actually, it's the exact opposite of reality. Hollywood scores become part of the film because they are scored to picture (at least, they used to be.) Anime uses a stockpile of music written without a picture, then edited to fit the picture. This response reads like a teen anime fanboy's comparison of Hollywood films and anime you'd find on reddit or youtube.

And that's it? That's all that was said about the orchestrations? They touched on Macross Plus but didn't mention the monumental undertaking of writing a John Williams-like orchestral score? Was Kanno not proud of that accomplishment - knocking it out of the park her first time at bat? No, the pop songs are of more importance here...

Also, no mention of Myung’s Theme? Arguably one of the greatest songs in all of anime and one of Kanno’s crowning achievements? No need to mention it?

--

"I’d much rather be asked to provide music for crazy people who come up with crazy projects."

No way. If that was the case, no Naotora. It's like she has a split personality: crusty old, white-haired American film composer vs. 60s hippy flower-child.

If she were John Williams and asked about Star Wars this would be her answer:

"In order to write a battle theme for Darth Maul I had to get inside his head. What is it like being a sith lord? What do sith lords eat for breakfast? Why is my face all scary? I would dress up like Darth Maul and practice swinging around a curtain rod in my garage for hours. Then it hits me: sanskrit! ostinatos! the london symphony orchestra and a massive choir! i just started going dun dun dun-dun-dun over and over until I passed out. When I came to the score was completely written. Even the individual orchestra parts, all hand-drawn, in coloured pencil, with sketches of bunnies and kittens in the margins."

--

"I feel there are still many undiscovered beats and rhythms which will sway the hearts of people."

Kanno's third personality is that of a professor of sociology and musicology at Boston U. What does any of what she said have to do with what leads her to channel Wagner and Tchaikovsky for Naotora? She likes to say the focus of her music is feeling and experimentation and culture, but that precludes the explanation concerning how she is most capable and most comfortable writing like a Western film composer from the mid-90s. There is something seriously amiss here. Again, she's either a genius who doesn't care, or she has secret help.

Just throwing out there that Horner once said this hilarious excuse for plagiarism: "I'm a musicologist. A doctor of music" (... yeah...), the rest boils down to "Work X must call upon Y which is the defintion of classical work Z so I just had to copy Schumann for Willow, Romeo and Juliet for Star Trek and Ivan the Terrible for Glory. But trust me those are totally my own themes because I put a spin on it".

If only Horner was still alive to collaborate with Yoko Kanno, the greatest dreamteam that never was.

I don't know if it's just me, but Naotora was strongly reminiscent of Horner's style at times (especially his work in The Rocketeer). Maybe he never really died...

Maybe some day Cliff Irving will make an autobiography of Kanno. And unlike all his other autobiographies, he wouldn't have to forge a single lie to get it to sell. :)

For those interested, I am working on finalizing the studio recorded version of my concert work "Windy Mountain" for string orchestra. I can confirm that I am in the process of making another concert work commission for next year. I think I will make it all about the ocean. Been listening to Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams and Debussy's La Mer for inspiration!

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 PM ----------

[/COLOR]

Hayato Matsuo
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra
Drifters: Symphonic War



Download (https://mega.nz/#!LwQzUSSQ!O_s966Tcjk43TzzDh8BJBPmO3Z53jJkO8jF6ElJNcLU) / Sample (https://vimeo.com/220013734)


It is incredible how well these Warsaw pieces flow together and can be rearranged, which is a point Tango briefly touched upon in the past and got me to do a little experimenting today.

I would really be interested in hearing a similar selection of the released Warsaw music from Hellsing Ultimate!

Oh I would love to!!!! If it was actually released (because of important thematic connections) and not the best stuff out in shitty quality or cutoff. But I don't expect anything since I believe some important production member for it died so we will probably never get a complete release of some kind.

Is Matsuo the most cursed anime composer ever? He gets either no budget for an orchestra, even when all other composers in the same franchise do (JoJo) and the stuff that is actually performed by a giant studio orchestra or even Warsaw is not getting released at all.

I don't get this justification of poor sales for Keijo, much smaller shows which were total flops got soundtracks but this absolutely fun orchestral ride doesn't and never will, forgotten????

If Keijo has no release this year I'm really tempted to do a Rip from the BDs.






And regarding Kanno: Do you know she actually has a full-fleshed "one-shot" (Thread 57893) orchestra "Thanks! K-Orchestra" (http://thanks-k-orch.hatenablog.com/) full of classical players that take breaks from time to time to give annual concerts of her works?

(This year the main event was Macross, next year is Aquarion)

https://youtu.be/mPR_pTJVTUg?t=27

So this composer - Toru Yamazaki - is credited as an assistant arranger on Tatsuya Kato's most recent work. I say forget Kato and let the new guy take over!

I swear when I skipped through the show I barely heared an orchestra at all, but know we know who is responsible for this gem




Tatsuya Kato (Toru Yamazaki)
Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka
(Film) Score Selection / Studio Orchestra



Film Score Suite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubbSgOVHugs)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!Z3pVUajS!3Rn53bZmR4Lwd3eNatgZEib-LQi3-Qc8uNxLM0vCi4M)


In parts it sounds like a cross between Elfman, Horner and David Hirschfelder.

And here's the Film Score Suite (https://mega.nz/#!onIFQT4L!A4mgscW-vc6n_MyD_feQKrRTSzqZ3osq2v9WYYXQ8-o) if anyone wants it.

At least now I know when to drop a Kato score whenever Yamazaki's name is in that arrangement credits or not ;)

Thanks! Kato should have hired an assistant earlier - the difference is night and day.

Yamazaki seems promising. The guy says he became a composer out of his love for Hollywood film music (citing Silvestri and Horner as his favorites) and that his dream is to be an anime composer.

Japanese mobile games are truely blessings, they have pretty much the A league working on them at this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv72jDlH48A

The panel also had other score previews: It's another happy bouncy and feisty Tanaka ride so far (but if you look at the video what else could it really be?). The ensemble is chamber-sized so far but its too soon to tell if there will be some meat. I also hope his "big project" (hopefully more serious) will be announced soon.

Sorry what? How do you hear Elfman, Horner, and Hirschfelder at all here? It isn't even Hirschfelder quality orchestration.

I always thought it was a shame how much the other half of Drifter's score, by Yasushii Ishii, got the total brush off in this thread. Anybody who claims to enjoy the genre-hopping of Iwasaki, Tanaka and the like owes it to themselves to give his catchy, scratchy funk rock a shot.

Been playing the FFXII remaster this evening. The new orchestration is a revelation; I can actually enjoy the damn music out from under all that crappy synth. Wonderfully tuneful, vastly superior to XV's background blather. I'm glad Sakimoto is getting a second chance in the spotlight.

I hope the upcoming album release isn't hampered by dynamic compression like the X remaster.

Sawano recently left Legendoor to start his own recording company, VV ALKINE. The Media Ventures of Japan? I hope not, but with Sawano...

http://kisetsu-no-uta.com/sawano-leaves-legendoor-inc/

First up, RIP Seiji Yokoyama - I will make a tribute post later today. He was one of the greats - very much of his time, but regardless of the genre you can't argue with good music, and nobody else did the orchestral + disco combo quite like him - extremely well-crafted scores that were also fun and pop-friendly all at once.

Morbid as it is, I think now is the time for us all to begin to really appreciate Sugiyama, and thank the stars that despite being 86, he's still healthy and still busy.

Life is short.


Sorry what? How do you hear Elfman, Horner, and Hirschfelder at all here? It isn't even Hirschfelder quality orchestration.

I do get where the Elfman comparison comes from - it's a distant melodic similarity, but I get it... The comparison is over-enthusiastic but it comes from a good place - namely, it's nice to hear something from Kato that's merely "not very good" instead of the usual "shockingly terrible". It's a step up - which is nice, and there is actual structure to the cues rather than in previous scores where Kato has written music in that "introduction-placeholder-end" style so beloved of game composers (mostly by necessity, due to its ability to loop well) - so I do find that there are good things to say about it... but ultimately, I agree - the quality of orchestrations isn't high at all and the composition is not wonderful - and there is a depressing lack of variety... I will never understand why some scores get bad composers who write essentially the same cue twenty times and all 45 minutes of it gets played by a pretty decent studio ensemble, and then some scores get FANTASTIC composers who have to fight for 25 players for five or ten minutes of music or have to do one of our favourite shoestring budget scores - I wish these composers would realise the very simple (some may say overly simple) formula:

Synth + a few live instruments to sweeten = synth.
Small ensemble + synth instruments = synth.
Small ensemble + nothing = small ensemble.

Namely, if you can't afford an orchestra write for what you CAN afford. For whatever reason Yoshihisa Hirano didn't get a full orchestra for Bantorra, but did he write an orchestral score anyway and fill in the gaps with EWQL... or did he write explicitly to the limitations of his ensemble and end up with something pretty unique in anime?

Anyway, back to the Kato score - additionally, I wouldn't usually complain about this, but the sound quality is absolutely horrific... :(

A very mixed bag... but I do agree, light-years ahead of what we'd expect from Kato, but light-years behind what we'd expect from any of the A-list - Yamashita, Amano, Kanno, Sahashi, Oshima, Hisaishi, etc.

