I just found a new copy of the second one for a reasonably sane price, so I snapped that up too. :)

I just found a new copy of the second one for a reasonably sane price, so I snapped that up too. :)

Thank you X2!! (AND BIGGER)

You're all very welcome. This thread and everybody in it drives me bloody mad sometimes, but it's also given me so much over the last decade. And, it might hopefully serve as another apology for being such a colossal twat some weeks ago.

What's a couple of CDs? :)

first solo clip sounds a lot like william ross doing williams chamber of secrets style.i like it.enthusiastic and crisp.

Well, the few seconds we've heard in that score are better than all of Giacchino's piece of shit score put together... so that's a really good sign.

Powell seems to be doing a very good impression of Williams - but vintage Williams. (Though obviously, it seems that they're playing it safe this time with a score that's a great deal more dependent on Williams' older music. This tells me that the producers hated Giacchino's score, and Williams himself probably wasn't too thrilled with it either.)

Cautiously optimistic.

Thats propably the famous kessel run so we get a heavy dose of nostalgia.i am sure there will more than star wars kinect 2.0

I look forward to the score. In fact, that's it. Could care less about the movie. I liked what I heard. Still imitated Williams, but did it better than Rogue One.

I'm not enthused by the use of the Asteroid Field melody; it makes me wonder if this is going to be a lot of patchwork of Williams rather than something more original. I was definitely expecting Powell to do Williams, but I wasn't expecting him to lift whole musical ideas like that (outside of the usual Force Theme, etc.) Regardless, I'm looking forward to it.


This tells me that the producers hated Giacchino's score, and Williams himself probably wasn't too thrilled with it either.

There are a couple guys at the FSM board who are "in the biz" (they have no reason to lie about that) who have heard through the grapevine that Williams decided to check out Rogue One and wasn't impressed. Allegedly he suggested Desplat for Solo but was told in reply that it hadn't worked out the first time, so Powell was his next choice.
Giacchino on the other hand has said that Williams was "complimentary" about the RO score, which is probably true also - we all know how deferential Williams is.

Joe Hisaishi... back to scoring a TV war drama series. In this Corner of the World. Hype.

Btw I really like what I hear so far from Han Solo. Another Star Wars Kinect would be sweet.

Joe Hisaishi... back to scoring a TV war drama series. In this Corner of the World. Hype.I don't really know if I would call it a war drama. Going by the anime movie and manga, it's a peaceful and comedic slice of life about a woman who has to cope with dwindling supplies to take care of her family as the war and its restrictions and rations challenge her artistic and life necessities. There are some heavy scenes every now and then, but it's nothing like Grave of the Fireflies. More Hisaishi is always good, but I don't think anyone should expect Princess Mononoke. It'll be another Wind Rises.

I don't care how it is, it's gonna be another Joe Hisaishi score and no matter how he does it, it's gonna be pretty good to listen, that I'm sure of.

John Williams is, above all, a gentleman. He would never denigrate Giacchino in public. But I rather think it's inescapable; anyone who seriously thinks that John Williams of all people might be impressed by Rogue One... really knows nothing about music.

Now, it's true that Rogue One was a crazy rush job, and it's also true that it's not the worse score ever written... but the idea that the man who's been in the business for 66 years, studied with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, worked as a session musician for Henry Mancini, orchestrated for Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and is possibly the greatest living composer of music in the world, full stop... would listen to Rogue One and respond with anything except this...



...is laughable.

Whilst it's absolutely a shame that Powell, one of the few people who actually could do a proper, original score and it be decent without needing to rest on Williams' crutch, is being relegated to "music adapted by" I dare say whatever he eventually produces will be better than Rogue One; and if it's decent and people respond to it, it might encourage other producers to look into that kind of music in the future. I suppose it's not entirely beyond the realms that Powell may get a job next year or the year after and will be told "You did a great Williams impression in Han Solo - we didn't realise that sort of music could still work in a modern movie. Can you do that again?"

Possible. Not likely. But possible.

Nah, I'm not optimistic about that. It's only because the symphonic music is a thing associated with Star Wars, wether if people like the music or not.

Wow, KADO, Iwashiro's best work in years, gets a 2CD release, May 23, hopefully with the symphonic suite.

What's next? Keijo? :D Speaking of which, I will really end up falling in love with Matsuo's Captain Tsubasa if episode 5 is just a precursor for when the real tournament starts.

EDIT: Taisei is really good with his action for Masotan. There's also snippets of a sweet little military march. Looking forward to an OST announcement.

New Iwasaki fall anime. Going by the premise, it seems a small cut above the usual light novel isekai schlock.


The novel series' story takes place in 15th-century France, during the Hundred Years' War with England. Montmorency, the son of a noble, immerses himself in the study of magic and alchemy at a school for knights. However, after France's defeat at Agincourt, the school is disbanded and Montmorency is forced to flee. While on the run he meets a miraculous village girl named Jeanne.

https://youtu.be/EkdcTyK7bRI

It's unrelated to the movie music he recorded in the concert hall last week, and I doubt he's recorded anything yet for this show since it isn't even his music in the PV. But Iwasaki scoring the Hundred Years' War- I remain somewhat optimistic. As long as he has a budget.

Could someone share some Ralf Wengenmayr scores? Lots of recent releases, but my TIDAL/Deezer don't have any of it. Probably they don't sell or are available for streaming outside GERMANY.

Never mind.

In celebration of the thread's upcoming 10th Anniversary


The Legacy of Japan
Hidden Treasures
The Wonderful Music World of Japanese Animation


Promotional Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvDZT_nyj4)


After my symphonic overview about Western Games and presenting the history of symphonic music in Japanese Games, there's one massive field of music left and now it's time to take a closer look at it. I present a historical approach to symphonic and orchestral music in Japanese Animation, roughly on the same scale as my game counterpart. It's probably the last "big share" I will do in years, partially because other 90s anime scores have quite a lot of dedicated threads to them, like Kanyeda's rare treats (Thread 221826), and there's really nothing big left to share...

There's only a couple of smaller projects left on my side about a brilliant composer or two who go unsung but aside from that the Legacy project will soon come to an end, a time where I can entirely focus on looking forward to other peoples contributions and new releases and share more recent or singular stuff I discover and that might interest you.

But back on track, what I find most marvelous about the Anime medium, even if you take out all my favorites, all of my dedicated collections of interesting and/or prolific composers I shared so far and even the couple I will share in the future, you are still left with an enormous size of orchestral and symphonic music, classical or Hollywood inspired and absolutely Hidden Gems.

Discover (or rediscover) the wonders of the anime world:


1. The 80s and 90s





Long before my favorites even entered the scene, long before even Tanaka and Sahashi, the world of Japanese animation was home to symphonic works: Exhubertant orchestration, Golden Age quality music and delightful Hollywood TV sound from the 60s and 70s. A time when Kentaro Haneda, Reijiro Koroku, Shigeaki Saegusa, Katsuhisa Hattori, Shiro Sagisu and Kei Wakakusa ruled the scene and Michiru Oshima, Toshihiko Sahashi and Kohei Tanaka were just starting out. It was a much smaller (but I guess more focused) world than today, which right now explodes with new and old composers writing new projects all the time. I adore each period equally for different reasons. The following selections I did construct carefully and consciously.


1.1. The Orchestral Landscape before the 21st Century





The first three albums are about symphonic arrangements of TV scores and absolutely great.

If talking about the orchestral world of Japanese animation, you can't escape the works of Hiroshi Miyagawa and his iconic scores for Space Battleship Yamato. The symphony in particular has many fans and performances throughout the decade and I've chosen it as a representative of Miyagawa's work. Nearly 40 years later we can hear his legacy in an ongoing OVA series, Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and 2202, with music arranged or newly written by his son, Akira Miyagawa. Great remakes, great music.

Another giant you can't escape is the Goliath Mobile Suit Gundam, a series that started in 1979 and still goes strong to this day. Throughout the decades it was home to numerous symphonic and Hollywood works. I've chosen the 20th Anniversary concert as a representative as it contains symphonic arrangements of pretty much all Gundam series up to 1998. In the 2000s Toshihiko Sahashi should continue the legacy with three Symphonic Gundam albums recorded in London. Gundam AGE, Gundam Reconguista and Gundam The Origin still uphold the symphonic tradition and I hope, despire some ventures in electronica territory, that it will continue its legacy sometime in the future. And its not like there's no quality beyond the symphonic. Gundam Unicorn and Gundam Thunderbolt are very interesting scores to me.

Then there's Ah! My Goddess: Chicchai Megami no Okkina Ensoukai which is an orchestral recording of various suites from the Ah! My Goddess franchise which was very big in the late 90s/early 2000s and even got a superb film score by Shiro Hamaguchi. This orchestral album doesn't need to hide behind it, exhubertant and a thrillride and a very interesting somber and relaxing mood piece. There's even a hilarious variation of a symphonic suite of Space Battleship Yamato, for an in-universe joke.


The next three albums are about a phenomenon that was extinct for almost two decades until 2018, when Tamiya Terashima released an image album for a novel. In the 90s this practice of recording an orchestral symphonic score for a manga gave us some delightfull out-of-time symphonic masterpieces by Reijiro Koroku, Gekkou no Pierce and Symphonic Ballade IZUMO, who also recorded a superb, hauntingly emotional film score with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra for Rennyo no Monogatari, the album was shared by nextday.


Moving on, the next three albums are about symphonic TV scores, and there's no shortage of fine stuff available.

Gundam F91
is a funny musical anectode as its a prime example of the Japanese approach to copying musical ideas from Hollywood. It's Star Wars... no really, it is! Imperial March, Asteroid field, Approaching the Death Star, it's all here. Originality aside, it's a fun quality ride, how could it not be, with ideas by John Williams ;)

Gaia Gear
has an absolutely beautiful theme and is a score in best tradition of Hollywood romanticism that just doesn't exist anymore. The soundtrack even has a little symphonic suite at the end. I should also mention John Williams is present again...

Ryu Knight
is an example of my favorites writing music in the 90s. Whether if its Michiru Oshima, Toshihiko Sahashi or Kohei Tanaka, there's a distinct style in their writing and sound in the recording that makes it very easy to date ther works to the 90s. Recently Oshima has revived her period in the 90s a little with DEEMO and perhaps her upcoming concert work "Augustus" is a journey back to that time.


The last three albums are not symphonic but awesome orchestral TV scores with many synth and rock elements that I really love.

SLAYERS
has quite the wonderful Hollywood TV quality of the 70s to it and is two hours of delightful fantasy score. The opening "Give a reason" is example of a very particular style of anime music that the 80s and 90s offered: Captain Tylor OP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8W7eF49xv4)

Pokemon (Pocket Monsters)
needs no introduction. In this day and age numerous orchestral concerts are held with music from the franchise but the original TV recordings from 1997 to 2001, by Shinji Miyazaki and Akifumi Tada, will always evoke a special feeling of nostalgia from my side, for good reason. Great synth and orchestra hybrids, heroic marches and thrilling action. To this day this music can be heard on the still-ongoing Pokemon TV series and I long for the next soundtrack box.

Shin Getter Robo
is a baller orchestral TV score with kickasss rock intro and outro by Yasunori Iwasaki.


1.2. The Symphonic Arrangements



Finally there's numerous arrangements I did for all the symphonic and orchestral music that goes unsung despite the exhubertant quality. I put a lot of care into arranging and editing, in particular in removing the disco bits from the orchestral score. If you know my work on the Gravity Rush scores, you know I don't joke around. Every one of these is arranged by myself. I've given original uploader credit if I remembered it.


Heidi: Symphonic Poem of the Alps and Heidi
is a charming pastoral stroll through the alps with earworm theme. All gets even an ethereal choral arrangement, Anime Fantasy. One of the hidden gems this thread introduced me to (by 17Love).

Two absolute masterpieces brought to light by two gentlemen, Tango and Herr Salat. The Kingdom of the Flower Crown Dragon is a symphonic masterpiece by great Kentaro Haneda. I've taken extra care into arranging it all to a 26 minute tone poem that really feels like a 1001 Arabian Nights adventure like Sheherazade at times. Message from space is a grand symphonic work for orchestra and chorus by Kenichiro Morioka, with a memorable majestic and regal theme and exhubertant orchestration. It's also StarWarsy. It recieved the same treatment as Flower Crown.

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child is a symphonic Poem by great Koichi Sugiyama and provided by tangotreats/Herr Salat. The central theme is gorgeous, one of the composer's loveliest melodies. Get it here:
Legend of Syrius - Symphonic Poem (https://mega.nz/#!L24iSaZD!UfeqPWAQNGjDPAjTN1uAyQt3in4NQehMEq4Utwu4J1s)

Toward the Terra and and Orchestral Suite Byston-Well (Garzey's Wing)
are very much "80's" symphonic album with incorporating synth and sound effects into the orchestral recording. Experimental but satisfying, these suites from my side are hidden gems par excellence.

Irresponsible Captain Tylor: From here to eternity
is an example of various orchestral recordings for OVA series in the 90s. A true symphonic SciFi score by Toshiyuki Watanabe. Much to love.

Reijiro Koroku's Dark Angel
is proof, intelligent and evokative symphonic music can be written with electric guitars. Beautiful themes, fascinating orchestration and that specific eastern touch with the Erhu.

Dirty Pair Flash and Outlanders
introduce Kei Wakakusa who is sort of ancestor of the Pokemon sound. From the first note your around his grib and on a fantastic ride.

Of course no 90s orchestral anime selection without Neon Genesis Evangelion. For many, Shiro Sagisu's best work, and for good reason. Damn good catchy themes and moments... and if you love the music of John Barry, Ennio Morricone and Lalo Shifrin, you will be in for an anachronistic joyride that can only happen in Japan. I've arranged it to a 40 minute Fantasia of 60s Hollywood television. Shiro Sagisu should have written more in this style instead of going down the electronic route, at least he gives Amano shelter from American lawyers.

Another franchise with delightful retro elements but with more delicious Hollywood orchestral sound of the 70s and 80s is Takanori Arisawa's Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. I've arranged two symphonic suites of the best orchestral scores from the franchise. When you're in the right mood the Sailor Moon albums are great fun but these two suites show there's a lot of substance behind it.


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!KrAWmTyZ!FItOBC2ONUuyLzptNQR-O5aXbZITy3956sCDG-BURro)



2. The 2000s and 2010s



The last decade was truely something special, not only countless marvels but also the establishment of my favorite dozen media composers that give me much joy. It was the era of Sahashi, the rise of Iwasaki, Yamashita, Sato and Hirano and the transformation of Hisaishi into a symphonic film composer, a decade of a plethora of symphonic masterpieces. The 2010s see the rise of Tanaka, Hattori and Mitsuda to stardom, Oshima recording a whole collection of Moscow, Paris and Budapest scores and the venture of media composers like Sahashi, Yugo Kanno, and Oshima into the classical realm. It is also the period of the appearance of numerous new faces, from Souhei Kanno to Taisei Iwasaki. It also sees the big return of old practices: Orchestral anime concerts on the rise, symphonic suites appearing again, and the return of symphonic image albums for novels/manga. It even has a symphonic concert work written for an anime film. Enjoy the numerous marvels of nearly 20 years.


2.1. The Masterpieces

I'm reasonably sure most of the "old guard" of the thread has heard of pretty much all of these gems, but if they somehow evaded your grip, now your chance to hear wonderful music, starting with the Symphonic Works of Yuji Nomi:



I forgot to add Kujiratori from the Ghibli Museum, another symphonic suite by the Czech Philharmonic, so take it HERE (https://mega.nz/#!27pnCZ6b!bPi4TKuL8BLq6uISmyAJQ6Y5idKp5U6yoSH0ApMDLmU).

A criminally underused composer (same as another one I will prepare a special collection some time in the future) who at last got his chance to write six sublime symphonic works, the most popular would be Nichijou, nextday, savior in need, has even a video of the recording session:

Making of Nichijou: Recording Session in Hungary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NErjOyP928)

It's masterfully crafted music from another era. Timeless and energetic. It's a delightful tour de force. From Pastoral Symphony to superb Silent Movie, exhubertant scores. Anpaman and Cat Kingdom are my own rips, AIR Symphony is nextday/Akashi San, Hinotori is Herr Salat.


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!ymJ1SSIR!PkTssTqNgI5P7xBG-PbekHEN_7bqAsk_5kgefQRtneU)





Next up is Fafner
Part concert work / part piano concerto / part film score. The Warsaw Philharmonic brings their superb performance and sound to the table. It's in equal parts delightful and bombastic with some sublime moments of beauty. The Fafner project is far from over. A new series and movie are in the works so there is a reasonable chance of more Warsaw score by Seito.

Fractale...
The score is highly classical in nature but with many characteristic you would normally attribute to the likes of Hirano with the use of atonality, choir and soprano. It is a concert score disguised as a television score. Half of it is performed by a chamber ensemble and full of jauntiness and playfulness. A lighthearted dance of strings, piano and woodwinds. But the meat is with the the choral pieces: The centerpiece of the score is the song for Fractale itself, first heard in “The Temple’s Prayers” and in full glory in ”From the Labor and the Hard Work” a beautiful poem/prayer that can also be considered a villain theme in the story. The second piece in particular is one of the greatest musical pieces ever written for media. It rivals Yoko Kanno’s and Yoshihisa Hirano’s best moments. There’s also a heroic fantasy score woven in there, respectively at the beginning and at the end. The violin harmonics in combination with celeste and glockenspiel at the end of “The Sacrificial Maiden” is one of my favorite devices in any film score. The final piece “A Journey to the Future” is a concert piece on its own, rapidly flying between the sections and finishing the score with a rousing climax that few film scores can match. Here his wind orchestra background is the most apparent.


It does EVERYTHING. It is a concert hall musical drama, through and through. It is a score that doesn't try only to provide background mood music, but which weaves its own story - with considerably more skill and clarity than the show itself. It is otherworldly and innately familiar. It is harsh and gentle, dissonant and consonant, textural and lyrical. It's music, of a quality one might hope to attain as a magnum-opus, summing up a long and prestigious career in one final statement of artistic glory - instead, it was written by someone as their scoring debut barely out of their twenties. (And it's orchestrated TO THE HILT.)

From The Labour And The Hard Work - Souhei Kano tells the whole story of Fractale in a completely uncompromising, mini opera - in just under seven minutes he conveys musically what the show can't in five hours - and 5:09 must be one of the most visceral, unsettling, terrifying moments in the history of media scoring. There has never been a score like it. I wonder if there will be again.


The Boy Who Saw the Wind
is one of the rare real orchestral scores by Tamiya Terashima, and the Czech Philharmonic no less, this is everything performed by the orchestra. A symphonic story that gets rarely written and its elegant and dramatic. A symphonic adventure.

Stormy Wolf
is a lyrical and fantastic symphonic poem full of heart and glory. It's absolutely sublime. Especially if you love the vocal elements of Morricone scores. This particular rip was shared by Ponyo.