Just for clarification, maybe "reminded" would have been a better choice in hindsight. Since the Elfman comparison is touched upon, with Horner I meant the "soundworld of his late 90s" and with Hirschfelder, I indeed feel in parts it is reminiscent of his Legend of the Gurdians, in particular the use of cimbalon.

But all this namedropping boils down to how nice it is from Kato to hear "film music" at all. In particular when all we had previously was 5 minutes per score.

@Tango: Recently Sony Playstation released another recording video for a VR game. And it was real strings and winds BUT fake brass. It completely ruined any effort by the other players (and interest from my side). I will never understand why they think thats okay. Especially when this country demonstrates day after day its love for orchestral music. Are there really so few horn players in town that in most anime and game scores the horns are the first things synth? Then why do so many cheap-ass anime scores feature real brass players???
Or take Fujisawa. I still can't get over Gate and Vatican... especially when he is going for classical style, the brass is like the most important thing. It's painful irony that the biggest brass ensemble he ever had was for an idol show. I hope there's enough pieces written for the actual ensemble (like Gate's Love theme) and less http://picosong.com/WtuH because its good composition and real effort by players ruined by painful synth.

@TazerMonkey: Was there actually an orchestral recording? From the samples it was pretty much all (quality) synth. I don't mind since Sakimoto is one of the best at this stuff but any real recording would be neat.

@MastaMist: I don't get the logic. Matsuo didn't write the funkrock and Yasushii Ishii never did an orchestral score, in contrast to Iwasaki, Tanaka and Sahashi, who are MASTERS in various fields and combine their expertise with various styles with their own unique voice. A soundtrack featuring different genres of music is not the same as a composer employing different genres on the same soundtrack. I'm not trying to discredit Yasushii Ishii as a rock musician, but its not surprising he isn't mentioned here.

Drifters doesn't have a score, it has two - one by Hayato Matsuo and another one by Ishii. Matsuo's was the main show and Ishii's is the not-very-good warm-up band just there so as to not overstress Matsuo. There's no thematic connection between them. Matsuo's score is Matsuo's score - it's not incomplete, it's not diminished when taken as an individual work. I would argue against pulling the score apart if it were all by the same person or if it were a collaboration between the two composers - but Matsuo did his stuff the way he wanted to, and Ishii did his stuff the way he wanted to. :)

Vinphonic: I remember hearing at one point (possibly in this thread) that the Final Fantasy score was going to be re-recorded, in full, with a proper orchestra - though this was likely erroneous information. I wonder (and worry) about what we might get based on the samples; strings and a couple of other live instruments doing the best they can surrounded by synth. It's a horrific shame. Hitoshi Sakimoto is worth a real orchestra. Look at Romeo + Juliet... imagine Sakimoto with a real orchestra, not that joke of an amateur ensemble Eminence.

Yes indeed. Shame that it would be prohibitively expensive to properly arrange a symphony from any of Sakimoto's best scores and have it recorded by full orchestra. So many great melodies in Final Fantasy Tactics and FFXII and yet tactics somehow has the better sound because at least they used real percussion for certain tracks.

[Edit - no I won't, I just saw my insurance bill!]

I recently finished a new arrangement of music from FFT (Ovelia's Worries), but alas it's all synths. I just really liked that theme, especially how it plays Delita's theme as counterpoint. Where else do you see that kind of melodic inventiveness in game music?

Has Taku Iwasaki been up to anything lately (besides that game I think). I liked hearing from him every other season. Seems he's been gone for a while.

He worked on the recently released Mahouka movie and is currently working on the Stray Dogs movie and Lord of Vermillion.

No soundtrack for the Mahouka movie yet though, it'll probably be bundled with the BD.

Lord of Vermillion is 100% electronica and dubstep, so I'm hoping Iwasaki channels his less experimental self for Stray Dogs.

He also recently posted pictures of himself in Shanghai, no idea if it was for vacation or if he was recording something there though.

In a review of War of the Planet of the Apes I saw on you tube today a reviewer had the audacity to claim that Giacchino is a better musical composer than John Williams.

@TazerMonkey: Was there actually an orchestral recording? From the samples it was pretty much all (quality) synth. I don't mind since Sakimoto is one of the best at this stuff but any real recording would be neat.

I think a lot of the strings are real and most of the brass is synth, but MUCH higher quality than the OST. I can't be totally sure because my TV audio is just a soundbar and is far inferior to my music listening setup via headphones, and I have to live with the PS4 downmixing everything to stereo which is not always conducive to clarity. The credits for the remaster did list an ensemble based out of Boston, as well as what looked like smaller session work and a few solo artists.

It is a great improvement over the original release, which I've barely been able to stand listening to over the years, of that I have no doubt. Sounds very melodic and old school, which these days is a breath of fresh air. The music actually develops. I've been very pleased to see the music getting raves in the reviews I've read so far, which is much different from what happened during the original release where they all complained about how bland the score was compared with Uematsu's work. Sakimoto's music is far more subtle and really needs the live element to bring it to life, IMO.

In a review of War of the Planet of the Apes I saw on you tube today a reviewer had the audacity to claim that Giacchino is a better musical composer than John Williams.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahaha. No, he ain't.

I really can't stand listening to Williams' music most of the time (I feel he can write a good theme tune, but very little else), but at least his music will try its damnedest to make you notice that it exists while you're watching the film. Williams' music will try to stand out, and make you remember it to some degree after you've finished watching the film. Williams' music at least tries to go somewhere interesting, even if I'm not a fan of the guy.

Giacchino being better than Williams, however? Lordy no! Giacchino's music often sits quietly in the background, barely trying to make itself noticed unless he's deliberating 'quoting' music by much better people (Stark Trek using the original TV theme, Spider-Man: Homecoming reusing the 60's cartoon theme, Rogue One and Jurassic World constantly reusing Williams' music in place of anything original; ironically enough). Giacchino's music makes no attempt to affect whatever scenes it's featured in, nor does it worm itself into your mind after you've finished watching the film. Giacchino's music doesn't even attempt to do anything interesting, or it's not terribly obvious.

I understand that opinions are opinions, and that music is the most subjective art to appreciate and enjoy out of them all, but Giacchino really hasn't demonstrated that he's better than Williams. He certainly hasn't demonstrated that with any of the projects he's worked on over the last decade, at any rate. (Not that I'm against declaring certain composers to be better than Williams; I'll happily be the first guy to say that the likes of Anne Dudley, Howard Goodall, Christophe H�ral and Sagisu/Amano outclass Williams as far as I'm concerned.)

^^^ I wish everybody on the internet could see that God-damned post. Seriously. Someone who DOESN'T PERSONALLY LIKE WILLIAMS but is still willing to stand up for his very, very obvious skills. If the internet could reach the level of sophisticated thinking required to understand that "I like it" and "It's good" are not the same things and neither are "I don't like it" and "It's bad" the world would be a much more peaceful place.

I do not think anyone (living) outclasses or is even close to being *equal* to Williams - not by a long shot. There are other composers I *enjoy* on a visceral level a little more but none who approach his level of consummate professionalism, craft, and quality. The thought and attention Williams lavishes upon every last note is beyond awe-inspiring. I believe him to be the pinnacle of living composers, full stop - forget about genre or nationality, Williams is so much "up there" that there is John Williams and there is everyone else. Humanity could very well *never* produce a musician of Williams' standards ever again and *still* produce truly great composers.

As for the Kanno interview... When I read that Kanno interview all I hear is "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!" - it's all just utter bollocks.

Well, I will believe history will remember John Williams as one of America's finest composers and certainly the most influental film composer who ever lived. For chirst's sake, half the damn world wants to be HIM, or rather they want to be the shallow "pop idol" and not the artist:


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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y12wjPuUhPI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qn7M6aLLHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJG966L6vTc (yeah, yeah, ripped of the Pines of Rome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eea2cXkd6c&t=17m35s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVJIQPff5FE / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzrgXFeX_o (based on Shakespeare)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCTPc2iRtr8&list=PLABB56F4F645F1786&index=8


THAT said, I was quite shocked when I started out how much of my favorite Williams moments were not so original at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJwa9mX0bxA (As far as bravado goes Williams got nothing on Korngold and Oshima)

And I'm still baffled how this piece still remains the most influental classical piece for action music EVER while still being unsurpassed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I
It can even be heard this week in your Japanese Animu Robot Kaiju brawler: http://picosong.com/WzTr (btw soundtrack out Oct, 11)


And while we're on the topic of Korngold and Kanno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcGEGl5bdbk&t=17m15s

http://picosong.com/WzpL/


Has anyone heard the soundtrack from the latest of Kizumonogatari movies? Of course Kousaki Satoru wasn't going to work alone, Ryuichi Takada's orchestrations for the ending credits is the best piece of the entire triology!

I mean, someone not liking a certain style of music but still appreciating the thought and skill put into it is far from a new concept. I've rarely encountered anyone who has said Williams was "unskilled", even when they don't like his musical style. I've seen some call him "unoriginal", which is an arguable statement, but not one without ground. Quite frankly, I'm much more annoyed when anyone dismisses a piece of music based on grounds of it using synth, electronica, choir, percussion loop, etc. Or when anyone dismisses an entire genre as being crap because they don't like that style of music. It happens on here and many other websites, and though I try not to point my fingers at anyone when it happens, but it happens.

The bigger problem is when a piece of music is criticized, it seems many people (especially the likes of certain fanboy groups like those of Sawano and Kajiura) take it as a personal insult to them. "How dare you say my taste is bad, are you calling me a moron?"


Re: Korngold

I think the closest living composer to Korngold is Asakawa. I've always seen Kanno's symphonic tendencies as gliding the line between late Williams and Horner in his early days. Oshima is some combination of Shostakovich and Rozsa.

Like Korngold, Asakawa is incredibly bombastic, can layer melody on top of melody and transition to different movements with masterful ease and flow in a single piece, can control the pace of an orchestra from slow and romantic to militaristic marches in a heartbeat, and treats every project he works on as a full fledged symphony piece. They also have the same sense of that Vienna/old Hollywood style of orchestration, where no part of the orchestra is not put to use (and I find that Asakawa and Korngold both use woodwinds more prominently than Williams, though some of you will probably disagree with me on that).

It's such a shame that Asakawa quit early (another similarity to Korngold's career), Candidate for a Goddess was a better Star Wars score than any Star Wars score made since, including the ones by Williams for the prequels and Ep 7. Asakawa's take on the "Imperial March" is one of my all-time favorite march pieces:

http://picosong.com/WTLp/

You know what I always say: what part of Empire Strikes Back is unoriginal? I've listened to enough music to conclude the answer lies between 0-1%.

My favourite Williams score, however, is Hook, but thanks to the Korngold and Stravinsky references its unoriginality lies somewhere between 1-2%. How can Williams even sleep at night?

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: A Retrospective (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRrmWe-r9cI)

KOUSUKE YAMASHITA
Space Sheriff Gavan - The Movie
Studio Orchestra

My rip. Scans included. FLAC at Level 8. English track listing.

Might ask for a reup of the Yamashita pieces from this title, please? Just recently discovered the cue "Three Bonds" (or at least that's what it was titled like) and was blown away by it! Many thanks!

Looking at the credits for FFXII is just frustrating. They had a recording session with a 54-piece string orchestra. Just strings.

With 54 musicians they could have gotten away with a 34 strings, 11 brass, 8 winds, and a harp. But, no, let's just go with a ton of strings and use synth for everything else! Waste of money, waste of talent.

Well, there seems to be a number of tiny-ensemble overdubs with a few woodwind, two brass, and a harp - but this is bloody insanity. If they could afford 54 players, that's a full (if a little small) symphony orchestra and more plays than most Japanese domestic recordings ever manage. Why the hell waste all the money on a string orchestra twice the size necessary and put in shit-sounding fake instruments for the rest? WHY? You don't even need 34 strings - 8/8/6/4/2 would've been plenty.

Absolute mind-numbing stupidity sacrifices art once again.

Yeah, though it'd be too much I'd have loved to see, if not the entirety of the score, at least those who fit into an orchestral arrangement, seems to me a waste to go orchestral.. but only to have real samples. It's a pity, also that the number of arrangements isn't that big.. but the few there are sound really nice at least.

Hollywood: The sound is great but the music is shit.

Tokyo: Music is great but it sounds shit.


The greatest dilemma of our times.

Hollywood: The sound is great but the music is shit.

Tokyo: Music is great but it sounds shit. I disagree, most music recorded in LA nowadays sounds like it was recorded in some tincan with bass turned up to 11.

Anyway, this strings ensemble situation is nothing new. I'm assuming string ensembles are the cheapest among all the live musicians available in Japan, because even on cheap scores like those for visual novels, it would be common to see the Hitoshi Konno or Shinozaki Strings group and have everything else (beside the piano) be either synth or samples. Perhaps brass is the most expensive. And woodwinds rarely go past just a flute and maybe a clarinet.

Wait, just 54 strings? What are these woodwind sections (very little in amount though) that I'm hearing here then? And I'm pretty sure I heard a trumpet or two in some of the other tracks, not like this excuse the poor management in the distribution of instruments, but just saying, the proportion is just ridiculous. It doesn't help that some of the tracks are terribly bass boosted.

https://youtu.be/eqnAiTLTRf4

https://youtu.be/A4C_VVCq0no

https://youtu.be/fqT3ImtAnGY

https://youtu.be/9ddVOjKJuaM

https://youtu.be/Djl0yEUo8OA

The lack of real brass is truly painful, especially for a someone like Sakimoto, whose shown some nice chops in his brass writing :(.

Edit: I didn't realize until I checked, in the original FFXII (not the Zodiac version) soundtrack, Hayato Matsuo worked as an arranger & composer for additional music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-I2laZZaok), interesting.

I'm trying out the 2015 Inazuma Eleven game (for Europe) and I'm impressed this game features a rad orchestral score. What's up with that?! A football RPG game having high tier movie music.

Oh that's nothing unusual for Level 5 games. Inazuma Eleven was blessed with various orchestral music, but the greatest came from a fabolous orchestral duo that recently disbanded but gave us some of the most fun orchestral rides in gaming (and anime):



Yasunori Mitsuda & Natsumi Kameoka
Orchestral Selection



PW: ProcyonBlitz (https://anon.click/vacof62)

Kid Icarus / Palutena's Mirror (edited and rearranged complete score version) is still one of the greatest game scores to come out from Japan. Kameoka's and Mitsuda's arrangement of Sakuraba and friends elevated unusually good music from unusual suspects to incredible levels of fun. It's truely a musical rollercoaster ride full of orchestral thrills and crazy rock, with some nice themes and big Hollywood bombast.

Inazuma Eleven follows in its footsteps (this is a compilation of all their orchestral works so far), while not reaching the same heights, it is a pretty massive Hollywoodesque score that has much to love. Kameoka 's and Mitsuda's solo projects are no throwaways either.

Kantai espcially is great military bravado and great Hollywood bombast in a battle for the planet (I should also mention Kameoka is a big fan of Zimmer's Backdraft ;)). Likewise Mitusda's Xenosaga has some really sublime moments while sounding at times like a 90s adventure film. They are all fun, or serious, good quality rides (in Kameoka's case beefed up by her superior orchestration skills).

I enjoy them a great deal.

What do you mean nothing unusual? Yokai Watch doesn't have it, neither Layton (just a few covers)

THAT said, I was quite shocked when I started out how much of my favorite Williams moments were not so original at allVinphonic brought up the John Williams "borrowings" from before, and I probably shouldn't continue this, but I'm curious where the fine line between inspiration, homage and plagiarism is for you guys. What makes Kanno and Horner less acceptable than John Williams?

For example, like here with Iwasaki. I still don't understand how he feels about Zimmer. Is he taking inspiration, plagiarizing, homaging, or just mocking him in a "I can do the same thing better than you" manner?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db21NA71gTg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBXaLp9zbMM

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vb8wdfngy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJcn5NGOKE

@Ponyo: :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc6wizOh36A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXyvIFax2Ao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVgQr5Wbdvo
(too tired for the rest)

And if we're talking about high-tier movie music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9L-QzakeiM


@Zipper: In Iwasaki case, he probably liked it with a case of I want to do that with my style. Liking Zimmers music is in no way a crime. Who are we to talk when Amano and Hisaishi think its good stuff ;)
But lets be honest from every Interview and video I've seen Iwasaki is in no way a man that goes for the easy anwer/choice.



Regarding Williams, the concerns were only there when I started out because you can really go off the deep end and lose some respect (like Horner). To put it simple, Horner lifted entire pages (even of his original work) without any changes and Williams deliberatly took certain passages to make a point, either for comedic or referental purpose. I feel it was all done out of love for, and relevance of, the original work. Afterall Williams is the strongest advocator for appreciating classical music we have. A shame nobody takes note. Lets be clear, Williams is far more skilled than Horner was and wouldn't even need to do it. What makes Horner's case frustrating is that he didn't need to either. His own compositions were AMAZING and what he did with those classical pieces at least gives his films real gravitas.

An orchestral piece by Kanno is basically a passage of Stravinsky followed by a passage of Korngold followed by a passage of Prokofiev and finally closes with passage of Williams. I often enjoy these passages more than in the original work, but that doesn't change the fact that they are imitations. I personally think how these pieces are arranged to form an ultimate bestof is a stroke of genius though. For example "The Target", if anyone has watched Independence Day and then Macross Frontier, its no wonder Kanno used Arnold's score for an animated sequence of fighter jets battling aliens. And there are certain space scenes with some allusions to 2001, so that's probably how Strauss ended up in the show. There's numerous of such occasions in her other works as well. I would go so far as to say there's a reason for everything we hear in her works. So who ever arranges these pieces is a master orchestrator with an internalized knowledge of the very best music each genre has given us and also knows the films too ;)

So unless we have concrete evidence, I let it slide and appreciate the utterly glorious and beautiful music the entity "Yoko Kanno" has given us.

Vinphonic brought up the John Williams "borrowings" from before, and I probably shouldn't continue this, but I'm curious where the fine line between inspiration, homage and plagiarism is for you guys. What makes Kanno and Horner less acceptable than John Williams?

The following John Williams borrowings are acceptable:

Star Wars: Main Titles (Korngold's King's Row)
Star Wars: Imperial Attack (Holst's The Planets)
Star Wars: The Dune Sea of Tatooine (Stravinsky's Rite of Spring)
Star Wars: Death Star Exploding (Holst's The Planets)
Star Wars: Throne Room (Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9)
Return of the Jedi: Ewok Theme (Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges)
The Phantom Menace: Augie's Great Municipal Band (Philip Glass's Powaqqatsi)
E.T.: Adventure on Earth (Hanson's Symphony No. 2)
Hook: Hook-Napped (Korngold's The Seahawk)
Hook: The Arrival of Tink (Stravinsky's Firebird)
Hook: The Ultimate War (Korngold's Robin Hood)
Home Alone: Holiday Flight (Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker)

(Anyone who says the two-note Jaws theme came from Dvorak's 9th is really stretching. If anything it came from a Herrmann score, I forget which one.)