Candidate for Goddess
needs no introduction. Golden Age music to start a new millenia. Asakawa is THE harpist of Japan, performing for 95% of Anime scores alone yet an orchestral master that lay down his composing duties for this sake.

Jin-Roh
is one of the very few solo works of Hajime Mizoguchi, a beautiful and tragic drama score performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic. Long gone are the days of his brilliant collaborations with Yoko Kanno and since his divorce he hasn't work on anything Anime related again. But who knows what the future may hold.

Bibliotheca Mysticia de Dantalian
is another Japanese marvel. A beautiful symphonic poem for chamber orchestra with absolutely sublime woodwind textures and plays. Woodwinds are wonderful instruments and it is the fall of a cilivilazition that the west largely abandoned these group of instruments for their media scores. Granted, the problem is rather that people are so unskilled as media composers these days they don't even know what woodwinds can do. Listen to this score and you know how intoxicating they can be. Yu Tsuji is another poor soul that had a couple of unsuccesful anime making his career difficult, just like Souhei Kano.

The Life of Guskou Bodori
is the very definition of a hidden gem, a beautiful pastoral score for Accordeon, Guitar and Orchestra by Ryota Komatsu, somewhat reminiscent of Sahashi's Simoun score.

The Piano Forest (the film, not the currently airing series)
by Keisuke Shinohara and performed by the Czech Philharmonic is an absolute delight. A Symphonic Poem in the vain of Toshiyuki Watanabe's Sailor Moon or Akira Senju's symphonic suites.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Genzou
is one of the most unexpecting things to get a fully grown-up symphonic arrangement with guest appearance by Shostakovich. Arranged by orchestral masters, Shiro Hamaguchi and others, this orchestral album is great fun. Even more so if you actually listened to the TV score and marvel how they turned some easy-go-lucky poppy pieces into mature orchestral movements. The Tokyo Philharmonic provides stellar sound.

Banner of the Stars
is one of the last anime scores by old veteran Katsuhisa Hattori, father of Takayuki Hattori. It's a dearly loved score aside from some drum/disco bits I've edited out. It's classic symphonic SciFi. The kind that has almost completely disappeared in the west but does still pop up from time to time in Japanese Anime. It's very reminiscent of anime scores from the 80s and 90s.

Actually Katsuhisa does still write for anime, just not what one would expect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJX9SxaSe08


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!2i5REBZR!A5SNz054GH6nQWhPODZ0RI4MgJ-rdOH9C9IJAZq4nag)



2.2 The Orchestral Film and Television Selection


The World of Japanese Anime today is home to various orchestral scores written for Television and Films that are just wonderful. From time to time, real gems or anachronistic joyrides appear. From 60s Hollywood to classical ballet. Recently Hisone to Masotan fills my desire for a delightful orchestral score. Even without the dozens of my favorites taken out of the equation, there's still much to love about this scoring world.



Mina Kubota and Masumi Ito
are two ladies that wrote some baller orchestral television scores. Much sublime moments are in their works. From Golden Age to 90s Hollywood. Masumi Ito (Nanase Hikaru is her alias) is a brass acrobat and Mina Kubota an orchestral lyricist. Their works will surely win you over.

Beast Saga
by underused and talented Koichiro Kameyama is a 90s Hollywood TV score in the vain of Hercules but with a slightly more Japanese touch. It's bombastic and brassy, in particular brass stabs and falls galore. Much goodness here.

Victini...
As if from nowhere, we end up with a truly wonderful adventure score with all those things we miss so much from Hollywood; themes, grandeur, heroism, romanticism, tension, and glory. Actually, we get two. You see, Pokemon's 14th movie did something a little bit weird; it got split into two different films - they both start off roughly the same but branch off in different directions to follow a different protagonist. Each film has received its own individual and self-contained score. The happy side effect is that there is bucketloads of music to be had; no less than ninety minutes of score in total, of which the vast majority is just the sort of thing that makes us old farts weak at the knees. You won't be disappointed.

Kaze no Shoujo Emily ~Symphonic Poem~
originally shared by 17Love, is not a symphonic poem like the title implies. What it is, however, is a sublime orchestral TV score by Akira Miyagawa, full of techniques and writing that you can't listen to anywhere else anymore. It's full of wonderful moments and highly classical.

Kiniro no Corda Blue Sky
is Koichiro Kameyama again, but with a much more symphonic approach this time. Highly classical and performed by a large ensemble, this TV score is an utter delight. I dearly hope Kateyama can give us more Anime scores in the future.

Gundam AGE
is an epic SciFi score they just don't write no more in the west, with a catchy theme, a dramatic core, and much SciFi standards, like the obligatory Holst. Kei Yoshikawa hasn't done anything noteworthy since so maybe this will remain his sole contribution to the symphonic legacy of Gundam.

Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA 2nd
by newcomer Misa Chujo is one of those unexpected marvels that come out of nowhere and fully satisfy. There's quite a few homages to Naoki Sato and Akira Ifukube in this score so she definitely has her heart in the right place. Last year's Naonha score had the budget illness but this year shows a budget again, so maybe Misa Chujo can show us again what she can do.

Blue Dragon
marks the highpoint of Megumi Hoashi (with Main Theme written by Nobuo Uematsu), a composer who almost completely disappeard in the 2010s despite being a promising disciple of Sahashi. It's a classic orchestral TV score in the vain of Slayers and similar scores. It's unbelievably good for what it is written for. That tradition continues to this very day with Puzzle and Dragon and long may that practice contine.

Allison and Lillia
is one of the most charming orchestral scores written for anime, together with Brave Witches. Shusei Murai has perhaps "the world's smallest TV orchestra" (tangotreats) but the score has heart and soul and I would rather listen to this score ten times than all marvel scores put together. Murai is another composer that could need more projects.

The Third
is another Megumi Ohashi that goes pretty far out there with beautiful Morricone-esque vocal moments. In essence a Sahashi score, the track "Mother" being the best piece she has written.

Zegapain
by Ayako Otsuka is a lyrical and dramatic orchestral TV score with a beautiful theme and really good action. Highly classical with some Golden Age moments. A Hidden Gem.


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!Km4WjCZb!STzSrglHnRC5fRz8bVCXj6Z2VKsaF06ndkwAWSbjuYs)



2.3 The Orchestral Hybrid and Experimental Selection

The Anime world is also no stranger to expermentation with the orchestra, taking influence from all around the world, from bands to modern Hollywood, from modern concert composers to dubstep. They are not the monotone simple droning percussion and sixty horn assault of modern Hollywood but very interesting to listen to.



The Works of Yoshiaki Fujisawa
are a mix of classic Hollywood, minimalistic concert music and modern Hollywood. He has written some charming music that is only really brought down by a missing brass section. Fortunately, he has a big breakthrough with NGNL Zero which has his most delightful moments yet. A dramatic and beatiful film score at its core, which was even performed by a full symphonic ensemble for the concert hall. I really like his works and hope he can land more big budget projects soon.

Izetta -Die Letzte Hexe-
is a fascinating debut by Michiru Iida (MICHIRU), it's what I always wanted to hear from a Yuki Kajiura score but never really got. There's also delightful film music moments in there with a very catchy theme. Like many anime scores, this is more an artist album than BGM. Iida already set a firm foot in the industry and I hope she can land her hands on something that requires an orcherstral score.

Saga of Tanya
is the kind of modern Hollywood score I always wanted to hear but almost never get, the last time was probably Dark City... wait no At World's End that I really appreciated the Zimmer style. In any case this is only a balls to the walls modern Hollywood score at first glance. It has much Leitmotif writing, and interesection of themes. To me, it's the merging of the two soundworlds, classic and modern Hollywood and I very much look forward to Shuji Katayama's next projects.

Violet Evergarden
is another interesting score, incorporation typewriter and various other writting tools seemlessly into the orchestral score. It also is full of Leitmotif, incredibly catchy pieces and the ethereal vocals and instrumentaion give this score a very unique atmosphere. The songs he wrote/arranged are also keepers, nicely orchestrated and full of emotion. I sure hope for the upcoming Evergarden projects, Evan gets to expand on that little Aria piece he wrote.

DATE A LIVE
is a joyride Sahashi score not written by Sahashi... but by one of his disciples, Go Sakabe. He certainly nails the Sahashi sound to perfection but more interesting are the original parts, the operatic pieces, hybrid pieces like "Rhapsody - Rage" and the use of Leitmotif and dramatic language that are enough to not make this score mere pastiche. It's damn good stuff.

ReZero
is a special score, seldom was an orchestral score used so effictivly in a TV show. It's again an interesting blend of modern Hollywood elements with the scores of Ennio Morricone and B�la Bart�k. The use of a Bulgarian choir adds a unique flavor to the score and it has brilliant Leitmotif writing. A carefully constructed score that is only modern at first glance. Really sublime and wonderful moments in there.

The Boy and The Beast
is an interesting and catchy film score by Masakatsu Takagi. A highly energetic score in parts that gives the orchestra quite a workout.

Chain Chronicle and Knight's and Magic
are two orchestral scores with parts classical and parts modern elements I really like. They are quality scores who use Leitmotif, classic marches ala Holst, strong choral moments and catchy themes. With Knigh'ts and Magic Masato Coda even takes a shot at Yoko Kanno with an Escaflowne impression. The best kind of pastiche.

Linebarrels of Iron
is a baller score by Hiroaki Conisch., full of electronica and drums but all with the voice of a classical composer. I can't unhear Back to the Future but the score is full of moments that made 90s orchestral Hybrids so addicting to listen to and he's a brass acrobat lilke Masumi Ito. It even uses the Ondes Martenot.

Brave Witches (actually a collection of all Strike Witches soundtracks)
is a delightful score. A specific use of electronica, synths and drums make this one feel like an old orchestral videogame score but with a huge chunk of lovely and heartwarming woodwind pieces, military marches and even some little symphonic pieces. I adore it.

Gundam Unicorn...
don't be surprised! I find it very interesting to listen to, since Gigantic Formula and Unicorn, Hiroyuki Sawano has never reached this level of "drum assault bombast yet still orchestral and lyrical in parts" since. I wonder if someone really did the heavy lifting here because I just don't hear this level of quality in his later scores. There's still the same voice and the occasional pieces that work for me but Gundam Unicorn remains his strongest output in the orchestral bombast department.


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!unIngLbY!7qWiGKNNzlWVkjBf8E6a4u37KmDEUU4JUl1o1RraFRw)



3. 100 Scores, 100 Voices


One thing I marvel at in the Japanese Anime world is how (almost) each and every score sounds totally unique and full of personality. This goes even beyond the orchestral. You know if something is by Yasuharu Takanshi or Hiroyuki Sawano by the very first bar. There's no giant conglomerate sucking away personal style and soul, each of these arrangements I provide here has the voice of an artist that you can't mistake for someone else. Most of these suites I arranged is everything noteworthy in the orchestral department of a score so I imagine in many cases you don't need to return to the OST and skip some tracks to get to the good parts ;)

3.1. The Symphonic arrangements



Pay no attention to the [masterpiece] tag, I just used it to differentiate two different categories of scores. If I talks about favorites, there's much to love in Akira Miyagawa's Kirby, it's catchy as hell. I also enjoy the hell out of Seitokai Yakuindomo, Mori Yuya needs more projects with an orchestra. He is one of the good ones. There's also Digimon Adventure (originally shared by Herr Salat), Katsuhisa Hattori's Argento Soma, Koichiro Kameyama's Buzzer Beater and Rental Magica which are just delightful. Or the symphonic songs for Elfen Lied, Yoyo and Nene, Dragonball Kai and Fantastic Children... or Ruka Kawada's best, Is the Order a Rabbit 2, which is just marvelous from start to finish. Wait, there's also Liz und ein Blauer Vogel, a fullgrown concert work written for an anime film, and there's Hiraoki Conisch's little piano concerto, and of the course Summer Wars Overture by Bernstein, and Yuri on Ice with a fullgrown Aria... and... and.... you get the point :D

What you also can find in the anime world are occasional opening with orchestral underscore which are a treat:

Sample 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUf-8aXt9Hw)

Sample 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCDOF11p33w)

Sample 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZcgxVrbWHA)


In some instances there's even just score music, a classy affair:

Sample 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0C5V8OPVI)

Sample 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfgNlVdDnxs)

Sample 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdG6dHXw7j0)





3.2. The Orchestral Hybrid and experimental arrangements

Disclaimer: These are mostly pieces and scores I like (in some cases just liking it enough). There's some stuff I adore but mostly I selected it to show the diverse quality and the plethora of styles you can find in the anime world.



From classical waltzes to modern Hollywood bombast, from Baroque and Gregorian Chants to Broadway and Crime Noir, frum cutesy and delightful chamber scores to poppy electronics and 80s synth. There's something for everyone here. Many of these arrangements are, again, containing every noteworthy orchestral piece from a soundtrack (or two). I really enjoy listening through the various different styles.



LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!7qoV3IxR!oKZAXbniHwS3HhYJuvvK7JF3f7B_9ugaOrmrsi0_pJA)



4. Beyond the Orchestral

The Music of Takeshi Senoo and Choro Club



Here I present a collection of guitar, piano and string scores that are very dear to me.



ARIA still is a special case for me. The music, in its best moments, is some of the most relaxing and soothing musical scores you can listen to. The show's still great and charming, even after all these years, and I sometimes return it. A beautiful special, only-in-Japan affair.

Takeshi Senoo has that sixth sense for intoxicating melodies and he even ventures a little into classical territory with Inari Konkon which is a sublime string-heavy score that shows much of his talents. Quiet Country Cafe, on the other hand, shows the delightful sound of Choro Club that predates ARIA, with some beautiul arrangements by Taku Iwasaki. This selection is beauty incarnate. Don't miss it.


LINK IN DESCRIPTION (https://mega.nz/#!nip0SArT!OwxZdCOdVOvbHHD8wu4nxJlMG0ooOhuFpZln5_q9Qmo)


It would also be remiss of me to not touch on Jazz in Anime again. I know I already have a separate collection for that here, but I will nonetheless list some suggestions for some good Anime Jazz:

Cowboy Bebop (the classic) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-KORMeNBE)
Evangelion Jazz Night (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFNTkQExJ3Q&list=PLwdRDv0EIkvSDS00FS5Glznp7iaveFLSV)
Oh Edo Rocket (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh3ixICGTyw&list=PL21EB1E64A6DCC4CB&index=2)
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yK8eOmPb4)
The Works of Jun'ichi Kanezaki (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzZOK02oFzc)
Gundam Thunderbolt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLvoyFpLGc&list=PL8DS_G5PRB2Vd8LtP-hzT-B2WNgLe6-JZ)
Lupin The Third (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvaosZlQqrY)
Fujiko Mine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJk42Y1X3Eg&list=PLhE13B6fSMPuUEeroz1_mYJfrbXX4ZOEp&index=4)
Blood Blockade Battlefront (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLEd3BkMUiw)
Code Geass Akito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6LEWupGBWA&t=22m37s)
Cloud on the Slope (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHJntLYMh0)
Stella Women's Academy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_yMXwEXHo4)
Bartender (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCSXuOz9xp0&list=PL664B07DD153F8A9A&index=2)


So that concludes it. I really love this medium for the hidden treasures it gives me, the countless joyrides and the profoundly written scores that affect me and that I hope will affect you as well. I'm looking forward to making another collection of these in twenty years... just kidding :D


I dearly thank the countless posters of this thread that really opened up the gates of a world to me that turned out to be invaluable to my passion (and tastes) all those years ago. arthierr, if you somehow read this, thank you dearly.

Originally, I intended to share it on the date of the thread's tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, I don't know if I will be around in July at the time and since my main harddrive died recently (I have enough backups to catch up quickly), I took everything into consideration and decided it's now a good time as any. I'm just a bit early :P


Take on a Journey again and enjoy the wonderful music.

I don't know if I've thanked you before, Vinphonic, but these giant, exhaustive presentations you put together are invaluable. They are the best primers in cream-of-the-crop anime music that anyone could ever ask for. Eternal thanks to you for both this and all the countless other "legacy" etc. posts you've made; they are truly a godsend.

https://www.facebook.com/iwasaki.taku/posts/1670740263032988

Iwasaki: "My next work begins shortly. I will have to renew my passport before that!"

First a concert hall recording in Japan. And now this, supposedly for the aforementioned Jeanne d'Arc anime. Is Iwasaki implying what I think he's implying? I don't want to set myself up for disappointment anymore, but yet-!!

Wow. Vinphonic, this is incredible. Thank you so much. You're a teacher!

What does anyone think about Alvi and Surasshu (Steven Universe)?

What is there to think? There is nothing remotely orchestral about them.

Now if you were to mention someone like Jeremy Zuckerman (Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra), who studied composition at Berklee, then there might be something worth talking about.

What does anyone think about Alvi and Surasshu (Steven Universe)?

Steven Universe has an altogether great score, I'm a big fan and I NEVER notice the music in American cartoon series. It's charming, dreamlike vibe is infectiously fun, has thematic cohesion yet is capable of great range(not to mention sounding downright weird), evokes lots of fun old game scores like Kirby while retaining it's own identity and is scored to picture perfectly. That show wouldn't be what it is in some significant part without its score, and is easily more noteworthy than any given note in either Avatar series.

Just to say that both Sugiyama albums (Audio Symphony 1 & 2) turned up safely today. I will post some samples tonight, and the albums in their entirety in a week.

TT

Can anyone reupload this album from Tomoyuki Asakawa, please?:
Thread 171849
It's from a film called Rex the dinosaur. Thanks

Tamagotchi Update:

My order for OST 2 has just been cancelled; apparently Play Asia had it listed as "in stock" when it actually wasn't, so I'm back to the drawing board. I don't want to dick around with any of these middleman auction sites. I'll buy it, but not for 10,000 yen... Any other clever ideas, anybody?

OST 1 is on its way and should arrive by the end of the week.

Just wait, I guess. OST1 is good enough, for now. No idea about OST 2, but OST1 should be so good to not need the second desperately.

Can anyone reupload this album from Tomoyuki Asakawa, please?:
Thread 171849
It's from a film called Rex the dinosaur. ThanksI've asked Herr Salat (the OP) a few times for certain reuploads, you should PM him and do the same. He's quite gracious about it.

Originally I planned to make a compilation thread for Asakawa's works, but seeing how most of the uploads are still active, I didn't think it was worth it.