The following John Williams borrowings are not acceptable:
Superman: Love Theme (Strauss's Death and Transfiguration)

That is all.


For example "The Target", if anyone has watched Independence Day and then Macross Frontier, its no wonder Kanno used Arnold's score for an animated sequence of fighter jets battling aliens.

The strangest part of The Target is Bizet's L'Arlesienne comes out of no where (at 4 minutes in.) You know who else borrowed from L'Arlessienne? That's right: James Horner, for his score to *Batteries Not Included. And what else is quoted in The Target? That's right: Wrath of Khan (at around 3:22.) What are the odds?

@Zipper: In Iwasaki case, he probably liked it with a case of I want to do that with my style. Liking Zimmers music is in no way a crime. Who are we to talk when Amano and Hisaishi think its good stuff ;)
But lets be honest from every Interview and video I've seen Iwasaki is in no way a man that goes for the easy anwer/choice.

Regarding Williams, the concerns were only there when I started out because you can really go off the deep end and lose some respect (like Horner). To put it simple, Horner lifted entire pages (even of his original work) without any changes and Williams deliberatly took certain passages to make a point, either for comedic or referental purpose. I feel it was all done out of love for, and relevance of, the original work. Afterall Williams is the strongest advocator for appreciating classical music we have. A shame nobody takes note. Lets be clear, Williams is far more skilled than Horner was and wouldn't even need to do it. What makes Horner's case frustrating is that he didn't need to either. His own compositions were AMAZING and what he did with those classical pieces at least gives his films real gravitas.

An orchestral piece by Kanno is basically a passage of Stravinsky followed by a passage of Korngold followed by a passage of Prokofiev and finally closes with passage of Williams. I often enjoy these passages more than in the original work, but that doesn't change the fact that they are imitations. I personally think how these pieces are arranged to form an ultimate bestof is a stroke of genius though. For example "The Target", if anyone has watched Independence Day and then Macross Frontier, its no wonder Kanno used Arnold's score for an animated sequence of fighter jets battling aliens. And there are certain space scenes with some allusions to 2001, so that's probably how Strauss ended up in the show. There's numerous of such occasions in her other works as well. I would go so far as to say there's a reason for everything we hear in her works. So who ever arranges these pieces is a master orchestrator with an internalized knowledge of the very best music each genre has given us and also knows the films too ;)

So unless we have concrete evidence, I let it slide and appreciate the utterly glorious and beautiful music the entity "Yoko Kanno" has given us.Good points all around. Iwasaki is indeed a strange man, and it reflects in his music. It is true that he uses a lot of Zimmer's devices, but in those two pieces he basically stripped out all the electronica and e-guitars that had been associated with Zimmer's style. So many mixed messages. Has Hisaishi ever made a Zimmer reference? The only thing I ever remembered being remotely similar is that "Inception horn" used in one track from Spirited Away, which predates it and was clearly not intentional. Was there something else, or was this from an interview?

That answer is about what I expected with Horner- he steals not because he appreciates the piece, but because he had to finish his job and couldn't come up with anything on time. Really sad, but I guess this was the result of his "speed demon" reputation, which is why he was so popular with directors/producers looking for quick scores and occasional replacements like on Troy. Unfortunately, Horner is only a human being and no amount of orchestrators could ever help anybody in that situation (though none of this explains what the hell happened in Avatar, which he had a year or so to write), so he had to get his material from somewhere. Even then, what Horner can accomplish in two weeks vastly outstrips what others like Giacchino and Jackman have done with months of time.

I have no idea why Kanno does what she does, given her enormous resources and no insane time constraints to speak of, but she's so damn good at it I almost don't care. Still, I don't think I can ever come to terms with her being a single entity, but enough of that.

The Rock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBSIa_xNhE&t=1m28s) (the most blatant)

Men of Yamato (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmUedzV66Ws&list=PLC1BD80F2EF0AE391) (You can guess which version I enjoy more :D And the B section is to die for)


I will make it clear: Early Zimmer was GOOD and enjoyable. He had various talents like Shirley Walker to beef up his work and make it interesting.

Show me your Firetruck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8izEMywMoxs) (probably the most influental piece (and scene) of Zimmer for Japanese composers, with good reason)

Here's Amano's take: Marching Orders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piIZpaGbMUw&list=PLISjHIk6iRjJrvmp4vpLFECZDww8_45RW&index=40)

Here's Kameoka: Torpedo Squadron (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMu64IeVr48&t=12m50s)


And Naoki Sato has shown early Zimmer his place by demonstrating "I can do what you do, only better": Lorelei (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_v7CIpqyfM)

And late Zimmer... Iwasaki got us covered in that regard: Batman ga Kill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5VPtj3G6mI&list=PLr8KUSXAUW5cR6UbERMR-ndvSS4Q1ADew&index=16)


That said, I kinda wish they would rip off Prince of Egypt more (well aside from the Burning Bush): The Plagues (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AbHn--BEHk)
Also, it pains me greatly that we will probably never see this level of animation and gravitas ever again. (Well, unless you live in France ;))


[For another time]

Let us not forget Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow" having a few notes switched around and becoming Luke and Leia in Star Wars!

Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXwju2UXio
Bernstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DROkQJc_F0

As for what differentiates Williams "borrowings" from other composers' blatant thefts, I honestly cannot understand how the question is asked in the first place. To my knowledge, John Williams has never been caught creating scores substantially by lifting page after page from existing classical music or from his previous scores and stitching them together (and before someone starts, it doesn't matter one iota if the plagiarised version sounds better, is better orchestrated, or is played by a bigger orchestra. If I take a dirty car and wash it, I can't say I created a car or claim that I'm a superior car-designer to the person who made it in the first place.

That is the line between theft and homage. If you know the composers, you listen to the music, and you don't feel it... I don't know that it can be explained in a way that will make sense...

Here are two treats, the beginning of many more I intend to post over the coming months... First of all, a preface.

The BBC did a trial earlier this year, very quietly, and on a small scale - one which will revolutionise radio. They tested fully lossless FLAC streaming of BBC Radio 3, the classical music station. The trial was a success. Stage two of the trial was announced to cover the entirety of the 2017 Proms season.

This recording is of one piece only from the second Prom of this season, given this evening in London.

PROM 2 - 15th July 2017
Sir Edward Elgar
Symphony No. 1
Staatskapelle Berlin
conducted by Daniel Barenboim

FLAC (a stream capture of the BBC's experimental lossless "Concert Sound" feature) at Level 8

Barenboim has been connected with the music of Sir Edward Elgar for fifty years - but just recently he and his orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, have been making waves with some jaw-dropping recordings which some believe unseat Sir Adrian Boult's hitherto unsurpassed accounts. Of particular interest has been his recordings of the Elgar symphonies for Decca.

This live recording is... well, it's delicious. It may be on its way to becoming my favourite of the symphony. Orchestra and conductor are back tomorrow to perform the second symphony and I will again capture the live stream. The stream itself is experimental, although I have found it extremely reliable, so there's no guarantees that this will work - if it doesn't, I'll upload the 320kbps AAC version which still sounds excellent... but we shall see.

Enjoy this first rate music-making, and this historical breakthrough in broadcast radio.

https://thinfi.com/0oes

Password is my username.

Also in the experimental trial this year is Binaural Sound. Listen to this one with headphones for the fullest extent - from a technical perspective it's mind blowing - this sounds like the Royal Albert Hall. I've been going there since I was ten years old. I know what that halls sounds like the way I know my mother's voice. It's not the best sound in the world (for pure sound quality, the standard broadcast is ahead) as the Albert Hall has always been an acoustic compromise... but for sheer "YOU ARE THERE" it truly cannot be beaten.

PROM 1 - 14th July 2017
John Adams
Harmonium
BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
BBC Proms Youth Choir
conducted by Edward Gardner OBE

AAC at 320kbps in Binaural Stereo - listen with headphones or this will sound terrible! This is a direct and untouched copy of the BBC's 320kbps AAC stream. Note that the binaural experiments are not included in the FLAC trial.

https://thinfi.com/0oet

Greetings,

I've been a follower of this thread over the years and I'm grateful for the knowledge and music shared here :)
I'm currently looking for orchestral pieces similar to these 2:
Out of Africa Main Theme - John Barry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbMn5bPxatM&ytbChannel=m%20fowkes
City of Lovers (Casino Royale) - David Arnold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llUDPIvOSRc&ytbChannel=FoFisVEVO

Anyone knows if any of these two themes was "borrowed" from a "classical" composer? I'm interested in finding the roots of this romance-love sonority

Let us not forget Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow" having a few notes switched around and becoming Luke and Leia in Star Wars!
Completely forgot about that one. I'm going to have to list that under "unforgivable". Any time a composer takes the very essence of a piece to create a new one, usually by just stealing the theme, is unforgivable to me.

Writing a piece in a specific composer's style, such as Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance in Home Alone, is perfectly fine and to an extent even preferred. I love that Horner wrote a lot of his themes in the style of Prokofiev (when not stealing the themes, that is) such as in The Land Before Time, or in Williams's case, Anakin's theme from The Phantom Menace.

Might ask for a reup of the Yamashita pieces from (Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie), please? Just recently discovered the cue "Three Bonds" (...) and was blown away by it!


Publisher: Nippon Columbia | Release Year: 2012

‏KOUSUKE YAMASHITA
(incorporating themes by Michiaki Watanabe)
Space Sheriff Gavan - The Movie
Studio Orchestra



Originally Posted by (Thread 57893) tangotreats (2013)：
[ＱＵＯＴＥ] �My rip (CD purchased in the middle of a typhoon in Shibuya's Tower Records). Scans included. FLAC at Level 8. English track listing.

2011 was the Super Sentai series; 35th Anniversary year. Accordingly, a very expensive series (Gokaiger) was made and more movie tie-ins than you can shake a stick at. One of the movies featured a crossover with tired 80s superhero Space Sheriff Gavan. As the Sentai composer for the year, Yamashita scored the movie, and when Gavan's newfound popularity earned him a brand new solo feature film this year, it was pretty obvious who would be writing the music. Yamashita casts off his Sentai melodies and writes a largely original score, though there are passing nods to veteran Michiaki Watanabe's themes within the scores in addition to new arrangements of the original Space Sheriff Gavan theme song.

The only critical thing I could say about Yamashita's score is there isn't enough of it! What there is, though... well, it's magnificent. A well-rounded selection of straight symphonic cues (about 25 minutes - some have some minor, TASTEFUL electronic elements; not drowning in synth, just a bit of colour here and there) is interspersed with drum/guitar/orchestra tracks and needless to say they're all at Yamashita's usual level. The orchestral score is surprisingly romantic in tone, with Yamashita even pulling a Joe Hisaishi in track 32 (http://picosong.com/WrKB), with a rousing, brassy, heroic theme that rounds off the score wonderfully.

All in all, excellent stuff. Yamashita still playing his A game.

(A little note about the track listing; it's my own translation and for the most part it makes sense. It's not completely perfect, but it's not bad. I had to do a lot of reading about the movie to make sure certain things were right. Enjoy!)� [/ＱＵＯＴＥ]

Re-Up Link:
thinfi.com/0ogc (https://thinfi.com/0ogc)
(MediaFire)

Password:
tangotreats

<hr>


Wow, I didn't know about the Bill Evans music in Wolf's Rain. Wikipedia says it was arranged by Claus Ogerman (awesome name, BTW) who has some pretty good original compositions himself: Symphonic Dances, 1st movt.

Publisher: GRP | Release Year: 1993 | Album Title: 'American Jazz Philharmonic'

Composed by
Claus OGERMAN(N)
SYMPHONIC DANCES
(1971)

American Jazz Philharmonic (formerly known as The New American Orchestra), Jack Elliott (cond.)


Ogerman's handwritten motto for 'Symphonic Dances', scan from bjbear71

It's not as exciting as the opening or finale but since I like Yoko Kanno's East of the Peninsula track (Ghost in the Shell SAC 2nd Gig), I'm a sucker for the first four minutes of the especially jazzy 2nd movement. A slow musical worldbuilding that can also be listened to on a loop... (hmm, John Adams' Shaker Loops *drool*).

Source: Personal collection
---FLAC (Complete album with other composers' works) / LOG / SCANS---
anon.click/demav16 (https://anon.click/demav16)
(MediaFire Behind Capcha)

Publisher: Nippon Columbia | Release Year: 2012

‏KOUSUKE YAMASHITA
(incorporating themes by Michiaki Watanabe)
Space Sheriff Gavan - The Movie
Studio Orchestra



Originally Posted by (Thread 57893) tangotreats (2013)



Super! Thank you so much!

So, from his recent space opera, I'm assuming this is what Desplat's rejected Star Wars would have sounded like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ccurv9qZE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnWwkvKueqI

Does it fare better than Giacchino's?

Sweet, Goldenthal's Batman.

@Tango: Thank you very much for your London shares.

@HerrSalat: Mmmmm.... delicious Symphonic Jazz, thanks for the meal.

@Zipper: Not really feeling it. I respect Desplat, but his music is most often not for me. I'll wait for Broughton to bring me some proper SciFi.

eagerly awaiting opinions on don davis tokyo ghoul which is available now, but no audioclips or a word how the music is.

eagerly awaiting opinions on don davis tokyo ghoul which is available now, but no audioclips or a word how the music is.
It isn't out until the 26th.

Just a quick present, something I recently revisited and found much to enjoy on a calm sunny afternoon:

It's the (anime debut?) of Monster Hunter Orchestra Concert arranger Rio Kohyama, another promising lady, that I hope gets a solo project sometime soon to see my hunch validated (together with Satoshi Hono).

Magic of Stella: Happy Medley (https://vimeo.com/225970997) (Score Highlights)

If there is one thing I absolutely loathe in music, it is a sampled brass instrument. No matter how well it's mixed and mastered, it will always sound artificial. Even if I don't have much of a trained ear, I can tell which instrument is real and sampled based on the authenticity of the sound.

Threads like this help me appreciate live orchestral music more every day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaOvH13zS-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqbTP5qy7k

Other than sharing the same name, what does Iwasaki's piece have anything to do with Mahler's?


And sad news- Ni No Kuni 2 has been DELAYED until 2018. What a shame, no Hisaishi for this year.

OSHIMA!!!!!


At times like this, the Moscow filter comes really in handy: http://picosong.com/WvjP
It still needs tweaking and I won't properly start until my copy arrives but this little test gives me much hope. The recording is dry enough for it to work.

That aside, what a ride. I also can't shake off this feeling that Oshima listened to Gravity Daze beforehand: http://picosong.com/WvXY (also a little bit of Sahashi influence there)

Where as the OVA scores (combined) gave us a fantastic symphonic ride, the TV score is more balls to the walls, an hour of frollicking bravado with MUCH of my anticipated expansion of the Main Theme and the rest is delightful chamber pieces and some fun orchestral hybrids. There's much to love here and I've not listened to the orchestral score in full from start to finish but I think I already have a strong contender for my score of the year. (But I feel that spot is already reserved for Last Jedi).

I don't mean to be a grumpy bastard (well, OK, I do...) but LWA is massively underwhelming for me. If you subtract the small orchestra straight re-recordings of existing Moscow cues, and pieces that are "re-compositions" of such cues, and the electronic/orchestra hybrid crap, and the fluffy chamber stuff, and the bouncy Sunday morning drama stuff... you're really not left with much. How this TV score can be recorded with two orchestras in two countries and jam-pack two CDs and *still* end up as Oshima's least satisfying, most stupidly lazy score possibly in history... I will never understand. :(

There's stuff in there that reminds me of Planet Of Life - like the end of Track 10, Disc 1 - you just ache for it to open up into a big "event" cue and no, it fizzles out like a cheap sparkler in a rain storm. I love the sarcastic oom-pah rendition of the main theme in Track 16, Disc 1 - but it's music we've already heard slightly re-arranged. What the hell is Track 1, Disc 1 - three minutes of straight re-recording of music that's already been recorded - TWICE - with a larger orchestra for the OVAs. And it's not the only time in the TV score this occurs. The TV series has tracked in the Moscow recordings before, so WHY are they wasting orchestra time on underwhelming retreads of things we've already heard?

I love Oshima to pieces... but I don't get this. I feel like this was more about schmoozing, seeing her mates in Paris and conducting a new orchestra in Boston than it was about LWA.

Big, big disappointment.

Even with the lots of projects she had to handle during this year, Oshima does not falter.

Comparing it back to "Magic User's Club", there's a lot she brought back and with more maturity:

(MCU) http://picosong.com/Wvhn/

(LWA) http://picosong.com/Wv8v/

I'll say the TV score for LWA is a little less orchestrally exuberant than Magic User's Club and other of her scores, though the latter was an OVA and Oshima scored it by picture comparing it to a total of 70 tracks that she did for it. Not the best Oshima score I've heard this year, they couldn't beat those two gorgeous pieces she did for Deemo (and I still love Shirayuki's romantic score to bits till this day), but I liked the variations of the main theme she did.

A little observation aside, I'm glad they included the vocals of the second movie, it really enhanced the piece a whole lot more.

Edit: I gotta say though, Oshima's electronics/drum loops are not her forte.

It's very much a watered-down version of the OVA score, but that's to be expected given what it was being made for. It's hard to top Moscow, unless Oshima was going to go to Warsaw.

The Oshima score I'm still waiting for this year is from Yuasa's Tatami Galaxy spinoff- "The Night is Short Walk On, Girl". The film hasn't come out on disc yet but given that it's a full theatrical release, I assume that's where Oshima put more of her effort in so far this year.

I don't think anybody expected the pure aural experience of the large Moscow orchestra to be replicated, but it would've been nice if the score itself had tried harder than it did.

You're absolutely rigjht - it's the OVA-lite... which makes no sense. How can you have two orchestras and nearly two and a half hours of music, and end up with a score that struggles to make an impression of any kind and when it does, it's due to proximity with the OVA?

And.. pensquawk, the MCU clip.. ARGH... It's the mother of two children - LWA and Kulta...!