Eye Of The Eagle (The Film Music Of S�ren Hyldgaard) (https://www.discogs.com/S%C3%B8ren-Hyldgaard-Eye-Of-The-Eagle-The-Film-Music-Of-S%C3%B8ren-Hyldgaard/release/3530047)
S�ren Hyldgaard (https://www.discogs.com/artist/327454-S%C3%B8ren-Hyldgaard)

WEB FLAC (Deezer)



Tracklist:

01 Jester Till: Suite 4:37
02 Tommy and the Wildcat: Theme 4:07
03 Angel of the Night: Theme and Suite 7:49
04 Red: Main Title 3:25
05 See You: Close Again and See You 5:11
06 The Spider: Theme 4:12
07 Little Big Girl: Theme 5:05
08 Storm: Theme 2:39
09 Midsummer: Suite 3:14
10 The Fakir: Suite 4:04
11 Nynne's Diary: Suite 4:11
12 Pyrus: Suite 4:43
13 Nuummioq: Suite 5:22
14 Isle of Darkness: Suite 3:47
15 The One and Only: Suite 3:55
16 Help, I'm a Fish: Suite 4:06
17 Something in the Air: Love Theme 3:10
18 Eye of the Eagle: Suite 5:35

Launching a new series focusing our attention on talented film composers who gets the opportunity to showcase their versatility and impressive output, MovieScore Media has the immense pleasure to announce this CD featuring music by Danish composer S�ren Hyldgaard as the first entry in our 'Spotlight Series'. Hyldgaard emerged in the late 90s as a fresh voice in film music, writing many acclaimed orchestral scores for films such as Eye of the Eagle, Angel of the Night and Tommy and the Wildcat. This compilation features an impressive selection of suites and themes from 18 of Hyldgaard's projects. The album is virtually jam-packed with thematic, exciting and beautiful orchestral music with an emphasis on the adventure genre, but also showcasing romance (The One and Only, Something in the Air), animation (Jester Till, Help I'm a Fish) and horror (Isle of Darkness, Angel of the Night). The album also features the theme from Hyldgaard's score for the Hollywood thriller Red as well as selections from his many scores for Danish film and television. Many of the scores featured on this CD are world premiere recordings! Enjoy!

Wise words from a friend:


"I'm pretty sure I've read an adage somewhere about great artists only having their work recognized after their deaths. I can only hope that this is the case with S�ren Hyldgaard, who passed away yesterday and whose existence I only found out about this morning because I read the obit. Here's to hoping that next time I discover a wonderful composer while he's still kicking. We're very fortunate to have this small but lively compilation of his film works. It's encouraging to know that what's been lost in Hollywood lives on in other parts of the film world: there's distinguishable, longform melody, all bolstered and embellished with sparkling orchestration and lush recording. What more could a guy want? Hyldgaard quite clearly writes music for people, not studios; if that's what you look for in your film scores then there's no reason to not give this compilation a shot. There's something in here for everyone, and I look forward to familiarizing myself with it and his larger canon."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK-Cc5bepc4 (A suite sample for you to listen before you download)


Download:
https://mega.nz/#!zq4DAILA!PrtvfY1rwHTQvu9Dm7iMHADiplz6_qlqBu90797 AbSc

Oh my God, Hyldgaard died yesterday... and I'd never heard a note of his music until now.

Thank you, Ponyo...

Oh my God, Hyldgaard died yesterday... and I'd never heard a note of his music until now.

Thank you, Ponyo...

No, thank Skelly for bringing it to me.

The problem now is where to find most of his music. Since it was mostly in Sweden.. this is the only one I could find digital.. the rest.. has to be somewhere. But can't find. Not even in MP3 192..

The problem now is where to find most of his music. Since it was mostly in Sweden.. this is the only one I could find digital.. the rest.. has to be somewhere. But can't find. Not even in MP3 192..

Kritzerland released "The Spider" (there's a sample of it up there in that compilation) and I intend to get that soon; I think there's a song/score album for "Jester Till" as well. As far as purely classical works, he has a trombone concerto for sale here (https://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/c/6.220526).

Eternal gratitude to Vinphonic for that epic share of Orchestral Anime history (and the Salieri video lmao), and to everyone who have shared through the years on this epic thread!!

Anybody happen to have a working link for Kanno's Petal Dance? Please and thank you.

Can anyone reupload this album from Tomoyuki Asakawa, please?:
Thread 171849
It's from a film called Rex the dinosaur. Thanks

Here (https://mega.nz/#!QcZnwKRL!OdZL8fTrW8jOXjmmz78TaZhHlEZb5chRKMFaSQjp1SE) you go :).


Eye Of The Eagle (The Film Music Of S�ren Hyldgaard) (https://www.discogs.com/S%C3%B8ren-Hyldgaard-Eye-Of-The-Eagle-The-Film-Music-Of-S%C3%B8ren-Hyldgaard/release/3530047)


And thanks for this delightful discovery Ponyo :D

Think I've got the Tamagotchi situation sorted out. CDJapan do their own middleman service for items that are unavailable and it's all handled seamlessly. I've put in a request for OST 2.

IN the mean time, have a little taste of some rare Sugiyama... https://mega.nz/#!kCwRiTjI!_Dctt4zfU8_jswr00qQOHFwLd5_1NwwkU959t05Hcz0

This is HARD to transfer! Listen to those bass drum hits that start at 2:52... this is, by design, as much a test for your turntable as it is for your sound system.

I made the decision to offer these Sugiyama albums without any remastering of any kind as they were made explicitly to push the LP specification to the limit and you really should get to hear these transfers as cleanly off the vinyl as you can. The surface is naturally quiet, the record was cut STUPIDLY hot, and the close-miked heavy percussion would just kill any automated algorithim... so I left it all completely alone. This is turntable -> WAV -> FLAC -> upload.

The vinyl I received was advertised as "Very Good" which always makes me afraid it's going to be crackle city... and indeed, it was... then I cleaned it. BANG - Near Mint.

The music is pure Sugiyama all the way through, a little more academic than we're accustomed, as this is really a record that was made to stress out your hifi, not to make any emotional musical statement... that said, Sugiyama just can't resist bringing out one of his trademark "big themes" on soaring strings at 2:00.

It's like everything at once. Almost all of it has a beat, and the percussion track is virtuosic to say the least. The NHK SO are on fire.

I can definitely tell. It's way too clean and stereo for a vinyl rip.

Thank you, Skeleton and everyone else for the kind words. I must confess I also wasn't familiar with Hyldgaard so thanks to you both.

Thank you so much for your efforts, I think the sample sounds great anyway and can't wait for the full rip :D

Just for shits and giggles, after I'd finished the transfer, I decided to see how one of these shitty things...



...would fare at playing this record.

I got through the first movement, then I just couldn't do any more. This piece of shit is just over a month old and already the speed is all over the place. I suppose I should be grateful (and amazed) that the stylus didn't completely jump out of the record... but, dear God, even I didn't expect it to be this bad.

Folks, if you ever wonder why I hear somebody say "USB turntable" and I actually offer to do transfers for free, or even buy records myself at great expense... this is why.

Crosley Cruiser: https://mega.nz/#!MGoRWBYB!GkgaDjmeSulFZAhreCrHPD_zKqpvOoLlLtOxzdym9Zc
Rega Planar 3: https://mega.nz/#!da5wyBzQ!xXNqbErXBoWspuFwRd92oFGi8Jpz_2L67KQ_DmKQQ_g

I should've hit you up earlier then.. there was one vinyl I wanted, but never was able to buy it, and now it's even less possible, due to the listing being cancelled.

Well, maybe when I win the lottery or gain an alternative never-ending source of money and time, I'll see what I can do.

Well, maybe when I win the lottery or gain an alternative never-ending source of money and time, I'll see what I can do.

Pfft. I was just following your joke. It wasn't something expensive.. kinda. :laugh:

I suppose that this may be an unusual question, but does anyone here know of any classical music, film scores, or other such orchestral music that features (in whole or in part) a rousing, heroic sound, and which also sounds at least vaguely Greek or Roman? Something that would work well as a score for a film about Hercules or some other such mythical Greek hero?

Have anyone this two cd's from Tomoyuki Asakawa?:
Garden & Gardener/Daisy Day
https://www.amazon.com/Daisy-Day-TOMOYUKI-ASAKAWA/dp/B000RZGFJI
https://www.amazon.de/Garden-Gardener-Tomoyuki-Asakawa/dp/B000059WPN

I suppose that this may be an unusual question, but does anyone here know of any classical music, film scores, or other such orchestral music that features (in whole or in part) a rousing, heroic sound, and which also sounds at least vaguely Greek or Roman? Something that would work well as a score for a film about Hercules or some other such mythical Greek hero?Look up Conan the Barbarian, Miklos Rozsa's grand epics (Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis), and Michiru Oshima's action scores (Full Metal Alchemist, Tempest). Alex North's Spartacus also fits that category, but is a bit more chaotic than the aforementioned 3.

Pfft. I was just following your joke. It wasn't something expensive.. kinda. :laugh:

I swore I had a smiley at the end of that. Apologies, I wasn't being serious. :)

If you don't mind me asking, what was this thing?

EDIT: Tamagotchi 2 Update - order has been placed, for a disturbingly cheap price. :D Tamagotchi 1 delivery is scheduled for tomorrow.

I swore I had a smiley at the end of that. Apologies, I wasn't being serious. :)

If you don't mind me asking, what was this thing?

EDIT: Tamagotchi 2 Update - order has been placed, for a disturbingly cheap price. :D Tamagotchi 1 delivery is scheduled for tomorrow.

Neither was I.. again.. was totally, tootally following your joke.. >.>

Eh, it was something personal that you wouldn't find interest to. I was just saying it because.

In a future I'd like to see a good vinyl rip of the two Ginga Nagareboshi Gin albums.

Look up Conan the Barbarian, Miklos Rozsa's grand epics (Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis), and Michiru Oshima's action scores (Full Metal Alchemist, Tempest). Alex North's Spartacus also fits that category, but is a bit more chaotic than the aforementioned 3.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm already familiar with "Conan the Barbarian" and "Ben-Hur", but I'll have to check out the rest.

^I forgot to mention Joe Hisaishi's Arion as well, particularly the symphonic suite.

It's fascinating to compare all these scores and hear what is essentially the same idea filtered through different composers, even down to the individual pieces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Ldh2Ngv40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOxE0CPuQYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoNvs2Qs8XQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j6nyEcIk98

EDIT: Certain portions of Taku Iwasaki's Akame ga Kill and Elliot Goldenthal's Titus might work as well, though the majority of those two scores are mixtures of other genres. What is orchestral there is quite marvelous though.

So Order #2 of Tamagotchi 2 has just been cancelled. Apparently the item is "no longer available".

I think I'm going to rest on this for a while...

I suppose that this may be an unusual question, but does anyone here know of any classical music, film scores, or other such orchestral music that features (in whole or in part) a rousing, heroic sound, and which also sounds at least vaguely Greek or Roman? Something that would work well as a score for a film about Hercules or some other such mythical Greek hero?

Yoko Kanno's Escaflowne and Aquarion are excellent scores for such material, as is Michiru Oshima's Xam'd and the more heroic, less dissonant parts of Sawano's Gundam Unicorn.

So Order #2 of Tamagotchi 2 has just been cancelled. Apparently the item is "no longer available".

I think I'm going to rest on this for a while...

Again, that's pretty alright, the first one is good enough as it is. Seems like the second is much harder to find. But fuck the sellers for making you act like they have it.. but they don't.

Ah, shame. Some much sought after Anime cds from the 2000s are near impossible to find unless you drop a grand on them. I know some have superb music but alas, we may or may not get a chance to hear them in the future.


@Roman/Greek Sound:

Film/TV:

Gabriel Yared: Troy (Rejected)
Toshiyuki Watanabe: Roman Empire
Miklos Rozsa: Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, Julius Ceasar
Dimitri Tiomkin: The Fall of the Roman Empire
Basil Poledouris: Conan
Vangelis: Alexander
Michiru Oshima: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Elioth Goldenthal: Titus
Jerry Goldsmith: The Mummy, 13th Warrior
David Arnold: Stargate
Patrick Doyle: The Last Legion
Alan Silvestri: The Mummy Returns

Games:

Yasuhide Ito: Image of the King Colossus
Kow Otani: Shadow of the Colossus
John Debney: LAIR
Lennie Moore: Outcast

Anime:

Joe Hisaishi: Arion
Michiru Oshima: Rokka ~Braves of the Six Flowers~, Fullmetal Alchemist, Arc the Lad, Legend of Casshan
Kohei Tanaka: Bastard!!
Kaoru Wada: Record of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight
Taro Iwashiro: The Heroic Legend of Arslan + Symphonic Poem Arslan
Toshihiko Sahashi: Garou Densetsu ~The Motion Picture~
Yoko Kanno: Aquarion

Elioth Goldenthal: Titus

@Beechcott
Should be mentioned that if you look up tracks from this score you might be surprised to hear totally anachronistic stuff like this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TkDtQW8x4Y) or this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls8Ezm5pAjg). That's just Goldenthal being bizarre, though the film itself is deliberately disregarding of historical accuracy. The orchestral parts of the score are much more "Roman" to me, Goldenthal nailed that really well.

My feeling on what "Roman" music feels like is brass and boldness being used with a general lack of clemency, having an overbearing presence. In addition to all these great suggestions I might add Ken Thorne's A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, which has some intimidating, almost militaristic brass between all those goofy songs.
http://picosong.com/wPYSc/

"Ancient Greek" music on the other hand I think has more a sense of empowerment, with heroic fanfares and lots of encouraging embellishment for the hoplites defending their home turf. I'll second Vinphonic's Outcast suggestion for having this more optimistic "Greek" sound.

I'm surprised that Masamichi Amano wasn't mentioned in the suggestions so far, his work has that "heroic Greek/Roman bravado" scattered all around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G2dzKpR134
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS0UdvnX5YQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVAf6M22YU

An additional more modern approach, by a yet classically trained composer that isn't as offensive as Beltrami's Ben-Hur to the original, would be Marc Timon Barcelo's "Coliseum (http://picosong.com/wPYEV/)".

Edit: It seems someone finally data mined the audio files of the music from the mobile game "Sdorica - sunset"

https://youtu.be/ISsuCrRLDco

Some highligths can be found at:

00:15:25
00:19:28
00:25:25
00:40:07
00:43:53
00:51:59
00:53:34
00:58:50
01:03:55
01:05:59

Be the judges yourselves. I might try to snatch it's CD whenever it's ever released... or even announced in that matter.

Oh yes, and how could I forget about Break Blade. Definitely falls into the same chaotic category as Titus and Spartacus, but personally I think it's the best and most memorable of the three, and certainly the most lyrical. No one pulls off dissonance on the same level as Hirano.

Tamagotchi 1 arrived, it's pretty naff. 63 tracks, 34 tracks under sixty seconds in length, for a total of 71 minutes of music...

A mixture of shitty synth (Tanaka's typical schizophrenic genre-hopping musical ADHD) and crappy kids music, with a handful of badly recorded and incredibly short orchestral cues peppered throughout.

It's not a total dead loss, but there's probably only five or ten minutes worth listening to.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I'll try to upload tonight, anyway.

I'm sorry for your loss. :laugh: But what you consider bad, may be pretty good for others. Consider it not as much of a loss but a gift. Was it expensive?

Yes, kinda... �24.90 (about $34) all inclusive.

I don't really mind, I hope others enjoy it... I just would've been happier if I'd loved it too. :)

Well, count my signature in for those who will love it.

:)

Actually, I kinda take it back.

It's not quite as bad as I thought it was. Throwing away more than half of the album leaves behind around 30 minutes of decent score which hangs together quite well. As Tanaka is only writing cheap throwaway scores, naff sequels, over-long, developmentally-baren, thematically boring, compositionally-static, game scores, and unfocused genre-hopping monstrosities nowadays, I'll take anything that resembles a reasonably coherent, musically mature score - even if it's not his best. (A lot of this score sounds like One Piece hand-me-downs.)

I'm having upload problems (AGAIN) so will try to post tomorrow.

Then if I get the time I'll get the Sugiyama uploads finished as well. :)

Hello I am new there, I wonder if it could be possible to find me the "same" kind of music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ai6YFBGaWw The animated Series that has landed in 2005 is Skyland : The New World. Here’s the story : It's been more than ten years than I was fighting with the company to get these scores in a legal way, the rights are divided between the France and the Canada (where the composer is living)...

I finally managed to get an autorisation letter (after years) from the CEO of Millimages, the French company which deals which the musical rights of Skyland. Then I immediatly handed to the composer which said .. "Sorry my agreement is with 9 Story" I have as many fans to ask for the score on a free basis with my letter, the mails I sent to all the people what were working on that Series many times ago... So it's been more than 10 years now.. he said � NO � of course I have insisted many times, but my guess is that the only people he could trust are � composers � themselves. He said � If it shows up I may held liable �…

I have asked to the company to release the soundtrack, put some tracks on streaming, or even made a CD from some cues of a series in a limited way… They instantly declined..
I have tried to rip the DVD but SFX made it impossible for me to rip, buy the musical rights, contact the French company, but the CEO can’t do anything even if he autorized me to get an access to the score. Only Vince Commisso the CEO from 9 Story can decide it, he said � Out of question �.. I know I won’t find the exact kind of music, but something which looks like to it, I would be grateful, I know I will never get these scores, thank you if any of you could help...

PrinceSnake

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions of Greek/Roman-sounding music. I have a lot to check out now.

@pensquawk:

Never even heard that smartphone game before... this is what this thread is so good at :)
I really enjoy what I hear, is a gamerip available?

I believe nextday was the one who first shed light into this thread about Sdorica, the music was composed by "Chamber Chu" who, if you are not familiar with, worked in previous Rayark game titles such as DEEMO and even arranged a medley himself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XGUim__Fdc) around the same title (he's on the piano), which was also shared by nextday :)

He just hit 30.



And believe me, if I would've had found even a gamerip of the soundtrack, I would've had posted it already. Sadly, no success on that so far :( If anyone wants to try and datamine the files, go ahead, it's free to download the apk.

Ah, my memory must be wonky after working on so much music lately. Now I vaguely remember but I totally forgot the name of the game. In any case, it would be nice if a gamerip surfaces.

In other news, strangely, on the Ancient Magus Bride OVA soundtrack (guest appearance by Yoko Kanno) is a mysterious second disc with things like "Symphonic Chimera No. 2" on them. More concert works on an anime soundtrack? We will find out in a few weeks.

Also I probably have to buy the new Gundam Origin ~Chronicles of the Loum Battlefield~ soundtrack because the cover and the tracks and everything suggests it's pretty much standalone from the prior four soundtrack portraits. At least the "Zeon March" is on there. I anticipate the samples.

I've had a root around in the APK and I can't find anything that's obviously music files. The main OBB file is only 84mb and contains a bunch of files with randomised filenames and no extensions. Extracting stuff from Android apps isn't my strength.

It's a pity. It's also a pity they didn't bother to record this thing with a real orchestra, as it's some of the best music written in recent years.

Oh, I just realized he also held a Sdorica concert in Rayark Con 2017, Chamber Chu once again on the piano and conducting.

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

The recorded audio on the other hand still leaves much to be desired...



In other news, strangely, on the Ancient Magus Bride OVA soundtrack (guest appearance by Yoko Kanno) is a mysterious second disc with things like "Symphonic Chimera No. 2" on them. More concert works on an anime soundtrack? We will find out in a few weeks.

If I'm not mistaken, the only thing Kanno has any sort of relevance within the OVA soundtrack is for the ED "CLOCKWORK QUICK AND LIGHTNING SLOW"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZw4MjzzpQ

Still awaiting for the OVA OST release though.

nextday: On JASRAC Riuto Omori (alias of Yoko Kanno) is also credited for Mahoutskai no Yome BGM alongside Junichi Matsumoto. Could it be true?