You're absolutely rigjht - it's the OVA-lite... which makes no sense. How can you have two orchestras and nearly two and a half hours of music, and end up with a score that struggles to make an impression of any kind and when it does, it's due to proximity with the OVA?!I suspect that like the creators of the TV show, Oshima is burnt out on LWA since she said everything she needed to back during those first two OVAs. In her mind, its musical identity has already been fully established. If the OVA was Conan the Barbarian, the TV show is Conan the Destroyer. Everything at this point is just redundant. And as much as I love Oshima's style, I don't really think she has enormous range.

Hey, now that's just silly... as if anything from the TV score is as good as Chamber of Mirrors ;)

Heaving now listened to the whole thing I somewhat agree and somewhat don't. Yes, this is not charging into Oshima's greatest heights by any stretch but I never expected it to be. It's Oshima doing things a little out of her comfort zone (you either love it or hate it) and frollicking about. It has enough moments for me that I can say with confidence I love this little soundtrack album but what I will agree on is that the original pieces should have been expanded. "Disc 2 - Track 31" (http://picosong.com/WvDd/) sounds like it belongs to a different mature score for orchestra and choir, a score by Oshima featuring a full symphony orchestra & choir throughout and where she went full Rozsa, but that score just isn't there.

But ultimately, I value it similar to GD2. I'm glad it exist and if I want symphonic excellence with the same themes and gestures... well, I think my 45 minute edit of the OVAs should satiate that desire.


I also agree that she should stop using EastWest Stormdrum 2 (in my opinion she's just too classy for that) or that she would at least chose a different loop, not the same one Sawano used for Gigantic Formula.

Yeah, it's a bit of a harsh comparison, but like The Destroyer, it's a sequel score played by a smaller and vastly inferior ensemble that touches on some of the original themes but lacks the overall cohesiveness.

Still, like I said before, even Oshima at 50% created a better young witch score than whatever that mess was that Muramatsu farted out for Mary and the Witch's Flower. How could the people who once worked at Ghibli allow Hisaishi and Yuji Nomi to be replaced with someone so talentless?

And.. pensquawk, the MCU clip.. ARGH... It's the mother of two children - LWA and Kulta...!

Pardon my ignorance but... what was Kulta again?

As for my issue with her using drum loops... it just doesn't mixes that well in her music, a solution of water and oil if you ask me. Take this piece (http://picosong.com/WvUA/) for example, the richness comes through her orchestral writing, the loops did not contribute at all, it rather made the piece sound more stale and restricted to the tempo of it's repetitiveness. An even worst crime of this case was "Great Battle (http://picosong.com/WvrF/)" from Shirayuki. I'm always up for composers to modernize themselves a little and incorporate it in their music (Tanaka's GD2 is a great example of it), but Oshima's strong classical presence in her music is just not a fit for it.

That being said, and hearing it for the second time, I have a soft spot for her ensemble pieces (http://picosong.com/WvGZ/) and it shows.

Definitely some strange choices. That rock track that Vin linked to is something I would never expected to hear from her. I'll be interested in hearing a condensed version of the TV score with the unusual tracks removed. By the way, for anyone who cares about tagging music, you can find my translation of the tracklist here: http://vgmdb.net/album/68484


Pardon my ignorance but... what was Kulta again?
Thread 201682

If you haven't heard this one, you're in for a treat. It's truly a golden age score: http://picosong.com/vsPq/

I have not, words cannot express how great this is, it seems this is the crib of Oshima's wonderful melodies and textures, I can hear from Sora no Woto (First track) to Arc The Lad's Theme (Various tracks), even a little of that Wagner fugue! (Track 18), truly worthy of being named a "golden age" score. I can't believe this passed under my radar, thank you very much :)

There's going to be a videogame for LWA :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=actM3bJsGnE

Just curious, any idea who might be scoring this? Definitely doesn't sound Oshima, that's for sure...

Just curious, any idea who might be scoring this? Definitely doesn't sound Oshima, that's for sure...Sounds a bit like Tatsuya Kato, but chances are it's probably just generic trailer music and not indicative of the actual game score.

Little Witch Academia (TV) - Concert Suite (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmreR9QjlMY) (First draft)

I don't think the game will have anything of note. At best they will reuse Oshima's material (again) and probably some synth renditions. Anime tie-in games are mostly just cheap cash-grabs (Of course I would love an exception).

Vinphonic, I think you talked about this before, but what do you use to remaster these soundtracks?

So I dunno if you guys mentioned this probably months ago but apparently Yoko Shimomura did her first movie score? Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari

It sounds fairly decent, what do you say? I kinda like it. It has her style of music. While it sounds nice, I'll admit it doesn't sound any different than the orchestral parts in her games; probably brings nothing new or innovative; it's basically Shimomura but for a film instead of a game but it sounds decent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTlcfw5_h94

@Ponyo: If you love rythmic orchestral textures and gestures, this score is full of it ;)



Vinphonic, I think you talked about this before, but what do you use to remaster these soundtracks?

I love to use cubase (I know, madness in a ProTools world) because of some function and tools... but I would say EQ is essential. I have made presets of my favorite halls (Moscow, London, Berlin, MGM) with a certain vital EQ tool and I use that in combination with impulse responses and convolution reverbs as well as virtual sound stages (MIR, Altiverb, VSS2). I also use my very own tricks (at least I think) with virtual mics and virtual air repression, making it a simulated rerecording. The rest is endless tweaking due to my ears and experience.

I also love to use tape emulation because I love to bring some warmth into the recordings. Sometimes I subtely add player and instrument noises because there's just a level of humanity in true orchestral recordings that thousands of imbeciles want to edit out to layer it with loops.

In my humble opinion, when it comes to audio engineering and sound editing, you first need to know what a wonderful "old-fashioned" recording can sound like and THEN wet yourself over the wonders of technology. To be honest, in a decent work the jobs of orchestrators and mixing engineers should just be a quality check and nothing more. You just get the players in a room, just place one mic or two and if you are a decent composer there's almost no need for mixing because a composer should control the dynamics and mixing of the orchestra with his writing alone (another reason most composers these days are embarassing hacks).

It costs infinitely more time, money and nerves when an RC clone goes into a hall (not even mentioning the fights and brawls) than when a true composer like Hokoyama or Williams comes into the room. With Williams the mixing engineer has a smile, the orchestrator just makes copies or quick checks and then can enjoy the music, the players have a good time playing off each other and the sound engineer just has to decorate the music (which is essentially what I do with my remasters).

Of course the big M already made a vid about this very subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8DAMjOQtkc

I've always liked Shimomura's orchestral music, though no offense it sounded great due to Wada's magnificent orchestration/arrangement, though the melodies are what matter and she composed them. But yeah I'm liking what I hear, but mostly in that large track I linked. It really does sound like Shimomura, but for film instead of game. You could easily see a few of these tracks fitting in any of her games, specially KH, but still, it's neat.

Michiru Oshima
Little Witch Academia (TV) Score Selection
Performed by Members of the Paris Opera Orchestra and Boston SoundtRec
Arranged and remastered by Vinphonic



PW:MagicHeart (https://anon.click/dizoy72)



EDIT: For anyone interested, I also combined her OVA scores into a ballet-esque suite: Little Witch Academia "Symphonic Tale" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLAY2aAj333CpFJ4H1Dx2ASVxTb7RY0dt3&v=wgRxuQusmtc)

Thank you! May I ask... would you be able to share the original as well, please, pre-remastering?

TT

Sure, here you go (https://mega.nz/#!83ZTiC4D!cKe13XU52ELPDitQy76_KXsebiYccUmBrs44mFvsF3c) :)


Ah... "Melancholic". Time to rewatch ARIA...

An officer and a gentleman, many thanks. :)

[Edit: 48000Hz?]

If I've made it sound like I think this is an unqualified disaster, that's not what I meant... Just a calamitous missed opportunity... Nonetheless, some wonderful content.

I do get what you mean. I also don't want to make it sound like Oshima can do no wrong (her drum loops are enough reason for complaint) but she's usually just so high up there that a lackluster Oshima score still trumps just about anything we can hear this season (excluding Ike's recent wonderful moments).

when a true composer like HokoyamaI misread that as Holkenburg at first, haha. No doubt he's as guilty of all you've said and more.

Anyway, thanks for the very detailed response! But I often wonder if Mike Verta isn't getting better gigs because his style of music isn't in demand, or if it's because of his occasional public giving the bird to Hollywood.

I recorded the Kirby orchestra concert today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXGkU2NRR8Y

More coming soon(tm).

I misread that as Holkenburg at first, haha. No doubt he's as guilty of all you've said and more.

Anyway, thanks for the very detailed response! But I often wonder if Mike Verta isn't getting better gigs because his style of music isn't in demand, or if it's because of his occasional public giving the bird to Hollywood.

Well, it's a fact that no mainstream Western movie would ask for music in Mike's usual style - so the only way Mike would get "better" gigs would be to shut his mouth and write scores that don't upset the modern apple cart. I get the impression that Mike cares too much about the craft to do that, and luckily has his finger in many different pies so has the financial luxury of being able to stand up for his principles. I really doubt that it's simply his refusal to brown-nose that's keeping him off big Hollywood movies. The same old story has been seen countless times over the past two decades; composers who are skilled and write good scores either start writing shit scores that fit in with the current style, or they barely work. If John Williams went for a job in Hollywood today, based on his demo tape, they wouldn't even give him an interview. He has the pull that he does today for three reasons in order of importance - 1) Spielberg, 2) He's famous, and 3) He's old. Nobody in the industry genuinely gives a shit about his skill: Every single time you hear a Williams score in the 21st century and you say "Wow, good film music is still being written, all is not lost!" remember that no other living person would get away with writing that kind of music, and I doubt that there's anyone in Hollywood who *could* even if they were asked. Williams is tolerated. Williams isn't film music any more. How many times do you see a director going off on some tired "John Williams is the first and last word in film music, I love him / want to be him / admire him!" and then they hire some absolute muppet and end up with the world's worst score on their big movie?