Maybe on the second disc? In any case we will know in a few weeks ;)

If you enjoyed the compilation of S�ren Hyldgaard's film works (Thread 57893), here's a full score to feast on.




THE SPIDER (https://mega.nz/#!Egc2VI5Q!aqn04FjPbZR5Yz1-YZloP9ViwRNdCDpp52yrsWIlnNw) (sample) (http://picosong.com/wPLNf/)
Composed by S�ren Hyldgaard | Performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra | Conducted by William Motzing | Orchestrations by Hyldgaard and Motzing

The Spider (Edderkoppen) was a 2000 Danish mini-series set in post-WWII Copenhagen. This crime drama pits young and optimistic reporter Bjarne Madsen against the realities of corruption and criminality, and Hyldgaard's score has hardly a happy note in it. The oppressive strings force one deeper and deeper into the mystery of the criminal syndicate, but placements of the love theme here and there lighten the mood; overall it's a pretty dark score.
I personally began to find it a bit fatiguing after about an hour, but with 43 tracks and almost 80 minutes there's plenty of wiggle room for you to program a few tracks out if you desire a tighter listen.

Vinphonic - Since I already have a lot of your fantastic compilations, do these new ones you posted cover a lot of the same ground? I've already gotten tons of great listening out of the lovely 2017 10 part series Music of Japanese Entertainment and then the one after that highlighting the stuff from 2017 specifically.

@Skeleton: Much obliged!

@PrinceSnake: I would suggest Made in Abyss

@Sirusjr:

Actually, from the 100 arrangements, only a dozen are old ones (most from 2017) and some are reworks/improvements like Girl's Last Tour. 90% I did not share before. Suites like Sacred Blacksmith turned out quite nice if I say so myself. I also did all this to trim down my anime collection by a considerable margin down to the stuff I would really miss if its gone. I don't even know anymore how long it took when I accomplished all this, but rest assured, this compilation is 40 years of orchestral anime scores you don't want to miss if you loved my previous efforts and maybe lost a couple of scores thanks to a corrupt harddrive (looking at my own) or you want to rediscover some scores and perhaps fall in love (wink wink) with them again. It all comes highly recommended. And thank you old friend :)

And now... a little surprise from an old (semi-retired) composer:



Katsuhisa Hattori
GirlFriend BETA



I say, I love (http://picosong.com/wP2kF/)

Yes, this is real. Schmaltzy (wonderful) Pop Ballad, full orchestra, Katsuhisa can't help it. This was released last year, for a mobile app. Sometimes you find good stuff on character song cds, even some orchestral score. Another song that stood out to me was this one (http://picosong.com/wP2Yt/), if you love the swing of Kiniro Mosaic, it's more of that. Full Big Band present too. And to make matters more bizarre, Schoolgirl Strikers 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE2bZVRQ6Go) has The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra...

Though, to be fair, recently, nothing tops this m@sterpiece:


Go Shiina
THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA MASTER
Tokyo Symphonic Studio Orchestra and Boston SoundtRec Symphonic Choir



The Wind of Love (https://mega.nz/#!XygnHSBa!CkucvxjIFOsgrXTvSFNjxks2aFLGFLJNXYWgZAYtAfQ)

Sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8Lv1OMciA)

A full symphonic ensemble (3 Trumpets, 2 Bones, 1 Bass Bone, 6 Horns, 1 Tuba, 8 Woodwinds) and a 30 piece choir. Larger than life orchestral ballads (and extravagant hypercharged genre-mix) are really Go Shiina's strongest forte. And from the looks of it, more are on the way in Code Vein, God Eater 3 + Spinoff and some other projects yet tba, and sounding at least better recorded than God Eater 2 too. Here's a little snippet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JrYHdpeS1w) from the recording session.




And semi-related to all of this, Yoshihiro Ike also payed the US a visit:



It's the Nashville Scoring Orchestra (Brass section is 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Bones and 1 Tuba). Looks like something is being scored to picture.

That first set of scores is the perfect example of why I don't listen to most of those scores. Something about the mastering or the reverb or whatever on those I can't get into. Somewhat similar to a lot of French and Italian scores from the 80s and 90s. I was also surprised that you did not tag them as a compilation the same way as the others. But then I haven't been grabbing these selections. I enjoyed how your other compilations were tagged as if they were a separate album.

I had no idea Wild Boy Keniya even existed until yesterday. The movie itself is completely obscure, and what little reviews of it exist online label it as garbage. However, there is one very good thing to come from it:


Tomoyuki Asakawa (Official credit as orchestrator)
Wild Boy Keniya



Sample (http://picosong.com/wPu5h/)
Link (mega) (https://mega.nz/#!GWwRVTxK!a4pA6D8TOCO67SbS_yw9syZo54lPerI4yPv_uIbsgAg)

First of all, huge thanks to Daisaku31 for the LP rip. This is such a smooth transfer that the static noise is barely audible. It sounds as if it was recorded straight from the concert hall.

This soundtrack is officially credited to Ryudo Uzaki for composition. But anyone who is familiar with the music of Tomoyuki Asakawa will recognize his sound and melodic style a mile away. Similar to the situation between Shiro Sagisu and Masamichi Amano, I am 100% certain that every piece of music on this soundtrack (other than 'Keniya Boy', a J-pop piece I removed from this upload) was written by Asakawa. It should also be noted that Uzaki's background is a fairly popular rock musician whose other big credit, Dagger of Kamui, is a gathering of 80s synth that sounds nothing like the orchestral mastery going on in this album. He's had a few other collaborations with Asakawa, and one day I would like to track down all of the rest of their work together. Asakawa himself is unfortunately no stranger to this mislabeling, something that happened from his initial debut from the 1980 film Station Station, where he was merely credited as orchestrator despite writing the entire soundtrack (something he occasionally brings up in his Facebook comments). Even in his outing with Sahashi on Wataru a decade later, their composition credits still got mixed up in the soundtrack releases.

As for the music itself? Despite being only 9 tracks long, I believe this might be one of Asakawa's best work to date.

The ensemble is possibly the largest we've heard Asakawa use, almost comparable in size to Warsaw in some pieces. And you know it the moment Asakawa punches you in the face with the Jupiter-esque intro from the very first piece. While there aren't many pieces (9 in total, each one around 3-5 minutes), the quality of each piece speaks for itself. There are no filler cues anywhere in this soundtrack. Of course, this is still Asakawa, so the music is deeply melodramatic and melodic in nature, straight from the Golden Age. It's music that could have came right out of any 1950s epic romance. But above all that, it's music that tells a story.

The most astounding part is the year it was released- 1984. At the time, Asakawa was merely 24 years old. To have such command of the orchestra, and to have solidified his own compositional voice at such an early age- this is a prodigy almost comparable to Erich Wolfgang Korngold. It's a tragedy that someone with such raw talent is now being relegated to a mere harpist rather than being the orchestral face of Japan. But such is fate.

A month ago Michiru Oshima echoed everyone's sentiments regarding Asakawa (https://www.facebook.com/harp47/posts/894976817341084?comment_id=895017640670335&reply_comment_id=895233333982099&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D):


Asakawa-san, you're amazing. From now on I hope that you will be active not only as a performer but also as a leader... Please do your best. I will always support you no matter where I am.I think we all know what she means by "leader".

Hopefully some day, Askawa will pick up the baton again. Until then, the best we can do is dig up his old music and celebrate him as a composer.

Please enjoy, everyone.

Ah, more Asakawa... always grateful for your Asakawa and Iwasaki dedication, Zipper. Wonderful music *gushing*

I will share another neglected marvelous composer sometime soon that also wrote many gems from the 80s to the 2000s and even something for the Olympics. It might be my last Legacy post for a long time.

Regarding Ralf Wengenmayr: Has anyone last year's Bullyparade Film score? It's apparently a hassle to get. There's a love letter to the REAL Hollywood in there. I would also love to hear his Sissie score. I could get it myself but I would first like to hear it if possible, I'm low on money for soundtracks right now. Regardless, he and Hendrik Schwarzer make me very proud our country still upholds the true filmmusic spirit, even if it's just a tiny spark in the world.

And look at that, Violet Evergarden Film & Concert event is happening, so write me a full Aria Evan, and I'll buy the Blu-Ray :D


EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuW6HURwKWg&t=28s

Old Hattori? New Hattori? Who will win? Find out in four weeks.

(GLORY)

Thank you so much for this! I see that this was re-released on CD in the late 1990s... Dammit, another CD to go chasing after.

Vinyl transfer's not bad, but, y'know... :D

I see that this was re-released on CD in the late 1990s...Marvelous. And I agree, a CD would be for the best.

This would make for a nice treasure hunt on its own too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WVqWw3aw1M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nP89kT-0qs

Asakawa's discography has expanded quite a bit now that I'm aware of how he's been under-credited as only an orchestartor in quite a handful of soundtracks.

Aw, so many treasures... hopefully they are not ludicrously priced. There's one particular CD for the composer I will soon give his spotlight that I would have really wanted to include but good luck finding it for anything less than 200$ and no upgrade from 128kbps to FLAC is worth it. But nextday helped me out as best he could and thanks to him, at least some of one of my absolute favorite anime scores will be heard in FLAC for the first time soon.

And Tango, good things can still happen :)

https://vgmdb.net/album/77748


EDIT: I found the film concert about Wengenmayr on youtube with (T)Raumschiff Surprise, Wickie, Lissi and more, definitely worth a listen, good old class from our side and a fantastic show allaround, except for a few choices, wonderful music, of course inlcuding the evergreens ;)

Sounds of Bully�s Cinema 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfuYeF-JgmM)

But the last 13 minutes are not worth my (your) time. Still the best sampler of Wengenmayr's work you could hope for. As hater pointed out, his recent score Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomitvf�hrer comes highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuLto0INcac

Da geht einem doch das Herz auf :D

Have anyone this awesome soundtrack from Isao Tomita?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA24915BABCA3A05A
Here is a list with four tracks that I found

Big thanks for the new Asakawa. Can't wait to dig in.

Any of y'all be willing to post Uimmachi Dairy and/or Petal Dance if you have them? I've been doing a lil nostalgia trip thru Kanno's discography in chronological order to do a bit of analysis for fun(having the sad side effect of makin everyone else in the biz sound slightly stiff and lukewarm by comparison again. Damn, when I'm done, gonna have to listen to anything but her for another couple years...) and a lot of her work from the past decade has fallen into a dead zone(Poor, ignored Gochisousan) so searches for dl links turn up nothin.

Are those scores in the big Kanno torrent that was doing the rounds some years ago?

If so, I should have them somewhere...

Tomoyuki Asakawa-Daisy Day [FLAC]

I found this after a lot of looking. The music is a mix of bossa with new age. The arp is the main character in this CD, how not!
Here is the link: https://mega.nz/#F!dSZ1TKDQ!-9zTrQbLEr57HpmnyrISLg
Enjoy this beautiful music.

Are those scores in the big Kanno torrent that was doing the rounds some years ago?

If so, I should have them somewhere...

If you mean that big MEGA dump from a couple years ago, I think it was only current up to 2012, possibly 2014

The torrent would be even older than that. I guess not. Sorry if I got your hopes up... :(

No worries.

So, totally out of nowhere, the Big M, amazingly, gives the greatest advertisement to try your luck to work as a composer in Japan if you love old Hollywood, he currently works on a web series about "Toy Robots", could be Live-Action, he didn't specify but it would be funny to see his name pop up on the seasonal kids shows all of a sudden:

Dream Job (http://picosong.com/wPQtg/)

Any of y'all be willing to post Uimmachi Dairy and/or Petal Dance if you have them?Hi, MastaMist. You can find both in MP3 here (https://mega.nz/#F!4BNAESbb!IWgKTHTJHH3wlqTSJ79Fdg). Also, is your username by any chance a reference to Yoko Kanno's classic track, "Mast in the Mist", from her old KOEI albums? Such a name would certainly befit a Kanno fan. ;)

So, totally out of nowhere, the Big M, amazingly, gives the greatest advertisement to try your luck to work as a composer in Japan if you love old HollywoodThat's great, but only if he gets the budget to create that type of sound. I don't think any western composer would appreciate being cooped up in Sound Inn for an entire day.

Since he's never had a single live player for a Japanese score, I think he'd consider Sound Inn to be a blessing...

https://vgmdb.net/album/72134

Just a spot of interest; a soundtrack for Sdorica has turned up - like so many soundtracks these days, it's not a real release, only a limited edition that was apprarently given to attendees of a December 2017 convention in Taipei... but if anybody is interested in the score, at least it provides a possibility for you to hear it.

Hi, MastaMist. You can find both in MP3 here (https://mega.nz/#F!4BNAESbb!IWgKTHTJHH3wlqTSJ79Fdg). Also, is your username by any chance a reference to Yoko Kanno's classic track, "Mast in the Mist", from her old KOEI albums? Such a name would certainly befit a Kanno fan. ;)

OMG YES Thank you a ton, my dude! And yes, good guess! I'm a major Yoko Kanno stan, the woman's a miracle.

Thank for the heads up Tango, expect a post in a little while ;)

I know I already commented it privately, but thank you once again for the Asakawa Zipper! Every note of it is just plain gold.

Sdorica Sunset (Original Soundtrack Vol. 1)
Chamber Chu


(https://mega.nz/#!5IQXkBQC!RmDYRpwXRu-xjXGmuz9IDAoWakusg4gi97TSVTFeYFI)
(MP3)
(SAMPLE) (http://picosong.com/wPA9K/)

Rayark is showing us once again, the rare cases of a smartphone game putting into shame the "AAA" industry of game scores for the most part. Last year we had Michiru Oshima on board within a few DEEMO pieces that were just marvelous, this year however, we receive a newcomer. Chu's music here is strongly Hamauzu influenced, chord progression and solo violin phrases wise such as "Flowing Flutes" and "Sdorica" may give that away (a little of Sakimoto as well).

But here's where similarities end when pieces like "The Slums", that suddenly turns into a gloom minor Hisaishi-esque waltz for a moment or "Atlas Ruins", which dwelves from an Oshima section (0:47-0:53) to a little piano concerto or the starting glorious brass section of "Sun Capitol", could shed some light of Chu's classical background
(orchestrator and orchestra information is still missing for now). It is however for the most part, a modern game score to it's core, and it doesn't hide from the fact that it behaves like one with "Pulse-Pounding Battle", but it's never to a point the percussion can be obtruse for the music, some might find it a little less appealing. Another noticeable fact might be the limited budget it had to hire a full on orchestra for all the tracks, which is a shame.

There's also no loops, so rest assure as there is a proper ending for each piece. This is just the first volume, I included all the track since I did the purchase, and shall keep on eye for any future releases. For now, enjoy!

Dear VGMdb members

My name is Kentaro Sato (Ken-P). Some of you might know my orchestral/choral arrangements in DISSIDIA Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Type-0 by SQEX etc.

I was recently appointed to the Music Director of VGM Classics, a new classical record label specialized in video game music (http://www.VGM-Classics.org). The label will soon start a Kickstarter campaign for a new orchestral CD album: Music from "Final Fantasy IV" for Symphony Orchestra. The recordings and arrangements will be all new.
Now, while the decision to feature "Final Fantasy IV" and pieces to be arranged and recorded were made before I joined the label, I want to hear your opinions on which pieces from FF4 you would like to be performed by orchestra.

1) I greatly appropriate if you could share your requests and wishes. Here is a list of the titles you can choose from...
https://vgmdb.net/album/4215


2) Once the initial project was finished, the label would continue to new projects. Of course, other Final Fantasy series would be fine and the label wishes to initially cover VGM in 1990s and 2000s (like, up to FF10), they are pretty much open to anything. So, my 2nd question is, which VGM you would like to hear performed by symphony orchestra (or any other classical ensemble format)?


I might not be able to fulfill all of your wishes, but I will do my best to make your dreams come true.

https://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19544

http://www.vgm-classics.org/01-index-e.html

So they're trying to be the Varese of video game music? Interesting, but I don't know how well it'll succeed. Video game fans that this project is aimed at don't have quite the same tastes (or wallets) as the old guys on FSM who buy new versions of old film soundtracks.

Also, I know that it's silly to be saying this here of all places, but the idea of another orchestral rearrangement of any version of Final Fantasy just feels redundant to me. After a while, I'm sure this project will be headed in the same trajectory as those silly orchestral rearrangements of J-Pop pieces that are all the craze Japan, where music is that inherently not structured for a symphony will be adapted to such. Personally, I would much rather see old music made with crappy synth and MIDI samples (i.e. Tanaka's early game work) to receive the full orchestral treatment as it appeared on the original manuscripts. But would that sell?

Yep. They're twenty-five years too late - quality orchestral arrangements of genuinely good game music used to be fairly routine and pretty good sellers, but that ship sailed ages ago.

And Final Fantasy needs another orchestral album like we need another recording of Beethoven's fifth symphony - but they will keep on spitting out the same tired stuff, because it's the only thing that has a cat-in-hell's chance of selling.

This project will fail, and if it doesn't, it will produce another in a long line of completely unremarkable albums that are quickly forgotten - like almost every "symphonic" album that ever came out of Japan in the last five or ten years. (Which are actually just turgid arrangements of vapid J-pop tunes, with the occasional "Big 80s Franchise With Shitty Music But Everybody Remembers It Because It's Big 80s Franchise MEETS ★o★R★c★H★e★S★t★R★A★ Puu Puu Desu Uguuu NYAA!" thrown in for good measure.)

Thanks for the info, though. Glad to see Kentaro Sato is still doing something. Pity that he asked for advice from VGMDB

Sorry to bother you again, but are those rare Sugiyama LP rips coming soon? I can't wait! D:
Thanks again for getting them, in any case :D

Not that I'm fed up with Hamaguchi's arrangements (okay maybe a little on the fact that it's being recycled to this very day in every FF concert in existence, except maybe for Final Symphony), but I wouldn't mind hearing Sato's input.

There's not much to loose if the project becomes an utter faliure, other than "Sato could be writing more original works rather than wasting his time on arranging music of a franchise that will have concerts for the years to come anyway" but I'd said there would be no funding at all to begin with if he ever does that, which is pretty sad.

While on the subject of franchises that deserve more attention for an orchestral album than the FF, how about one of Masato Kouda's older works that isn't (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLiBTy786OY&t=56s) Monster Hunter :D

If you all are upset about it, then contact them on their site or write Mr. Sato on VGMdb what you would like/love to hear performed. It can't hurt to at least write some suggestions or voice an opinion. I've done so and also wrote to them on their site given their business model what would work (I know Skies of Arcadia is very unlikely but you never know if its an album about SEGA titles, many fans of their titles should be interested if you throw something Sonic on there) and finding roughly 1000-3000 people who woul back a recording, with a few exceptions should be possible. It doesn't have to be Abbey Road, the Czech Philharmonic would do just fine. Need I remind you its much easier to find 1000 people who would invest in a Hitoshi Sakimoto/Fire Emblem album than any Golden Age rerecording.

So suggest anything, from Yoko Kanno's early game titles (I imagine her name sells) to Hitoshi Sakimoto scores (also possible) to early Tanaka game scores (I imagine Tanaka's name is quite known in South America and Asia) to early 90s golden age inspired RPG scores. Maybe an album about a selection of SNES titles, or Nintendo, Sega and Sony titles modeled after the Orchestral Game Concert series. Unless its something completely obscure it could work. At the very least suggest music you would love to hear performed by a symphonic, wind or chamber ensemble if you are interested. At worst you will lose a few minutes writing a few lines of text. LWA, Turrican and Kingdom Come showed sometimes having faith in a kickstarter campaign can result in good music ;)

But you know me, an optimist till the last breath. :D

I don't think they would appreciate me going over there to tell them that their passion project is not going to be successful in the long run.

Their approach will be based on what they think sells, and the fact that they're starting out with Final Fantasy is indicative of the mindset that they've already established with this project, which is to rely on big-name franchises and nostalgia rather than quality music. Varese has had a lot of screw-ups, but if there's one thing they do right, it's to release music under the name and popularity of the composer, rather than the films they worked on. It shows respect for the quality of the music, and all the enhancements are merely with modern recording technology rather than rewriting the music to be something its not.

The problem is, these types of projects, similar to Varese projects, have a very small audience. But the difference is that the Varese audience is more likely to pay for the music, since most of them are middle-aged adults. The teens and young adults listening to Final Fantasy are more likely to just pirate it. And unlike film and anime scores, CD sales for these kinds of projects determine the success of the project. The fact that they have to launch it with Kickstarter shows how little faith they have in the project and its audience- they need solid financial pledging before even taking it off the ground.

I mean, the market is very nich� as it is. You truly can't start with a saga, composer and names that nobody and their mother will know of because it doesn't get the attention of nobody, at all. And to grow big you need to start with sales. I don't get the negativity, just because they aren't doing your every obscure MIDI compositions. That's what we all wish. Damn, I'd want a Star Fox orchestra album, too. But shit isn't easy.

Mr. Sato answered me and was even so kind to seriously consider every single suggestion of mine, even the ones quite out there like Etrian Odyssey, he did specify that it does not matter whether its music from a popular series or not, it only depends if a project gets founded or not. If it gets founded, a dream come true for many, if not... well... at least we tried. There's no risk involved for anyone. If it gets founded, he will try his best to make it artistically pleasing to fans of classical music, moreso than fans of VGM and will consider suggestions regarding what to include and how to structure it (A full story in movements, a collection of symphonic poems/stories or just an album of suites or medleys for either chamber/wind/or symphony orchestra)

He also commented in the thread again:


Thank you everyone for suggestions here and sending me or the label e-mails so far. Please keep them coming!

Now to answer some of the questions and suggestions!
About FF4 repertoires, I think the label’s original wish was to create an artistically-competent album (even to non-gamers), dedicating to a single title which tells the story by music to those who played the game. As I played the game several times myself in both Japanese and English, I can safely say that most of repertoires suggested are very well thought, and part of story-telling. Therefore, if the funding was available, I can safely say the most of them would be included as repertoires.

As of the future possibility goes, I thought that this didn’t have to be “future” in a sense. It doesn't matter whether the game itself is well-known or not. The reason why the company initially picked FF4 was that it might be a good place to start "archiving." If you wished us to do it and the funding was met, we would do it. Some of the suggestions here could actually go to the crowd-funding immediately or after a few weeks since the company has already done homework for possibilities. So, here they are and where they stand.

These titles can go to the crow-funding immediately:

Final Fantasy series (except perhaps the newest one)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Tactics Ogre
Vagrant Story

These titles would be also possible to start, though it might take a few weeks to get permissions:

Arc the Lad 1, 2
ActRaiser
Breath of Fire 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger
Etrian Odyssey 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Golden Axe 1, 2
Grandia
Ledgend of Zelda: A link to the Past
Lufia 1, 2
Metroid
Ogre Battle
Seiken Densetsu (Mana series) 1, 2, 3
Skyes of Arcadia
Sonic Adventure 1, 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2
Soul Blazer
Soul Caliber 1, 2. 3, 4,
Star Fox
Star Fox 64
Super Metroid
Tengai Makyo, 1, 2, 3, 0
Terranigma
Valkyria Chronicles 1, 2, 3
Valkyrie Profile
Wild Arms 1, 2, 3, 4
Xenogears
Zelda II: The Adventures of Link


Titles which might be a bit difficult:

Illusion of Gaia
Paladin’s Quest


Titles which might be a bit difficult at this moment:

Valkyria Chronicles 4


Need to do homework:

After Burner,
Alundra
Bounty Sword
Daytona USA
Dragon’s Crown
Fire Emblem series
Hang-On,
OutRun,
Phantasy Star series
Power Drift,
Rockman/Megaman
Sakura Wars series
SimCity (SNES)
Star Fox Assault
Star Fox Zero
Streets of Rage
Thunder Blade,

If I miss something, please let me know.
And sorry that I cannot tell you reasons why they stand where they are except the last category...


Some of you asked whether the company would consider "Japanese animation." Now, this is an entirely different category, but technical answer would be "yes," and aesthetically answer would be "but there was so many game titles to be done!"

As for questions regarding my own compositions/recordings… As for the orchestral ones, I am hoping to release it soon since the recordings has been done already. But there will be other new recordings, and I might wait until that time….

It's a niche within a niche within a niche. That's why I doubt it will succeed. To grow big, you need a successful business model. And given the current trends, that business model will end up producing the type of music that I already mentioned: horrible rearrangements of popular video game music that wasn't originally made to be symphonic music. Assuming this startup can even take off in the first place.

Needing a kickstarter for something as popular as Final Fantasy just goes to show how dead on arrival this project is. But more power to those who support it. Just don't expect to see any fruits.

I'd love an orchestral Star Fox album, but also an official Assault release. Talk about impossible things!

And given the current trends, that business model will end up producing the type of music that I already mentioned: horrible rearrangements of popular video game music that wasn't originally made to be symphonic music.

Indeed, quite so.

If the symphony orchestra was so great, it can make any type of music sound wonderful. It all comes down to the strength of the musicians and arrangers involved. In general, I enjoyed the vast majority of orchestral game concerts to hit in the past several months(they're certainly no worse than many of the musty old albums for FF, Castlevania, et al from the 90's) and consider their prominence nothin but a good thing. VGM is great and hear to stay, the symphony orchestra isn't going anywhere, and a demand for it does exist. If this new project were to be successful, it honestly might just come down to a smarter business model. Get the word out about the KS on every forum and site and blog that's appropriate. Get a stream for the concert performance and market the hell out of it. Set up a deal w bandcamp or someplace for ticket sales, or music samples. Increase the amount of eyes and ears who know about and can hear the end result.

^^^^^ 100% agree.

Just look at the evolution of this little chiptune:

Chiptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sn90qPtN4&list=PLvKh0hEoFp5Tee2vEsW4ZEl186-ngkIhX&index=5
Orchestra Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACKLS-j6bQU
Symphonic Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6t-6ibfT4E&t=4m41s

And now imagine the places this could go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiASzNg07FY&index=42&list=PL-vD6rIjXrcLCFP_cfzdsBiigjERM7L6k&t=4m38s


The perfect example however is this little tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPcP8MRh8r4
It only needs an excellent arranger to transform this little chiptune into a grand Hollywood epic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXxxsb-NyQ8

If it succeeds and Sato is in charge of all things, including hiring arrangers, I would spam "Toshihiko Sahashi" nonstop. EDIT: But I guess not since he specified he's the sole arranger. Well, no objection from my side ;)


Example 3:

Chiptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGOlVRH7_8&list=PLEOQ0YA_1DWmVNhFGVFT9r7qNRzAfOELH&index=19
Orchestra and Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b62RgDBmly8


Another example:

Chiptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSOSatpEGac
Orchestra: http://picosong.com/wPZLK/


And now just imagine the possibilities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8Gq1-Nv44&t=48s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5m-9cm4UB8&list=PL6A9AF41E2D3AA1B9&index=19 (somehow I think Hayato Matsuo should arrange this)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5REmtunJtY&t=36m56s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYtwCF6AgUA&t=2h13m02s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYtwCF6AgUA&t=12m45s

Or take even something that is already a symphonic piece and Sato would not even need to lift a finger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo8XUohKBjc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIw3Sq633wE&list=PLhdAjgV7vewu78M9H3hrq10ZFPSb5VFaP&index=56

Or something more in the realm of symphonic songs/ballads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3K--FwtOU


I will do everything I can to support it. If it doesn't work then it just wasn't meant to be. But this is the best chance of hearing more of symphonic Hitoshi Sakimoto or early 90s Kohei Tanaka we are ever gonna get.
This is a project where I at least get to directly converse with the music director, composer and chief arranger who has chops for days, and wants to involve all people who love orchestral/symphonic video game music directly into the process. This company/label are at least no amateurs (remember Zreo). He is a musician I really respect who is also passionate about the medium. As bonus he has various connections in the biz, from LA to London to Japan, conducted at Abbey Road a couple of times and understands music on a level few working composers do. As always, time will tell.

Also a good time to revisit Sato's work:

Thread 57893


EDIT: The reason why a single artist can't be highlighted is a very complicated issue, it has among other things to do with numerous copyright laws across two countries and since many game companies have total rights of the music, it's basically impossible at the moment.


For example, there were three composers in Chrono Trigger as we know of, and many other titles might have un-credited composers/writers. As one of the industry insiders, I know this and I am well aware of. So, VGM Classics did not want to step into a realm of internal contractual issues between employer/employee and company/composer etc, because a lot of the time, “a composer” might not be “the composer” nor “the author” of the music as far as the Copyright Act is concerned.

:)


And as some of you have suggested, the direction of "a symphonic story in movements" would be where we head because it make sense not only musically but also from gamers' perspective. Our current thought is that we do take "movements" approach to CD, but also gives recordings of "pieces" for those who contributed to crowd-funding as one of the bonus.

Of course, the company has already asked the facilities about budgets etc.
As far as the places and orchestra goes, I have used most of the orchestral recording facilities around the world for my own or other works both credited and uncredited.
With that stated, Rudolfinum is one of the main orchestral halls in Czech, and has wonderful acoustics, and an pipe organ.
The downside is that it is a concert hall after all, and the distance between hall and the control room where the engineer is situated was far, and it is rather difficult to book.
People often asked that whether recording in concert hall or studio make difference or not. My answer is "yes" it makes difference, but practically "no" if the studio is large enough to accommodate the entire orchestra in one room. For example, Newman scoring stage in the 20C Fox studio has wonderful and more manageable/recording-friendly acoustics than many concert halls.
Anyway, ultimately, the decision of the place and orchestra would be made largely based on the result of crowd-funding. But, like I wrote, VGM Classics, as a classical label, wishes to work with regularly-performing orchestra, if it possible.

Now, as far as the choral staff goes, it is possible if there was a need and funding was met. For FF4, we would not use it probably.

;)

I wanna feel optimistic about it, my problem is that I'm always broke as fuck so I cannot really put my seed to help this project to do more stuff in the future.. :/

While we are on the subject of crowdfunding, if you love oldschool film music, to put it in perspective, you have trouble even getting 200 people together to finance a new SciFi project with music by Ron Jones, even if you're the founder of fsm. So might as well post it here too:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sky-fighter-sci-fi-short-film-by-lukas-kendall#/

the collaboration between john powell and john williams lead to the greatest classic scifi/adventure score since sky captain and the world of tomorrow.solo is thematicly strong, melodic,incredibly heroic and fires on all cylinders.williams theme is great and incorporated very well into the scores dna, the love theme is uttlerly gorgeous golden age style, the adieumus style pirate theme is cool, the march of the rebelling slaves is almost yoko kanno plus williams.tons of motifs, huge incredibly excting set pieces (the kessel run is full on remix of old williams material with new powell but thats the only track that has that much old stuff in it.sure old themes pop up here and there but the new themes dominate.) the score is mostly williams-esque, some tracks are a mix of both composers styles,very little is just pure powell.the orchestrations are sublime.the suspense music is very exciting and even the source music is great.i love this score.

Wow, Solo is terrible. A mixture of Williams pastiche, MV bullshit, and bland orchestrations from here to Christmas.

It's partially an improvement on Rogue One, but every time it seems to start going somewhere, in comes the slamming percussion and the repetitive themeless ostinati. The best music of the score - the recycled Williams stuff - is drowned in percussion loops and electronica. It's even got the wailing woman, for God's sake.

And what the hell is wrong with the ending of Dice & Roll? Can't even finish on a proper cadence?! SERIOUSLY?

Powell should be ashamed of himself. Giacchino is incompetent and produced an incompetent score. Powell is very good, and produced an incompetent score.

A handful of cues that are tolerable, but that's about all.

I was going to see the film this evening - now I won't bother.

Yikes...

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHrP-ivMWlI


In other news, a mockup for Noble Musketeers has shown up... its Princess Precure all right (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=Hnc3LZkoOEU)

Natsumi Kameoka recorded "something" with an orchestra again... how many scores in the void are there now?

the collaboration between john powell and john williams lead to the greatest classic scifi/adventure score since sky captain and the world of tomorrow.solo is thematicly strong, melodic,incredibly heroic and fires on all cylinders.williams theme is great and incorporated very well into the scores dna, the love theme is uttlerly gorgeous golden age style, the adieumus style pirate theme is cool, the march of the rebelling slaves is almost yoko kanno plus williams.tons of motifs, huge incredibly excting set pieces (the kessel run is full on remix of old williams material with new powell but thats the only track that has that much old stuff in it.sure old themes pop up here and there but the new themes dominate.) the score is mostly williams-esque, some tracks are a mix of both composers styles,very little is just pure powell.the orchestrations are sublime.the suspense music is very exciting and even the source music is great.i love this score.

Errr, NO. Williams's Han theme is banal, though attractively (and totally predictably) packaged. There is just too much action music on the album, and it gets monotonous rather quickly. The orchestration is far from "sublime", it's actually rather simple-minded (none of the colors we've come to expect from Powell's more inspired efforts). New themes are few and far between, and none of them stick in the mind. The Han theme gets a decent workout throughout the score though. It's a disappointing effort from a composer who's technically so far superior to Giacchino I would have expected more. Much more.

Perhaps it's another case of composer being limited by producers. It seems the Disney franchise this day is directed by marketing team and producers rather than an actual director these days and nobody works giving their own vision. I mean.. George Lucas was somewhat the same. But it was different in a way that there was a bit more freedom if the idea was good. And he did go by his ideas.. wether if shitty or not, rather than misguided marketing teams.

Perhaps it's another case of composer being limited by producers. It seems the Disney franchise this day is directed by marketing team and producers rather than an actual director these days and nobody works giving their own vision.

It's two completely different atmospheres. Regardless of how he treated Williams's music in the editing room, George Lucas pushed him very hard to do the best job he could, to the point that Williams confessed that he started running out of things for the orchestra to do at a certain point. But the core of those scores was of course always neoromanticism even if you had, say, the electric guitar in Attack of the Clones or the wailing woman in Revenge of the Sith.
Here it's more like they want to both have a John Williams score but also be "modern" - gotta fill all the musical checkboxes. That one bit where they combined "Tie Fighter Attack" with what sounded like turn-of-the-century Media Ventures percussion... what the hell? It's just an obnoxious thing to do. Solo as I'm sure you've all heard had a somewhat hectic production, and of course the studio will always find it comforting to at least have a "safe" score. In any case it all sounds forced and not having been implemented naturally in any way.

Also I thought it was amusing to hear the usual Williams sound mixing in his track, and then the sudden shift to more contemporary mixing immediately thereafter. Kind of leaves you with a sense of dread right at the start of track 2. :laugh:

I don't know when will Disney and its producers start to realize it's not really *hard* to do a good, proper Star Wars score, you don't have to copycat Williams. You don't have to modernize, really with Star Wars, the classical sound is linked so much to it so most fans don't really mind even if they don't listen to classical outside of Star Wars. Just stop trying to modernize. To care more about how it sounds. Do like Lucas did; try to just make a classical score, with motifs, a sound.. etc. I don't get why it's so hard for them to understand, because making a Star Wars score isn't really that hard.

Of course it isn't hard.

It's more in the matter of if the composer or studio cares to do so. Like, it's easy for them to take relatively okay sounding orchestral music and call it a day. They're here to make a safe movie for easy profit, so why bother with effort? Hell, we'll even throw in a known name to make it seem like we gave more of an effort.

I really think that Powell is certainly one of the more promising names in current Hollywood film scores. X3 is probably my favorite of the X-Men scores. Yet, it just seems like even with John Williams, Disney is only limiting them so that it doesn't get too extraordinary. They paid $4 billion. They better see that cash.

John Powell is one of the many few composers in Hollywood who can still do music that complements the movie in terms of orchestral sound, and story-telling. His animation works pretty much showcase that. I don't know why they limit him. He could've done a perfectly great score on his own.

Powell does nothing for me, and I don't understand the love for works as uninspired as How to Train Your Dragon. Someone explain to me- why do people put that score on the same level as something like Willow?

Powell does nothing for me, and I don't understand the love for works as uninspired as How to Train Your Dragon. Someone explain to me- why do people put that score on the same level as something like Willow?

I never put it on the same level as something like Willow. But HTTYD does have some wonderful melodies and orchestrations and it just sounds good, most of his work for animation.

I swear some of you here are like score hoarders - don't even care about the music itself, unless it's a heavy classical symphonic grandeur a la Bach or Beethoven or whatever. Lower your expectations. It's 2018. Your music is scarce. Best to enjoy the little you have.

I swear some of you here are like score hoarders - don't even care about the music itself, unless it's a heavy classical symphonic grandeur a la Bach or Beethoven or whatever. Lower your expectations. It's 2018. Your music is scarce. Best to enjoy the little you have.Having a large orchestra or even at all doesn't make music inherently good. I wonder how many times that's been reiterated in this thread. But yes, it's us elitist pricks that are at fault here for not enjoying half-assed attempts at wielding an orchestra.

I confess somtimes, I also don't really like some of the reasoning or evaluation as what makes good music or not when its already past the bar of competency but at least the opinions/discussions here are unfiltered, honest, not sugarcoated, reasoned and sometimes challenging/confrontational enough to do more good than harm. That's what I like.