Remember; right now in Hollywood, the biggest composer is Michael Giacchino and he's a Williams fanboy. This is the world, today.

A nextday/Vinphonic Co-Production

Taizo Takemoto conducts the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Kirby 25th Anniversary Concert
Arrangements by Shogo Sakai and Megumi Ohara



PW: DreamStar (https://anon.click/wixus28)


Performed at Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Tokyo
"Air Ride Medley" conducted by Shogo Sakai

Concert, translation and tags provided by nextday.
Album edited and arranged by Vinphonic



What I dreamed of many years ago, now made reality by wonderful people. Thank you all. And have a merry listen!

I also forgot to mention that some pieces during the encore are from a different concert but with similar sound, because some Kirby concerts included more encore pieces that are not available now.
Thankfully we already have the fan-favorites performed by a same quality ensemble.
And in that regard, the Tokyo Philharmonic sounds really great here, totally different from Zelda, but that could have been just a lackluster master mix.

And the Birthday song is either the cringiest concert moment ever or the damn cutest :D

Thanks Vinphonic. Finalle a dream coming true :)

BBC Proms 2017 - Prom 8 - 20th July 2017
"Celebrating John Williams"



BBC Concert Orchestra
Jamal Aliyev, cello
Annelien Van Wauwe, clarinet
Haringey Vox Choir
Choir of Music Centre London
conducted by
Keith Lockhart

This concert was given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the 20th of July 2017 to celebrate John Williams in this, his eighty-fifth birthday year. The selection is fairly standard as John Williams concerts go, though there are some nice surprises - in addition to the expected crowd-pleasers Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Superman, we get good suites from more recent scores such as War Horse, The BFG, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and some contrast to the bombast with more subdued scores Munich, and Memoirs Of A Geisha.

A note about the FLAC audio: For the 2017 season of the Proms, the BBC is offering for the first time every concert as a lossless stream. Where FLAC audio is present, this is genuine lossless sound, not a transcode!

Total Concert Time
Audio Version: 2:24:36 (of which 1:34:52 is music, 49:44 is spoken introductions and an interval lecture)
Video Version: 1:58:52 (interval lecture not featured and some trimming of the introductions)

Music played in the concert listed in spoilers...

The Raiders March
Overture to "Goodbye Mr. Chips"
Main Theme from "Jaws"
March from "Superman"
Suite For Cello and Orchestra from Memoirs Of A Geisha - No. 1 - Sayuri's Theme
The Tale Of Viktor Navorski from "The Terminal"
Dartmoor, 1912 from "War Horse"
Hedwig's Theme from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
A Child's Tale - Suite from "The BFG"
Flying Theme from "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial"
Suite from "J.F.K", 1st Movement - Theme from J.F.K
Prayer for Peace from "Munich"
Dry Your Tears, Afrika from "Amistad"
Devil's Dance from "The Witches of Eastwick"
Escapades (No. 3) for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra from "Catch Me If You Can"
March Of The Resistance from "Star Wars - The Force Awakens"
Rey's Theme from "Star Wars - The Force Awakens"
Main Title from "Star Wars - A New Hope"
Cantina Band from "Star Wars - A New Hope"
Harry's Wondrous World from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"


All in all, I really like it - except for factual inaccuracies in the commentary (Williams did NOT score NBC Nightly News in the 1960s), Katie Derham's cringe-worthy and repetitive "The force is strong with..." jokes, Keith Lockhart's sloppy outfit, and the casual dress of the musicians themselves!

The password for all links is my username.

You can listen in a number of ways:

Links are back up, protected by two passwords, two re-direction sites, a de-referrer and a captcha. Let's see if smart-ass bot can get through THAT one!

Edit: Links are gone, and won't be coming back - re-uploading each time this happens takes about 4 hours and torpedoes my internet connection while it's working. Sorry, folks.

Enjoy! :)
TT

At this point, perhaps its best to leave at least a backup of shares only for the thread, because in almost 10 years of sharing, the stuff I've exlusivly shared here is still up!!!

Regardless, I really appreciate all your effort for this Prom Highlight (though nothing has topped Tom & Jerry from 2013 yet) and really enjoy "Lights, Camera, Action, Music!" if only for the fact it tries something new.
I'll be honest, I think we are a little oversaturated with Williams. I get it, the man is a living legend, one of America's greatest composers and one of the greatest film composers ever, but please can we get something else than the millionth rendition of Main Theme X??

The gold standard is still "John Williams ~Greatest Hits~ (1969-1999)". Also a shame Fourth of July is not performed after JFK. I really love the symphonic rendition of Fourth of July for "Music for Stage and Screen: John Williams and Aaron Copland". It would be nice to get more genuine arrangements of his work and not the same stuff that is still more pristine sounding on the official soundtrack.

But I digress, wonderful concerts :)


And this really needs to become the next big thing for any live recording: http://radio2.prototyping.bbc.co.uk/player.html?video=starwars

Following recent disheartening events (see above) and yet another evisceration of my MEGA account, I am going to take a short break from this website to decide what to do next. It may be the case that I decide to retire from sharing or retire from FFShrine all together, although at this point I haven't reached any sort of decision. In the mean time, have fun, and I'll see you all soon. :)

TT

Following recent disheartening events (see above) and yet another evisceration of my MEGA account, I am going to take a short break from this website to decide what to do next. It may be the case that I decide to retire from sharing or retire from FFShrine all together, although at this point I haven't reached any sort of decision. In the mean time, have fun, and I'll see you all soon. :)

TT
This thread turned 9-years-old yesterday and you've been here since day one. I'm sure you'll be back. You of all people should understand that there's more to this place than just file sharing. :)

Many thanks for the Kirby share. The sound quality is much better than I might have expected from a live recording.

having any mirror for tango link. appreciating many share link!

Sounds like he wants someone to share Tango's JW concert post if anyone grabbed it. Sadly I did not.

Following recent disheartening events (see above) and yet another evisceration of my MEGA account, I am going to take a short break from this website to decide what to do next. It may be the case that I decide to retire from sharing or retire from FFShrine all together, although at this point I haven't reached any sort of decision. In the mean time, have fun, and I'll see you all soon. :)

TT

Life after sharing ain't all bad. Fewer migraines.

This place would be a damn sight poorer without your presence.

Following recent disheartening events (see above) and yet another evisceration of my MEGA account, I am going to take a short break from this website to decide what to do next. It may be the case that I decide to retire from sharing or retire from FFShrine all together, although at this point I haven't reached any sort of decision. In the mean time, have fun, and I'll see you all soon. :)

TT

Whether you continue to share files or not, your presence here elevates the discussion. It would be a shame if you were to leave just because of file sharing problems.

Oh for fucks sake, just got back from a trip and yet your efforts are wasted again, makes me unbelievably furious :(

I have the Friday stuff in FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!JjozwDbZ!s9ahlgf4_BZmwH9p6R9bmY4VNhwvFdwbY0VKzKR58Wk

And the Prom in MP3: https://mega.nz/#!wqpV0Zab!e3mm9esDmd5kJi1jV2Sr3RrlrmUjVHYdneyRCNSZJJ0

Thanks tangotreats and Vinphonic....

For what it's worth: the links that I have shared exclusively in this thread have never been taken down. The only links I've had taken down were the ones I made separate threads for.

I currently have two Mega accounts. My main one, which I've been using for many years, and a new one which I created specifically for my shares outside this thread. So even if my "public" account had everything taken down, my main one would survive.

All of my shares haven't been taken down; but that's probably because they aren't mainstream or not much people download from them, or nobody posts in them so the reporter doesn't notice them I guess.

Phew... regarding just how fast Kirby got erased from youtube, I assume a CD release is imminent... for copyright risky stuff I highly recommend vimeo, its much more lenient.

Here's hoping!

Phew... regarding just how fast Kirby got erased from youtube, I assume a CD release is imminent... for copyright risky stuff I highly recommend vimeo, its much more lenient.
Yeah, I received a copyright claim directly from HAL Laboratory. It might just be because it's a paid stream and they don't want people watching for free. You're still able to purchase the concert for another week or so. The stream will be deleted on August 20th.

I might put together a video edit of the concert if nothing gets announced in the next couple months.

Which reminds me, is this new "ProjectReviewn" service from the GSJ concerts actually live video recording or just some superfluous stuff?

Because I sure as hell would want to watch THIS:




And JAGMO also has a Tanaka Bigband tribute coming up.


It's absolutely great seeing Tanaka being more and more celebrated in the concert hall but it would be nice if it wasn't all one-time exclusive events.

Saw Valerian this weekend and was quite impressed w Alexander Desplat's score. Sadly lacking in themes, but lovely, evocative use of instruments. Damn, a big scifi score using bassoon? In 2017?