It's all good :)

As said before, Hollywood today is not exactly the most composer-friendly business and the films composers have to write for, do not have the classical structure in their screenplays and the drama they used to have, even Williams can't save a movie anymore. A six or nine minute scene just carried by the music, essentially making it a concert piece, will probably never happen again (I know places where they still can happen but others disagree of course ;)). But even then matters like taste come into play, sometimes you just want to enjoy "the sound" you hear. But as far as I'm concerned this is the juice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGP2o8lBgV8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARcgqTx3NOg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-gKijKA9Y


That said, I find myself not being able to care for Powell's film music or find it particulary exciting or enjoyable to listen to. I really like some of his film work in the past but he's not doing anything for me with a couple of exceptions (I agree his animation works are his best side). I'm with Zipper that compared to those that came before he's not anywhere near their level but I'm also with Ponyo that relativly speaking, compared to those around him in the business he's in, where Zimmer is a cult, he's a good composer. If only he could have composed music for films a couple decades earlier. I'll await his upcoming concert works but it has a bit of a bitter taste that he now shares a place with Giacchino as bad examples of honoring a musical legacy (although I enjoy a couple of parts here and there but since I'm not enarmoured with Rey's Theme you can imagine I'm not a fan of Han's Theme either, Williams is way past his prime and it shows). It's not really his fault, probably, but the fact of the matter is Star Wars after Williams, will be our worst fears come true. It's dead Jim.

Wow, Solo is terrible. A mixture of Williams pastiche, MV bullshit, and bland orchestrations from here to Christmas.

It's partially an improvement on Rogue One, but every time it seems to start going somewhere, in comes the slamming percussion and the repetitive themeless ostinati. The best music of the score - the recycled Williams stuff - is drowned in percussion loops and electronica. It's even got the wailing woman, for God's sake.

(https://imgur.com/eVgP49U)

…but, ya, by the time "Flying with Chewie" comes around I'm already quite tired of the monotonous percussion.

And what the heck is Indy doing in "Train Heist"?

In Gia's favour GASP! at least his score didn't sound like it belonged under a game or a theme park ride.

Good news for fans of Joe Hisaishi or the Ni no Kuni II score in general. It seems, just like the first one, Wayo Records has collaborated again with LEVEL-5 to bring an international version of the japanese release, the same day it releases in Japan, June 6. Basically, it's the exact same version, really. 24 page booklet translated and everything. But you get it translated to English and you save yourself the hassle of importing.. well, if you aren't in the US. Since it's french-based. I'm so happy to hear this news and I'm excited to get it whenever I can.. with the first one which is still on sale. :)



https://www.wayorecords.com/en/ost-collection/649-ni-no-kuni-ii-revenant-kingdom-original-soundtrack.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MvRZXI6kg

Remember that big concert hall recording session Iwasaki had recently? This is what it was for:

https://movie.douban.com/subject/26673282/

A Chinese CGI fantasy war film. It's actually a sequel to this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.O.R.D:_Legend_of_Ravaging_Dynasties), with the last film being composed by Kajiura. The trailer doesn't have his music, but his ending theme for it (sung in Chinese) is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaD6BattSfs

I'm cautiously optimistic. There won't be much room in this for the likes of Lotus Juice or Iwasaki's usual tropes. And since we know he had a substantial budget, he really should have no excuse for screwing this up. But it is Iwasaki...

I'm quite enjoying SOLO. It may not be as thematic as I would hope but it does have some quite fun action music and is a step up from what we would generally expect from a modern score. Sure I would have hoped for something a bit more classic but it isn't losing my interest.

I'm quite enjoying SOLO. It may not be as thematic as I would hope but it does have some quite fun action music and is a step up from what we would generally expect from a modern score. Sure I would have hoped for something a bit more classic but it isn't losing my interest.

I feel more or less the same. It.. doesn't have the classical grandeur I would have hoped for it, but it definitely has the sound.. this year, I've noticed a few blockbusters have tried for orchestral comeback, due to nostalgia. Ready Player One, Avengers: Infinity War... now Solo. All of them have the sound, but never achieve the greatness.. yet, at least in my personal opinion, it's the best we get..

Regarding FFIV again, I've had a talk with Ken-P and also wrote some suggestions regarding interested parties like Thomas B�cker, the producer of Final Symphony (btw a couple of new projects announced) (https://www.gameconcerts.com/en/), and various others people and places I know of that might be interested in the project and give it publicity, and he will look into it. A couple more than I listed in the thread. Turrican only needed a thousand people to raise 80.000$. And that was a relativly obscure Amiga game series (us germans take game music seriously btw). I'm interested to find out if that was just a special crowdfunding campaign or if orchestral game albums really have a lot of interest ;)

If some of you here who are interested know a few places that like to hear some Final Fantasy or game music in a classical context in general, spread the word once it goes live, that would be appreciated. The more money they collect the more they can invest in future, less popular titles. Ken-P and the company will evaluate what should be performed, if it has already been performed or "satisfyingly performed". Rest assured Ken-P and the company will take this serious as a "classical label" and evaluate if the music makes sense to arrange in a symphonic story or in single pieces.

Currently planned (might change) are a "Final Fantasy Symphonic Stories series", "Ivalice series" (FF Tactics + FFT A(2), Vagrant Story, FFXII) and something along the lines of an "RPG series" or something like "Sega classics series" for the first crowdfunding projects.



From the thread, Ken-P shares more insight:



Now, some of you have asked me why we don't do a "composer-oriented" project. Thought I briefly wrote an explanation, the company wrote Q&A on this. So here is the link.
http://vgm-classics.org/05-Q&A-e.html#Q11
On the related note, this is one of the reasons why Nintendo often does not put composition credits in detail.

Credits are very VERY tricky business indeed; on-screen, off-screen, cue-credit, ghost-writings, and practically-ghost-writings etc...
They are complicated, probably more than most of you imagine.
Having an official booklet doesn't mean they are correct/accurate aesthetically, creatively and even sometime legally... And that often makes research very difficult indeed.


@Zipper: Don't know if that is good news or not. He might slapp a lot of percussion on it if it's just a mindless action flick. Not to mention that there most likely won't be a soundtrack and if there's one we can only hope it turns up on a chinese website. But potential is there.


@Ponyo: The problem with today's Hollywood scores and why they aint great is not the sound of classical grandour missing but the structure of the music being basically a mess because the films are a mess, no matter if people enjoy a film/the soundtrack or not.

In general the composer used to write symphonically back in the day (which means telling/supporting/accenting a story with an orchestra) because the structure of the film (screenplay/dramatic acts) called for it. Today's films (not all, but most) just jump from scene to scene with quick cuts, shacky cam and various other things that are red flags to any competent filmmaker. You hear that on the albums, you hear it in Last Jedi, you hear it in Solo, the reason why an idea is suddenly cut short, and the drums etc. appear is not the fault of the composer but purely the fault of the filmmaking. The music never has time to breath (for example because a character is reminiscing about something for three minutes).

All the masterpieces from Hollywood that people remember up to 50 years since their release have that symphonic structure, they are music from films that were classically structured, in three acts, as has been the case for thousands of years in entertainment. For christ sake, the dramatic climax of the opening act of this 80's fantasy flick didn't even need dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huTKdSZMRPg.

But films today get even basic stuff from film school wrong. It's astonishing that all these billion dollar companies, facilities and project managers can't follow simple rules of drama any school play does. How can the music touch and connect with the audience and stay in peoples minds if it doesn't follow the story along and express the emotional states of the characters and is edited and cut to hell all the time (I know what its like). How can it be equally serious music that totally works in the concert hall if the scenes and structure for the music to make that work are missing? Like Zipper pointed out, it's the art of "loud, Loud, LOUD" because most scenes and films have no room for anything else.

I can only pull up the video about Ike again, it's on point (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Ce1q5SMiE&t=2m43s). A production with 1/100 of the budget of the new Star Wars got it right, there's no excuse for Hollywood. If you don't believe me hear it from somebody starring in modern films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj8JK6c5x3M

I only hope that the Sky Fighter project will get made because I gurantee that will have a proper film score (even if there should be no liveplayers).

@Zipper: Don't know if that is good news or not. He might slapp a lot of percussion on it if it's just a mindless action flick. Not to mention that there most likely won't be a soundtrack and if there's one we can only hope it turns up on a chinese website. But potential is there.It's Iwasaki- he fights tooth and nail for his music to be released on disc. He gets mad even when his music gets bundled with Blu-Rays and would never agree to a project where none of his work gets released. Kajiura doesn't care nearly as much and has had quite a handful of projects that never received soundtrack releases.

As for what the actual music will be, who knows. Every time Iwasaki gets his hands on sizeable budget, it's like a game of Russian Roulette. But if even a mindless action series like Akame can give Iwasaki enough room to write some of the best coherent symphonic pieces of his career, I assume at the very least we should expect something decent from this movie.



On the subject of Powell again, I've always found his melodies to be simple and predictable, but with the orchestra doing complicated things in the background that try to hide the banality of his music. That impression doesn't change much with Solo. When it isn't aping William's themes, it's just boring Powell chord progressions with Williams-style orchestration in the background like the trumpet runs to make it sound Star-Warsy, with a dash of RC percussion and ostinato. It's so lazy and uninspired. And it's utterly forgettable.

Iwasaki once took Powell's Bourne theme and transformed it into a mini concerto for Katanagatari:

http://picosong.com/wPp9s/

Even if it has all the RC elements like the ostinato and percussion, it's still far, far more interesting to listen to than almost any of Powell's contributions to Solo. Rather than the piece being accompanied by the orchestra, the orchestra is part of the entire piece. The music flows from strings to brass to winds with a sense of continuity, rather than just acting as filler. That is the difference between someone who writes out their music before mocking it up on a computer and someone who layers everything together in their sample library editing software.

We get it, you don't like Powell. Good for you. Let others enjoy him if they want.

If others are so weak-minded that my opinions on a composer they like genuinely upset them to the point where they don't want to see me post about him, then that's their problem isn't it? Or should I add Giacchino and Zimmer and Tyler Bates and the dozens of others people here whine about to that sacred zone too?

I'm not upset about your opinions on the composer. I respect opinions. I'm only saying you already made them clear the first few times you told them. You don't need to repeat them, it only gets annoying.

Though The Zipper has accused me of exactly the same thing in the past, I stand 100% with him, here. Hearing about why The Zipper doesn't like Powell is extremely interesting to me - not just because I agree, but because he's expanding on a point, bringing in new ideas, giving reasons why he feels the way he does. This is not annoying; it's valuable.

Powell's music has yet to impress me in any way - but at the same time, there's enough going on that I think his ability is established. Powell, like so many modern Japanese composers, interests me for what I think he's capable of, not for what he's actually achieved. He has a world-class classical education and is a violinist and a conductor. Whatever his raw skills are, they have to be infinitely greater than what he's shown in Solo, or in dozens of bland animation scores.

It's like getting in a Ferrari and driving it around your town. You can't put your foot down and see how fast it goes - you can only do 40 or 50 or you'll get arrested... but even when you drive a Ferrari slowly, there's every indication that if you floored it on a stretch of open road, the thing could be doing 200mph.

Solo was the closest thing a modern film composer gets to sitting in a Ferrari, pulling out onto the Autobahn in Germany, and being told "OK, floor it, let's see what this thing can do."

And what did we get? We got up to about 45mph before the driver bottled it and we had to be towed home by John Williams Recovery Ltd.

I'm sorry if I come across different, but my problem is not the opinions, which again, I respect, I really do. I'm fine. It's mainly repeating it all over. We kinda got the idea the first time. I also never said Powell's Solo was a masterpiece, either. Or that he didn't bring any good points, which he did. For me, Solo is.. just there. I don't think it's awful, but it's not the greatest shit ever, but it's got the sound so it does me good, but it does get monotonous after a while.

It's kinda sad most of orchestral comebacks we've had this year where kinda dissapointing and only had the SOUND, but not what we really want it. I don't think we're getting that back and I'm happy with the little I get.

Yeah, but nobody's just repeating the same thing over and over again. If all he was saying was "Powell sucks, I hate Powell!" then I'd agree, it would be annoying and repetitive and redundant. But all I see is an evolving discussion in which views are presented, examples are given, questions are asked, other views are presented, and we all move closer to understanding a different viewpoint. TZ hasn't made a post which simply restates a previous one. (IMHO, of course - I'm not white-knighting here or trying to elbow into a conversation that doesn't concern me - just putting in my tuppence.)

For me, none of the orchestral comebacks even had "the sound" - that people (not you) describe the orchestrations in Solo as "sublime" and the themes as "utterly gorgeous, golden age", and the score in general "firing on all cylinders" demonstrates how badly the rot has set in. I wonder if anybody who has heard Solo and thinks the orchestrations are decent, has ever heard Scriabin, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Ravel, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, or Elgar - and those are just the first names that come to mind; there are hundreds of composers throughout history who really have produced "sublime" orchestrations - and the work in Solo is, by comparison, flat and completely uninteresting - and it's all filtered through a "must sound like 2010s John Williams" sensibility but with none of the subtlety and class that Williams brings.

We can talk all day about how modern Williams is less colourful, less overtly melodic, less golden age, and more rhythmic than 1970s/1980s Williams - and I'd agree with that position - but compare "Scherzo for X-Wings" (a recent Williams score) to the very best that Han has to offer, and note how Han is all mouth and no trousers. It's an average modern score wearing John Williams's photocopied tuxedo. It's runs, chords, and key changes held together with absolutely nothing. There's a lot of notes on the page, but they don't serve a purpose.

On reflection, I prefer Rogue One. After hearing Han for the first time, I said that it was a slight improvement on Rogue One, but after multiple listens, I no longer have that opinion. I still find Michael Giacchino's rush job to be a garbage score, but in the end I think I find it more substantial and more worth listening to than Powell's Solo. It's hard to admit that, but there you go...

Han is nothing mixed with Williams remixes. Rogue One is just bad, but it seems to be trying in a way that Solo just doesn't.

TZ hasn't made a post which simply restates a previous one.I'm sure I have before, but in this case I would like to think that what I said about Powell was an expansion of my previous opinion of why his music bores me.

I have to somewhat echo Tango's sentiment about Rogue One as well. That score was a mess, and the Williams homages were haphazard at best, but it had more ambition behind it. It wasn't an above-average RC score hiding behind William's orchestrations like Solo, it's Giacchino writing in what he thought was William's style. It's not good, but given that an untrained composer like Giacchino was able to churn that out in 3 weeks and still do somewhat better than what Powell did with 4 months is depressing. Solo also has some things that I found even more offensive than RO- remember hearing the RC version of Asteroid Field in 'Reminiscient Therapy'? It's like all those recent Star Wars film trailers that try to sound "epic" by taking William's themes and playing the horns louder with more banging percussion. But even I never thought that kind of music would show up in a Star Wars film itself.

The thing is, in this modern Hollywood scoring environment, it seems being classically trained rarely amounts to a composer churning out quality music. Powell was classically trained- but so were Beltrami, McCreary, Debney, Desplat, etc. And yet so far none of them have produced anything noteworthy in their film music that suggest their intense musical training. And yet in the 80s and 90s, you had untrained composers like Danny Elfman and Alan Silvestri creating outstanding scores like Batman and Predator (which I admit is very well-done even if I don't like Silvestri's style). Yes I'm sure they had help from orchestrators or ghostwriters, but that's not much of an excuse since those practices are still in use in Hollywood even now. But look at them and their music nowadays, trained or untrained, and well... there isn't much of a difference in quality. Even older veterans felt the crushing pressures of Hollywood- Horner and Goldsmith towards the end of their careers were heading in rather questionable directions with their music. Maybe it's the Hollywood executives, or the Zimmer temp tracks, or the poor modern film structure as Vinphonic said, or any combination of these factors that have already been discussed to death.

I am baffled by the reactions to Powell's poor score. He is now officially one of the most overrated film composers with Giacchino and Junkie XL. Desplat is overrated too, but at least he is better than them.

Fantastic, magnificent, stunning, awesome, great and spectacular are some of the adjectives I have seen people throw at the new Powell Star Wars score.

Calling Powell a genius is ridiculous or even great is a massive, massive stretch. I could accept good, but certainly not anywhere near great. These people don't have any taste.

People are saying that Powell's score is better than Williams's scores for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

Well, that's kinda too much. I may Powell's work a lot, but he's no Williams. Almost nobody can reach Williams. I think that's a huge hyperbole. And I think you shouldn't take it seriously, must be of overhyoped super obsessed fans. A fan who says Powell is better than Williams, is not a good fan.. I don't think Powell is overrated. And a fair reason to prove that is, he doesn't appear in almost every single movie a year like Junkie, Giacchino or Zimmer (I assume you haven't put him in the list because we already KNOW how much he's overrated).. Powell writes perhaps one or two scores a year, and they don't reach general attention as much as the other two composers. I feel like the reason some fans are saying that is mainly because this score (sadly) has a few "modern" "RCP" touches to it, which may have attracted their attention more opposed to classical symphonic grandeur like Williams.

must be of overhyoped super obsessed fans.

Just normal people it seems to me, who will walk away impressed by a film score (or music in general) as long as it was loud enough to catch their attention. The howling female choir peppered throughout the score for instance is probably some character motif that blasts through the speakers upon his appearance. And you're supposed to think, "WOAH.... that music is REALLY ASSERTIVE! I noticed it, which means the music is good! So cool! Gonna skip to that part on the soundtrack! ^_^" Bigger (i.e. artificial bigness) is always considered better by these audiences, all other factors be damned.

Just normal people it seems to me, who will walk away impressed by a film score (or music in general) as long as it was loud enough to catch their attention. The howling female choir peppered throughout the score for instance is probably some character motif that blasts through the speakers upon his appearance. And you're supposed to think, "WOAH.... that music is REALLY ASSERTIVE! I noticed it, which means the music is good! So cool! Gonna skip to that part on the soundtrack! ^_^" Bigger (i.e. artificial bigness) is always considered better by these audiences, all other factors be damned.

Yeah, that's what I mentioned, basically.


I feel like the reason some fans are saying that is mainly because this score (sadly) has a few "modern" "RCP" touches to it, which may have attracted their attention more opposed to classical symphonic grandeur like Williams.

People are saying that Powell's score is better than Williams's scores for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.I remember the same reaction from people when Rogue One came out. It took months until the general consensus shifted, and everyone trashed Giacchino's attempt. Now those same people are back eating up Solo. I wonder if any of them could explain why they liked Solo better than Rogue One? Because it sounds more like Powell?

The most laughable bit of praise for the score are the guys on JWfans waxing about Powell's "imaginative percussion". Dear god how low we've sunk.

To be honest, I'm really baffled by all this positive reception of Solo, I'm not angry or sad or anything, I've already given up but seriously? I mean I wouln't even call it terrible myself, there's some parts I enjoy and for the movie its written for it really can't be good, but come on. I have enough inner rage as is, when peple wrote book after book about the "genius" of Hans (I even like the guy). Seems like we are now witnessig the fruits of our wonderful musical education system... or lack thereof ;)

I must confess if you had told me there will be a time when I don't care anymore about anything Hollywood twelve years ago or so I would have laught... but not anymore. If 2018 was the best effort to bring oldschool film scores back into the mainstream, and people by and large praise it, then I'm afraid its not working for me. First films would need to get better again anyway.