Which reminds me, is this new "ProjectReviewn" service from the GSJ concerts actually live video recording or just some superfluous stuff?
Unfortunately not. It was some rehearsal videos for the 23rd concert and they were only available for a couple weeks in May. GSJ is on it's 25th concert now, so it was probably just a one time thing.

Speaking of Proms, does anybody here have "PROMS: That's Sound, That's Rhythm"?

Akira Senju: Glorious Museum
Tonk�nstler Orchestrer, conducted by Yutaka Sado



MP3: http://picosong.com/v9tF/ http://i.imgur.com/v9WfOyB.gif

Hi-Res FLAC: https://anon.click/zosun82

An 8-minute piece commissioned by TBS to celebrate their 10-year partnership with the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Thank you very much :), I was craving for more Senju lately, and this really seals the deal. What a great waltz piece, romantic, elegant and whimsy as you'd expect from him. He's been doing better outside than lately on the anime scene, I liked Battery, but it sounded way to shy and silent for my tastes, and this indeed truly shows what he's more capable of. Perhaps give him another film to score for? I would love to see that.

John Powell scores Han Solo.Pretty cool.

If Disney lets him do as he pleases, this could turn out pretty good.



And Senju is a joy to listen to. It really makes me curious just how much commissions there are that go completely unnoticed. Sato's Train Sute was exclusivly composed for a luxury train ride! I also know for a fact that Japanese luxury hotels have exclusive music composed for them as well. Can you imagine it, you check in and suddenly you hear Senju from the speakers :O

Usually Theme Parks (on both sides of the world) also have some pretty good original compositions. I wonder if Oshima, Sahashi, Sawada or others have composed some Theme Park rides? If Mike's Batman Simulator and Disneyland is anything to go by there could be some real gems waiting.

Well, I'm completely out of business - my Mega account has been completely terminated without warning and ALL uploads (in addition to the 141 uploads already taken down in bloodbath last November) have been deleted. This includes some things I don't have backed up, and since I no longer have access to the account, I cannot even assess and properly inventory what is lost.

I will temporarily retire from sharing. In the mean time, anybody is welcome to do whatever they like with any of my prior uploads - I ask only that I be credited.

I will remain at the forum, for the time being at least, as it IS about more than the sharing - but the sharing was the aspect of this website from which I drew the greatest happiness.

Toshiyuki Arakawa, Shinji Miyazaki, Shiro Hamaguchi
Crayon Shin-chan The Movie Soundtracks (1993-2003)

MP3 320kbps | 99 Tracks | 356 MB
Toshiyuki Arakawa: 25 Tracks | 33:19 | 84 MB
Shinji Miyazaki: 14 Tracks | 22:15 | 57 MB
Shiro Hamaguchi: 18 Tracks | 39:17 | 96 MB

Release Date: 18.06.2003
Label: Columbia
Catalog Number: COCX-32232-3
Source: Xiami (http://www.xiami.com/album/498972)



I am sure Kan Sawada's DORAEMON score is bigger and better, but another crowd-pleaser is the Crayon Shin-chan series. Toshiyuki Arakawa is the main composer for the TV show and film series, but other composers like Shiro Hamaguchi (e.g., ONE PIECE) and Shinji Miyazaki (e.g., POK�MON) help him out when it comes to the big orchestral tracks. This album features tracks until the the 11th film. The 21st film will be shown next year, so there might be another soundtrack release in the near future future. There are new/other co-composers for the newer films, though...

The original album has two discs with 99 tracks. There are lots of non-orchestral tracks by Toshiyuki Arakawa, so I've decided to share three compilations focusing on one composer at a time. I think Shiro Hamaguchi's tracks are the best, followed by Shinji Miyazaki. I found out who did which track according to the listing at Tsutaya (http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/works/20134778.html). There may be a possibility some tracks are not credited correctly, though. Listening to some Arakawa tracks made me think if it could have been one of the other composers...

Wonky trranslation/romanization on the Shiro Hamaguchi and Shinji Miyazaki tracks. Toshiyuki Arakawa tracks left in Japanese. Full album not translated at all.

EDIT:
In the Shinji Miyazaki folder: Track "2-09 - Action Kamen's Flesh and Blood.mp3" is by Toshiyuki Arakawa. Sorry. Please delete it :'D
In the Shiro Hamaguchi folder: Spelling mistake in the first track. It should be "Hot Spring", not "Hotspring". Sorry. Please rename it :'D

Samples for the Shiro Hamaguchi tracks:

1-49 - The Absolute Hotspring Sensation / Mystery Robot Appears (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856876)
1-50 - Fear of Giant Robots (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856877)
1-53 - Shin-chan Gets Excited Over Hot Springs (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856880)
1-54 - Tanba, Spirit of the Hot Spring (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856881)
1-57 - Farewell to the Warriors of the Hot Spring (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856884)
2-14 - Tower of the Sun (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856899)
2-15 - Strong! Hiroshi Sun (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856900)
2-17 - Yesterday Once More Operation Begins (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856902)
2-20 - Hiroshi's Reminiscence (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856905)
2-22 - To Get Back Into The 21st Century (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856907)
2-27 - Meeting Ijiri Matabee (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856912)
2-29 - Shinnosuke's Assistance (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856914)
2-31 - Uma-mawari - Magara Tarouzaemon (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856916)
2-32 - Face to Face with Stable Boy Kanauchi (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856917)
2-33 - Blue Sky Samurai (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856918)
2-34 - Yakiniku Variation (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856919)
2-36 - Major Dougashima's Sortie (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856921)
2-37 - Tour d'Atami (http://www.xiami.com/widget/isingle?sid=1770856922)

DOWNLOAD
Shiro Hamaguchi (http://bayfiles.com/file/zC8V/n90Syh/Shiro_Hamaguchi_-_Crayon_Shin-chan_The_Movie_Soundtracks.rar)
Shinji Miyazaki (http://bayfiles.com/file/zCnL/R7q3Fu/Shinji_Miyazaki_-_Crayon_Shin-chan_The_Movie_Soundtracks.rar)
Toshiyuki Arakawa (http://bayfiles.com/file/zCwz/QvywHb/Toshiyuki_Arakawa_-_Crayon_Shin-chan_The_Movie_Soundtracks.rar)

Full Album (https://bayfiles.com/file/zFxf/TgBIwv/Various_Artists_-_Crayon_Shin-chan_The_Movie_Soundtracks.rar)

Anyone here still have this?

Anyone here still have this?

I do! Scans included. Though if you wait.. til whenever I manage to get a desk and use my dad's PC, I'll share a FLAC rip from my own copy.

I do! Scans included. Though if you wait.. til whenever I manage to get a desk and use my dad's PC, I'll share a FLAC rip from my own copy.

I will wait then. Also pretty soon we will probably be seeing Pokemon Movie 20 go up here so that is really exciting!

I will wait then. Also pretty soon we will probably be seeing Pokemon Movie 20 go up here so that is really exciting!

What I have in my HDD is the MP3 320 sourced from the internet, scans included, could do you well I can upoad my own copy, which I don't know how long it'll take at this rate.. ^^' I'm excited over M20's release too, hope AcidBeast doesn't fails on this one! I listened to the MP3 320, some new tracks are good, remixes are eh.. still, loads of Shinji Miyazaki goodness.

Well, I'm completely out of business - my Mega account has been completely terminated without warning and ALL uploads (in addition to the 141 uploads already taken down in bloodbath last November) have been deleted. This includes some things I don't have backed up, and since I no longer have access to the account, I cannot even assess and properly inventory what is lost.

I will temporarily retire from sharing. In the mean time, anybody is welcome to do whatever they like with any of my prior uploads - I ask only that I be credited.

I will remain at the forum, for the time being at least, as it IS about more than the sharing - but the sharing was the aspect of this website from which I drew the greatest happiness.
I know it's been said already but you could probably continue sharing as long as you keep it on the down low. Shares within this thread and other large threads don't draw the attention of copyright entities. The bots seem to scan for thread titles. They don't comb through every single post in every single thread on this forum. That's why none of my - and others - shares in this thread have ever been taken down.

If you were to restrain yourself from making new threads then you could continue sharing without much worry. Sure, you wouldn't be reaching as wide an audience - but it's better than nothing.

Or, stop sharing if it stresses you but that don't mean you have to stop discussing orchestral goodness in this thread. :)

You could always share your stuff with someone else and have them post it as a collaborative effort.

You could always share your stuff with someone else and have them post it as a collaborative effort.

That sounds like the best option. That's fucked that they just terminated your account like that.

Does anyone know how MEGA decides which files and accounts to delete?

You could always share your stuff with someone else and have them post it as a collaborative effort.

There used to be a splendid duo once in this very thread that did just that ;)


I think there are enough volunteers for such a task, should that come to pass. But if years of treasure just vanished in an instant, I would need a vacation...

But I'm sure you will stay Tango, where else do you have a thread with real character developement :D










Short intermission for something unthinkable, gold in a Zimmer score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIBo2-eqdKw

Rest assured, Zimmer has NOTHING to do with ANYTHING going on in that piece. The honor goes to Conrad Pope (at least he is credited).
Really amazing that the orchestrator had to step in for an "oldschool" scene.

^Holy shit. Stunning.

I am getting that score now - even if just for that cue. Words don't describe how beautiful that cue is...not adequately, or at least I couldn't. "Love" is a fitting title, though. Thank you so much for bringing that to attention.

As someone already pointed out in the youtube comments, that piece is heavily inspired by Hanson's Symphony No. 2.