Even the most banal rush jobs from Jerry Goldsmith or Alan Silvestri or Bill Conti back in the day were on a whole other level than most efforts from the currently working Hollywood composers. Films and (in consequence) their scores back then were just better made in general, and for the record, I wasn't even alive when most of them released. The money and profits today are greater than ever, but if you work in this industry today, chances are you won't be remembered in 50 years. In my view Hollywood movies in general, the big Blockbuster ones anyway, stopped being good around the 2000s.

Ironically this is called the Superhero era, but according to me, the best made Superhero films were made in the 2000s and before (Spiderman 2 etc.) and my guts tell me, whatever Hollywood wants to adapt in their recent desperation from Japan, it won't be as good as the Matrix. Up until the 2000s they had solid screenplays and acting, scenes and lines you won't forget as long as you live.

As far as music goes, there's basically only John Williams and Alan Silvestri in their last years I care about anymore and even they can't make me smile again (only a "this is nice but the movie is a mess as usual so there goes my enthusiasm"). If one of the most musical and talented composers who ever lived does not make me feel excitement anymore (Force Awakens concert pieces being an exception, but not heard in the movie so it doesn't matter), maybe it's time to stop caring and love other places (only a couple days until the next influx of scores that interest me, I'm always optimistic about other places :))

Some film and game scores from Europe and Asia these days are pretty good I would say ;)



But back to the juice, and since we're on the subject of restating and elabortaing on points to come to a better understanding of viewpoints, some recent thoughts why I'm not (seriously) worried about my treasure trove, the Japanese scoring world, falling victim to the same "rot" of Hollywood, as others call it, at least not for a few decades.

I've listened to Joe Hisaishi and Kohei Tanaka since basically as long as John Williams, Silvestri and Horner and as long as I can remember and to me they still sound exhilarating to listen to (I adore Ni no Kuni II and Gravity Daze 2). I've played (Japanese) games since the 90s and I feel there's now a new Golden Age of quality games coming out, sometimes pushing the medium in interesting directions and with noticable artistic talent, by creative, educated, talented and charming directors that have a place in the world to fully realize their vision.

In numerous interviews and documentaries about the recent resurgence of Japanese games, it is stated many times that they will continue to make games for a small but loyal audience. AAA games like in the west simply don't exist in over there. Their entertainment industries are not centralised like Hollywood (it's why you can have a show with 60s TV Hollywood sound next to a full-on modern electronic score with rock interludes). Tokyo in general is full of subcultures, little bars and shops for even the nichest of interests. You can build a business focusing on obscure stuff in Tokyo because the environment allows for even the weirdest and nichest of interests to have enough costumers to be sustainable.

Games and anime (the well made one's anyway) are still full of artistic skill and talent (watercolored paintings as background art, detailed lineart and incredible attention to detail), Violet Evergarden, for example, is a critical AND commercial success, and a lot of hard work, effort and artistic talent went into it (and as far as the art of film score goes Evan Call's score does a fantastic job). Some anime producers still fight for passion projects like Hisone to Masotan which is well made, nice, fluffy and comfy, show and score. You have a newcomer with a decent orchestra allowing to write SciFi cues like its the 1980s.

Look at Girls und Panzer, another megafranchise, it's full-on traditional military marches with 60/70s film score. Yamato 2202 and other prestige projects are 60s TV Star Trek. Gundam the Origin, aparts from Hattori's experimentations is a classic 60s/70s SciFi score at heart. Mazinger Z, has a few modern elements, yes, but also 60s TV cheesiness and a couple of symphonic film score pieces, and leitmotif. Big franchise Doraemon has a bit of drums but underneath is a classic adventure score with sublime orchestration. Love Live, another big franchise, has been a bit Broadway and otherwise relaxing orchestral pieces. NGNL Zero at is core, is a dramatic symphonic film score that uses modern elements but still has the core thing that matters in drama and the music has connected with the audience. Another, a bit more on the prestigeous side, project like Ancient Magus Bride has opportunities for a concert composer to flex his muscles and another big franchise, Sound Euphonium, gives numerous opportunities for a composer to write concert works. Not to mentzion the Rage of Bahamut franchise, a series that calls for oldschool Hollywood film scoring with numerous leitmotifs and dramatic showpieces. DRIFTERS recieves a full symphonic "filmic" score by the Warsaw Philharmonic and two recent kids series to sell toys have a dynamic, emotional and classic symphonic film score. The recent Tokusatsu score has pure 80s Hollywood superhero moments with classic symphonic structure for a lot of the cues and rock and jazz elements, the symphonic pieces have drums, yes, but their structure is still the same as for previous series.

And Look at the recent biggest franchises in the Japanese gaming world (outside Final Fantasy):

Dragon Quest XI: Symphonic "Filmic" score
Nobunaga's Ambition Taishi: Symphonic "Filmic" score.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Symphonic "Filmic" score.
Ni no Kuni II: Symphonic "filmic" score, and in parts concertesque.
Xenoblade 2: For the amount of music, insanely well done across all genres, from 60s TV cheesiness to sixty minutes of symphonic music.
New Inazuma Eleven Game: Symphonic "Filmic" score
Last Guardian: Classic Thomas Newman score.
Breath of the Wild: Minimalistic music with focus on Piano.
Nier Automata: Electronic score with unique vocal elements (incorporating story elements and 8-Bit chipsound into the score), piano and strings and some classical elements.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Revolutions: Symphonic Film scores with Leitmotif, classical and operatic elements, and even an anthem.
Gravity Rush 2: Jazz, Rock, Symphonic, Romantic, Neoclassical, 60s British War film... basically everything.
Persona 5: Jazzy and Funky, with Disco Strings and Organ.
Mario Odyssey: Silver Age Film score with Funk, Jazz and Big Band.
One Piece World Seeker: Gravity Rush 2 with more Symphonic, Romantic, Neoclassical and 60s British War film (prediction)
Shin Sakura Taisen: Gravity Rush 2 with a substantial Symphonic "Filmic" score (prediction)
God Eater 3 (God Eater 2 with a more subtantial symphonic score and another larger than life orchestral pop-ballad (prediction).
Kingdom Hearts III: Symphonic "Filmic" score in parts (prediction).
Granblue Fantasy Re:Link: A fun jazzy orchestral score with a few symphonic pieces that will be an addition to the symphonic album (prediction).

One of the biggest Japanese movies from last year, DESTINY, has a delightful symphonic film score with much leitmotif and recent smartphone games have full on symphonic concertgrade pieces. And good luck hearing a little homage to Rachmaninov in a recent film score of a megafranchise (not by Williams). And now you even have a couple of Hollywood veterans who have left Hollywood (Mike Verta, the unit FILM SCORE etc.) who all are working on new projects for Japanese media. Lets hear if FILM SCORE can not only arrange Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy pieces to sound like Hollywood scores but also write quality Hollywood scores themselves (52-Piece Orchestra should be good enough for it).

A concertesque composer like Kaoru Wada has decided to be a regular again and sounds like he's ever sounded, only a bit more enthusiastic. He not only scores a show this season but also one in fall. If no one stops Taku Iwasaki to put full-on Ravel into a stupid anime score and Mike Verta gives another confirmation to numerous similiar cases of Japanese directors trusting in the profession of composers and only will give guidelines but don't interfere in the composing process, then its still a paradise compared to Hollywood. After working on my anime compilation, I really feel ALL the music you hear in there is not censored or in anyway forced. It's what the composer wanted and intended (for better or worse).

And even that Hirano statement is a bit less weity when the music Hirano likes to write can turn up in a semi-prestigeous and popular franchise, even more unashamedly atonal than even he would prefer. He also could have ment that there are less opportunities because he wanted to focus on his albums and concert work instead (remember he also said Death Note is not the real him). His drama scores sounded like he's always sounded for drama.

I've yet to find any statement from a composer, most here would call great, who openly stated he cannot write music anymore like he wanted (like JNH and James Horner had done on numerous occasions).
Yoko Kanno just delivered what some consider her Magnum Opus and writes for anime again under a new alias. Hayato Matsuo just delivered some of the best 30 minute film scores in existence. Michiru Oshima just delivered a symphonic suite for a smartphone game and has numerous concert works ready. Kohei Tanaka wrote some stellar music across all genres like he always does. Compared to similar scores from past decadecs (Diebuster) his recent ones have even more quality. Hardly the signs of once great composers chained to a wall.

Point is, a huge chunk of the biggest franchises in Japan right now are full of a sound and musical structure that is as far removed from today's monotonous and musically illiterate Hollywood as you can get. Yes, composers do use more drumloops than before but I think that comes as one of the downsides of working digitally and being on a short deadline, and in many cases (outside Oshima) I doubt the drums were layered/ordered by someone on the production (I'm at least sure about Hattori). Sahashi's recent orchestral pieces use modern elements, yes, but why didn't they also put the drumloops on his old cues if they really wanting to appeal to a "modern" audience and why are the recent episodes full of music you would hear in Gingaman? (Or 70s/80s TV shows).

On the other side you have a few big, modern, epic Hollywood composer equivalents like Hiroyuki Sawano and Masaru Yokohama but even with the modern soundtool box, the former still manages to sound unique in that world and probably achieves what the the sound is trying to achieve the best, and the latter can at least write a competent classical piece.

A lot needs to happen over a LONG time until they all sound like percussion loops + sixty horn lines. If there's still room in Japanese anime and games for symphonic strucure in the music, concertgrade music and sometimes even full on symphonic movements, I'm not in despair (just a little worried because we now have an example how low it can get). Bottom line, I can be passionate about other media, I just can't be anymore with others. "This one does not have the music I want, but I'm optimistic about the next and will give it a chance" is pretty much my stance on all things Japanese. I also hold the opinion Japan's 2083 project will turn up something good/great. What other medium you know of has an agenda in being the leading medium for new classical music, with a real company, real musicians, arrangers, orchestrators and producers suscribed to this cause. Even Hollywood in its best years didn't have that agenda (and was looked down upon by the concert world).

And holy shit, I actually wrote a monster post again. :D

Hey there guys, how you doing? I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, so I thought I would give an explanation.

Visited the family for Christmas. My music HD of 13 years got damaged. It's all gone, all 600 GB of it. The rare soundtracks, the gamerips I did, the custom covers...a hard blow by any standard you quantify that with.

For the past few months, I have been trying to see what could be done. All of the hard drive recovery people said it was impossible, physically scratched, nothing to be done. Spotify has been a godsend in the meantime, but it is infurtiating how little anime and videogame scores they have. Reasonable, but infuriating.

I want to take this time to give you a massive PSA. If you value your music library even a tenth as much as I did - and that was a considerable amount - please take the active measures to backup that shit. Spend the $50 to get a 1 TB HD from Amazon, secure it, and stow it away for a rainy day. Nothing will tell you how much has changed in the music sharing world than by looking through all the deal links and buried torrents to download just ONE soundtrack.

This week I decided I had procrastinated enough, and started to try to review my old library, one soundtrack at a time. Or, one massive download from Vinphonic at a time. Kudos to you dude for putting together your composer packages - I was able to download close to 100 GB of music over the weekend. A decent enough start, although 80% of it is stuff I have never listened to before. I really am wondering how I am supposed to find the time to listen to them all!

So that is my sob story, cue the weeping emojis whenever you please. I hope your previous 6 months have been fairing better than myself. If any of you know of any good torrents that have a crap ton of soundtracks, or know of a good website that has a bunch available, by all means send me a PM. And especially, if you have any of my gamrips, send me a message.

With all of the talk about John Powell's work on "Solo: A Star Wars Story", I'm surprised that no one has mentioned John Williams' work on it. Williams composed the new Han Solo theme, as well as the entire first track on the album ("The Adventures of Han").

What does everyone think about Williams' track on the OST and his new Han Solo theme in general?

I found the JW tune about the only memorable part of the whole score. Though the way JP arranged and weaved it into his score made it much better than JW's own piece.
Personally I am yet to find any of these Disney-era SW films and music to my liking though. They all appear rushed, uninspired and over-produced.

@Doublehex: Good to see you, and glad to be of assistance :)

I feel you.

By coincidence the exact same thing happened to me recently but I was lucky enough to backup my roughly 800 GB of music. Not to mention my Cubase projects, sample libraries and other stuff ;)
That said my last/final Legacy shares I wanted to share by now suffered a little but they will be up soon (I hope).

I'm genuinely sorry for your loss, and I echo your sentiments; if you've got stuff you care about even remotely, STOP PROCRASTINATING and back it up.

It's easy to think "Ah, what's the bother?" when you turn on your computer 1,000 times in a row and everything works... but understand how tenuously-preserved your data actually is, and how quickly it can all be completely gone. The hard disc can fail mechanically. Your PSU can surge and fry it. Your house can get struck by lightning with the same results. A virus can come along and screw it all. You can make a stupid mistake and delete it all yourself. Your computer can get destroyed in a flood or a fire, or stolen in a burglary.

You can never be 100% certain that all your data will persist forever, and your budget, the amount of data you've got to back up, and the speed of your internet connection can influence what you can do - but you should try to do something. ANYTHING is better than nothing. At the very least, keep a copy of your treasured data on another hard disc.

Backup wisdom says that you should have any important data stored in at least three different places, and that at least one of them should be physically located away from the others.

I have a graduated backup system:

1. 8TB NAS with no backup - used for temporary files, tests, stuff I don't really care about. If they go, it won't be the end of the world.

2. 48TB NAS - 4 discs, 12tb each, configured as two mirrored arrays. Yes, when everything's working fine this seems like a waste of money - 24tb of redundant storage just in case - but it's peace of mind. If a disc fails, I can pull it out, throw it away, drop in a new one, and the NAS works everything out. No downtime, and 48 hours of "risk" (the time between the initial failure and the mirror being recreated; during that time your data is only in one place, so...

3. ...Dropbox auto daily backup from designated REALLY important folders on the NAS. I have a 1TB Dropbox. Not enough to mirror EVERYTHING, but plenty of space to look after really, really important data. The Dropbox backup is not auto-sync; it runs every night at 3am, so if I'm really stupid and I delete the files from my NAS, they will not be immediately removed from my Dropbox. I have time to restore them.

4. I am also investigating having a secondary manual backup to a service like Backblaze or Crashplan business. I would use this as a dumping ground; stuff that I don't want to lose, but that's not really important enough to justify taking up space in the Dropbox. This isn't up yet, but it's something I'm thinking about for the future.

You have to have lot of money for that kind of storage, you know.. I don't.

...Which is why I said:


You can never be 100% certain that all your data will persist forever, and your budget, the amount of data you've got to back up, and the speed of your internet connection can influence what you can do - but you should try to do something. ANYTHING is better than nothing. At the very least, keep a copy of your treasured data on another hard disc.

As Doublehex said, just 60 or 70 euros will get you a 2tb external drive. If your stuff is important to you, that money is peanuts - and if your stuff isn't that important to you, you don't need a backup.

You can, if nothing else, protect yourself from sudden and catastrophic hardware failures. Back up your important stuff there, make sure it's encrypted, and stow it somewhere safe. Fires, floods, burglaries, power surges are all possibilities, of course, but why do most of us lose our data? Because it's all on one hard disc, which breaks, then we're fucked.

Or pay $9.99 a month for 1TB of Dropbox, and back up in the cloud.

We can all do SOMETHING. And we'll ALL wish we had, the day you turn on your computer and CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, no data...

Tango is speaking the truth, and it was something that I knew, way in the back of my head. I had kept on telling myself "I should get a new external" if for no other reason than to put to rest the old seagate I had. But I kept on procrastinating and procrastinating until...

There is a silver lining. Old hard drive from 2014, is in a recoverable state. Will cost me $800 to do so. Not an option for me today or tomorrow or even next month, but something down the line. Would rather lose 4 years worth of music than 14.

Meanwhile... a Vinphonic rebuttal...




Dragon Quest XI: Symphonic "Filmic" score

No, a concert of very bland pieces from the game, which don't stand in comparison to Sugiyama's earlier work on the franchise. Don't get me wrong, it's great that he's still working, but let's also be honest - his music isn't what it used to be, it's drab beyond belief, uncreative, hilariously derivative, and the only reason he's still working on DQ is because nobody's got the heart to tell an 87 year-old who's got no other work to fuck off.


Nobunaga's Ambition Taishi: Symphonic "Filmic" score.

A decent score, very surprising given the composer, but nowhere near comparable to Kanno's and Yamashita's prior contributions to the franchise.


Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII: Symphonic "Filmic" score.

Like Taishi, but worse.


Ni no Kuni II: Symphonic "filmic" score, and in parts concertesque.

Smaller orchestra for the sequel, and the work of an almost retired composer.


Xenoblade 2: For the amount of music, insanely well done across all genres, from 60s TV cheesiness to sixty minutes of symphonic music.

A bunch of noise by a dozen different composers, interspersed with THIRTY minutes of orchestral, not symphonic, music that's your typical amateurish Mitsuda fluff, albeit nicely orchestrated (by Mariam Abounassr) and performed by an orchestra at least twice the size the music deserves.


New Inazuma Eleven Game: Symphonic "Filmic" score

Like Xenoblade, with a smaller orchestra. Badly missing Kameoka's contributions. (And where is Kameoka since leaving Procyon? ONE project as composer, and a bunch of promises of scores that she's orchestrated that we never get to hear.)


Last Guardian: Classic Thomas Newman score.

Ripped off from Thomas Newman - but nonetheless, a pleasant-enough score.


Breath of the Wild: Minimalistic music with focus on Piano.

Yeah, pretty nice, I guess.


Nier Automata: Electronic score with unique vocal elements (incorporating story elements and 8-Bit chipsound into the score), piano and strings and some classical elements.

Absolute crap.


Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Revolutions: Symphonic Film scores with Leitmotif, classical and operatic elements, and even an anthem.

Cookie-cutter Yasunori Mitsuda score, not symphonic, and music barely deserves an orchestra.


Gravity Rush 2: Jazz, Rock, Symphonic, Romantic, Neoclassical, 60s British War film... basically everything.

Schizophrenic, ADD score that does lots of things relatively well, and does nothing superbly. 80% pastiche, with some of Tanaka's blandest orchestral music - static, looping, unimaginative, repetitive, to date interspersed.


Persona 5: Jazzy and Funky, with Disco Strings and Organ.

Never heard it, but based on your description that's a blessing.


Mario Odyssey: Silver Age Film score with Funk, Jazz and Big Band.

Typical Mario fluff, with a very, very short and uninteresting orchestral score interspersed that sounds like offcuts from Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2.


One Piece World Seeker: Gravity Rush 2 with more Symphonic, Romantic, Neoclassical and 60s British War film (prediction)

We have not heard the score. Based on trends (in general, and Tanaka's) we can look forward to another humiliating genre-clash, and if we're lucky some orchestral cues that borrow heavily from the (20 year-old) TV score but fail to match it.


Shin Sakura Taisen: Gravity Rush 2 with a substantial Symphonic "Filmic" score (prediction)

The damn thing isn't even in production yet. Nonetheless, see above for a realistic prediction - though it probably has more potential than most recent Tanaka projects...


God Eater 3 (God Eater 2 with a more subtantial symphonic score and another larger than life orchestral pop-ballad (prediction).

Again, we haven't heard any score and if it's Go Shiina again, we can count on another atriciously-recorded, ham-fisted hour-long orchestrated pop song. The only score of Shiina that ever came even CLOSE to being substantial or symphonic was Ace Combat 3D, and that was pretty much exclusively "saved in post" by Wataru Hokoyama. (And where is Wataru Hokoyama, these days? First and last decent orchestral score in 2008, now orchestrating for morons and PROGRAMMING SYNTHESIZERS for Christopher Lennertz!)


Kingdom Hearts III: Symphonic "Filmic" score in parts (prediction).

LOL, really? Desperation, much? I presume it's going to be Yoko Shimomura again, so we can look forward to ANOTHER redux of Dearly Beloved with a progressively smaller, tin-can orchestra - and maybe two or three MAXIMUM musically uninteresting cues which are saved by the inevitable orchestrator.


Granblue Fantasy Re:Link: A fun jazzy orchestral score with a few symphonic pieces that will be an addition to the symphonic album (prediction).

Prediction based on what? Granblue hasn't had a single orchestral cue so far across the entire franchise, and if it's Narita again, we know exactly what we'll get...

Dude, that's not a rebuttal. That's just a series of retorts. I don't even have any skin in this game and I am frowning at you with displeasure.

:rolleyes:

I said once before I don't really like certain evaluations but I respect to hear them but to be perfectly blunt you make it really hard for me a couple of times, no matter that is not actually the point I was trying to make, nor are the scores I listed contain my personal opinions about them (just the sound) but I digress. I hope I'm not going senile and others got what point I was trying to make and why I think that.

Calling Solo terrible is also taking it a bit too far for me too. My problem with modern Hollywood of which Solo is a recent example, is mainly the structure of the music, not so much the sound or the quality of the little segment cues. For the record, I also see what hater meant by Golden Age and other remarks. There are many elements in Solo reminiscent of or evoking past Hollywood ages. It's more trying than achieving for me because the film doesn't really allow for the music to be its own thing but there are things in Solo Giacchino just couldn't do. Solo has got the "cool" moments but not the thing that makes people nostalgic about it in 50 years. I actually enjoy huge chunks from it. I have no allergy to modern tools in many contexts as others do in general. If the music would actually go anywhere and develop naturally because a scene played out for five minutes and lets the music breath or even takeover in the way old filmscores did, and connect with the audience on an emotional level too, I would be delighted. It ain't so much Powell's fault.

Regarding Williams piece, it does nothing for me. His acrobatics are all thats holding it together. I just don't love Williams after Azkaban anymore. It's technically great but the flame is gone is what I would describe his work after Harry Potter and Geisha.

I could agree on Solo a little about the bland orchestration, afterall the drumloops and many other things are undeniably tiresome, but calling Gravity Daze 2, Valkyria Revolution or Xenoblade 2 and others in the same vain what you just described I just don't get at all or find myself even baffled at your overwhelmingly negative reactions to scores I have zero problems with, the quality in the music is so apparent to me (from competent to great) and hits all the right checkboxes that make me like it and in some cases utterly adore it that it's almost comical to me how much your impression differs from my own opinion. Maybe growing up with games (more than films) wired my brain differently, I don't know. That or your overly confrontational.

But then again I'm not interested in looking at all music through your serious concert lense, as its apparant to me countless times in my life, its a "no fun zone". But hey, at least I still have an industry to be passionate about and by and large enjoy their musical output. If others don't then thats too bad. Frankly, I like this thread the best when people talk about and share what they love ;)

Tonight's NHL playoff game had some familiar music in the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSY8dPMKS0E

Rebuttal: To refute or disprove, especially by offering a contrary contention or argument. To oppose by contrary proof.

Retort: A severe, incisive, or witty reply, expecially one that counters a first speaker's statement, argument, etc.

I rather think my post was both. :D

No, most of your stuff was just you saying "I don't like it cuz I don't." Except you said it with wit instead of being an ass.

Welp. Five or six months after making the commitment to, and almost 20 years since she first came to my attention, my long long trip thru Yoko Kanno's discography is done, having just rattled off that last Naotora track.

God. Damn. What a singularly remarkable career. The last few years, I had been listening to less and less of her to expand my horizons into pop, jazz, classical, Black music, other, lesser-known anime composers, vgm, everything under the sun, genres that her chameleonic touch with helped me to open my mind to and embrace in the first place, and I was curious whether she'd still hold up. I had nothing to worry about. Naotora, Terror, Gochisou Note and even her minimalist recent movie scores(Petal Dance sounds like a lost album of strong Breath of the Wild outtakes) showcase ever stronger melodic and rhythmic chops building on quirks and techniques of hers going back years, each sporting melodies and arrangements that blow the pants off equivalent pieces from, say, Brain Powerd; Fugl and Seele are a better On the Earth/Crossing, for instance; and after going thru the years and how all her different modes and styles have built off each other and inform how she plays w them, like how her fondness for jazzy chord progressions and ambiguous melodic phrasing and countermelody colors how she writes w a symphony or w jazz or w j-pop, the suggestion that she's been ghostwriting all along strikes me as more baseless than ever.

She's a masterclass in WHY so many Japanese composers like to play w genre convention within a score in the first place and why pulling influences from the wider world around you outside of just the Silver Age is such a good thing. She's written for everything from bottled water ads to sentimental ballads in the name of national healing and dark angry scores for political screeds aimed squarely at the country's most insidious social ills(Terror in Resonance.) She's worked alongside or adjacent to some of the most lauded artists and musicians in the anime biz, and is even a true-blue vgm composer, smashing glass ceilings and appearing in photos next to muthafuckin' Sugiyama and Uematsu, many years before any of them would be famous to any of us. It seriously brings a tear to my eye to reflect on that last bit, the fact that she's ALWAYS BEEN HERE WITH US, FAM, she's always been right here w us, the nerds and gamers and orchestra geeks, and at the risk of turning a lil morbid for a sec...in the wake of some truly painful losses in the scoring community lately, I'm eternally grateful to whatever powers there may be that I'm still here and could take this chance to rediscover and re-contextualize Kanno's remarkable career for myself while she's, well, while she's still here w us.

For my money, she's still the best musician alive, either she or some miraculous combo of her and her longtime synth jockeys, Keishi Urata and Shunsuke Sakamoto, are the best producers alive, hearing the palpable influence of her work in the scores of today's new crop like MICHIRU and Kevin Penkin is a hoot and a half and I can only hope she has much, much more to share w us.


Alright, fanboygasm over, just felt like sharing some thoughts. Might go back on occasion and post some track by track anaylsis of certain albums if anybody would be interested and would wanna join in. This was so much fun I think I'm gonna do a big library binge of the NEXT most interesting Japanese composer next; Tsuneo Imahori, and tackle Oshima and Hirano et al from there.

Hey everyone! It is a pleasure to return :). I used to go by JBarron05 (or something like that) but now I had to start a new account since I couldn't get my password to work or be retrieved. Anyway, I have had a busy 2018 with a concert work premiere with my second major orchestra work Endless Sea. You can check it out at my website https://joshbarroncomposer.com/home . Also I am hard at work with a string orchestra album of game music. It will have a good amount of Hamauzu and Sakimoto in the listing featuring music from Vagrant Story, FFT, Tactics Advance, Valkyria Chronicles, Stella Deus, Final Fantasy X, FFXIII, FFXIII-2, SaGa Frontier II, Unlimited SaGa, and even Legend of Legacy AND Alliance Alive. I'll be contributing one original composition to it just as I did with the first ETHEReal String Project.

I have also been talking with pianist Benyamin Nuss to perform on one of the tracks too so that is quite exciting.

@MastaMist: That's what I'm talking about... I totally get you, but I confess, making all that compilations has made it quite difficult to do what you have done but its giving me some nice ideas once its all finished, to truely determine who is the greatest for me but she is among the strongest contenders ;) I also had similar thoughts about my darlings by all the recent passings...

One of them has been rocking it for me since the 90s and even the limitations of the soundchips couldn't stop him. To think I can still hear his sound for new titles today, with the same warm sound and mastery of the orchestra he demonstranted on the SNES, heaven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmBAqEI7ofA&t=52s
Can't wait. Also, a bit of trivia, unless some obscure forgotten Japanese game score turns up, Kohei Tanaka is also most likely the very first composer to compose and conduct a fully orchestral game score that was not an arrangement album: https://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19548


@Josh: As I said before somewhere else, good to see you back/again :) And wonderful news!

@MastaMist: It's so good to hear some positive energy from music lovers. Allow me to piggyback your enthusiasm.

My journey with her has never been linear. It has rather trickled in steadily every year for the past ten years or so. It is hard to describe what it is or how I really feel, I guess because I can't. But the Yoko Kanno frenzy shows itself in places it shouldn't.

Often times when listening to music in general, her stuff sneak in, and usually stay there for a while. Once I ran across some street band playing folk music in front of a church in Barcelona. The band had bagpipe. The moment it finished I found myself rushing back just to open up Ark, like a fiend who needs his urge tended. And there it was, another Kanno listening spree. A few years back when changing phone, I realized I had had Creation in it for a year and a half. Music came and gone, but not that album.

She's also the only composer who I have listened to all of her stuff without watching (or at least finished) the films, anime or playing the games. Yes sir, I've never gotten around to watch Cowboy Bebop, any of her Macross or Ghost in a Shell. Yet Space Lion, What Planet Is This and Quartz Movement enjoy their high place in my Sound Check material. I have ffshrine to thank for this happy accident really, when I discovered that Yoko Kanno Music Collection thread sometimes back in 2008. The true power of music is when soundtrack liberates itself from the medium it intends to accompany, a point that Vinphonic has tried his damnedest to make. A musical nirvana, I reckon.

And speaking of ffshrine wonder, another music recommendation from you. Time to check out this Tsuneo Imahori name you mentioned. Thanks again for your wonderful passion.

Oh man, my fingers are just twitching to rain down the Kanno parade (and I mean more than just the ghostwriting/plagiarizing stuff that gets echoed to hell an back), but I've harped on her so many times before that I think you guys ought to get your moment of enjoyment every once in a while. =)

There is one thing that is indisputable about her- and that is that the production values behind her music surpass that of any media composer who ever lived.

@Vinphonic: I totally feel you there. With all the work of putting together all those legacy posts, I'd imagine you'd wanna spend your time doing anything but tackle the oeuvre of an entire artist head-on. I've just had some time on my hands and Naotora being so superlative got me inspired.

Aw geez, a One Piece open world game. I haven't even thought about OP in so long but I'd play that till the disc caught fire.

@banoime:Pleasure to meet a fellow Kanno stan. I'm the typical story, discovered her from Bebop and had to make do w samples and what I could find in fye till I got my first ipad and discovered this site, which I have to thank for getting me into countless other types of music. Interesting you consumed her stuff without seeing any of the source material(also, what is Quartz Movement? Could it be I missed something?), but as you say, the strength of her writing and the performances she gets out of her players fill in all the gaps, don't they? Listening sprees, haha, me too! A lot of it is that so many pieces are so sweet and unique and effective and perfectly created. Every track is a treat, and a ton of these albums I never ever get the urge to skip or cut anything. Not to say she's perfect, but it's so easy to just push play and go wherever she wants to take me.

I'd recommend ya try watching Wolf's Rain sometime, it's almost like if you made an anime out of a lost Kipling cyberpunk short story, and Macross Plus is just about the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen. Also, believe the hype on Bebop. It is every bit substance AND style.

Tsuneo Imahori is an electric guitar phenom and longtime session player for Kanno. He was a member of THE SEATBELTS, the Jp/NY jazz band she formed purely to score Bebop, and is among the small handful of steady players to basically remain her band for the foreseeable future. He's had/is in bands of his own; Tripgraphica and currently unbeltipo; and has a wicked rockabilly/d&b/jazz fusion style that does wondrous things w rhythm, harmony, percussion and production. But he also has a knack for sweet, if ambiguous melodies, and is not above letting a small ensemble of woodwinds and strings(dude actually writes parts for bassoon, crazy)tell a gorgeous story on their own, or mix some element of acoustic and electronic to do the same.

His solo scoring jobs within anime are few, with only Trigun, Hajime no Ippo and Gungrave to his name, more if you count Badlands Rumble and the Gungrave games, yet each effort is an absolute winner, instilled w pulse-pounding, cleverly syncopated breakbeats one minute and a sweetly rustic sense of beauty the next. That his name never shows up in composer credits anymore is an injustice.

Kohei Tanaka is also most likely the very first composer to compose and conduct a fully orchestral game score

Bruce Broughton was. It says so in the actual article you linked. Broughton recorded his score in 1990, Tanaka in 1993 - and Tanaka's was shorter and not fully orchestral, most of it was synth with just 20-odd minutes of cues performed by live ensemble - and a lot of the live ensemble stuff was covered in traditional Japanese percussion and sound effects - and treated badly in the game itself; witness the cringeworthy "It's the credits OH NOT REALLY" moment...

[Edit: Common sense heavily suggests that Bruce Broughton WASN'T - see a few posts below.]

https://youtu.be/g8hkcT1-Rew?t=12m30s

Also... RONDON BREECH EES FORRING DAN, FORRING DAN, FORRING DAN, RONDON BREECH EES FORRING DAN MAI FRAIR RAIDY!



*shudders*

I'd rather listen to a Keiji Inai score - and the 98% part, not the three to five minutes that's decent... :O

Nonetheless, an amazing score given the era. What a pity that Tanaka writes mostly crap these days. That One Piece sample is hopeless. Oh, well - at least we have the albums from the past.

And yet, Tanaka effectively beat him to the punch by about five years. It'd be easy indeed to claim "I did it, I wrote the first orchestral game score!" if you just sit down w an orchestra and write some music when meanwhile, the actual game isn't even anywhere on the horizon.

---------- Post added at 02:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 AM ----------


and a lot of the live ensemble stuff was covered in traditional Japanese percussion and sound effects - and treated badly in the game itself; witness the cringeworthy "It's the credits OH NOT REALLY" moment...

https://youtu.be/g8hkcT1-Rew?t=12m30s

Also... RONDON BREECH EES FORRING DAN, FORRING DAN, FORRING DAN, RONDON BREECH EES FORRING DAN MAI FRAIR RAIDY!




The thing you're trying to make sound bad is in fact, very, very good.

The thing you're trying to make sound bad is in fact, very, very good.

I never said otherwise - in fact, I explicitly stated that I thought it was an amazing score.

I said it's a pity it was so short and that, of the short score, parts of it were covered in percussion and SFX. I said that the score isn't treated particularly well in the game.

(And I highlighted some particularly awful English pronunciation, which surely we can all have a good laugh at?)

As for HoD... in interesting one. I really just quoted the common wisdom on the score, but I readily admit that the 1990 recording date sounds like bollocks. Why (and under what circumstances) would you record a score for something EIGHT YEARS before its release? Apparently it was in development since 1992.

ON reflection, I give Tanaka the prize.

This is Quartz Movement. It's in Smooth in the Shell album, collection of unreleased stuff.
https://youtu.be/n9ESEE3bRSM?t=2380

It is mentioned here (https://vgmdb.net/album/23255) on Disc 6 because it's supposed to be one long track. I found a split version with track names on it. When I use it at gigs to test the system after dialing everything in, a lot of people who I work with really dig it. Ended up ripping them a lot and gave it to everybody. It's just a cool fucking track.

And thanks again for the recommendation. Just poked my head a little bit around youtube and already liked what I heard.

Oh man, my fingers are just twitching to rain down the Kanno parade (and I mean more than just the ghostwriting/plagiarizing stuff that gets echoed to hell an back), but I've harped on her so many times before that I think you guys ought to get your moment of enjoyment every once in a while. =)

There is one thing that is indisputable about her- and that is that the production values behind her music surpass that of any media composer who ever lived.
Agreed, I almost wrote a reply to his post. Kanno is in the top 10 living media composers, I will give her that, just not top 5. There are some media composers out there who outpower her in almost every facet.

I really like Naotora - I rank it as Kanno's finest orchestral work to date or even finest ever work. Refreshingly free of plagiarism I think, I can't detect anything really. I acknowledge that Star Wars was probably superior objectively, but my personal favourite score of last year was Naotora.

@Tangotreats: But THAT'S WHAT'S SO GOOD lmao I love dopey shit like rewinding credits or record skips and working those into the score somehow. When Kanno does shit like that for JoJo, it slays me every time.

@banoime: AH THAT! I got that! Score another for Kanno; she can even create chill ambient movie techno that most artists would knock out as filler and imbue it w a groove and enough development to actually take you somewhere. Put any given "filler" track from GitS into the Matrix or Perfect Dark or Mission: Impossible and ppl would prolly prefer it.

Check out as much Imahori as you can dude, you absolutely won't be dissapointed! Maybe try exploring Yasushi Ishi from there!

@delix: lolnope, number one composer, nobody comes close. Sorry, I don't make the rules. (Jk Jk)

Let it be known that I by no means think the woman is literally perfect or immune to criticism* and am absolutely willing to go to the mat w any different idea or opposing perspectives. If you wanna "rain on the parade", then bring it, nerds. None of y'all are scary and I will fight you.

Since some of y'all seem to think you're sitting on some hard truths you just can't wait to drop, lemme do so preemptively to lure you out:
2013s Gochisou Note, a humble drama score I'd describe as "If Napple tale were a lil less cartoonish and more stately and thematic" was a better, more rounded, more successful singular work of orchestral writing than The Last Jedi, Iwasaki's Origin and anything Oshima and Hisaishi has written in the last five years, barring maaaaybe Giant Sea Creatures. Maaaaaaaaaybe.

For that matter, Darker Than Black was a better Read or Die, and Kanno joins Iwasaki in the unique and valued pantheon of Japanese media composers actually capable of writing jazz and funk that sounds nominally like actual Black music. Her unique fasnination in exploring a wide range of musical culture and expression has obviously only enriched her voice, and it bugs the crap outta me how her travel anecdotes in interviews, stories that speak directly to that facet of her work, always get dismissed out of hand in here.

She could've absolutely written a better Princess Mononoke had she given the chance.

I am over the plagiarism discussion. 1. Mostly reaching internet detectivism from well over ten years ago. 2. I LIKE ripoffs in music, generally, unless it smacks of laziness or trite copying, an impression I've never gotten from her, even when the accusations were current.

*For instance, one of the few places I generally prefer the sound of American contemporary acts(of the 90's and 00's, anyway) to Kanno's exploration of it is rock, but that isn't for a second bc I believe she's deficient in the genre. She just so rarely writes leading parts for electric guitar, and unless specifically writing something to sound heavy, her usually measured, restrained style of writing can result in pieces that almost sound more like christian rock than something that would make you headbump. GitS's Yakitori, a seven-min+ jam led by Imahori that sounds like something out of Yes' golden days, FUCKING SHREDS and it saddens me she as of yet hasn't written anything else quite like it. If she was handed a project and told "here ya go, I'm thinking hard rock will be the thematic throughline of this score, here are some temp tracks, good luck", I have no doubt what she'd write would blow us all away.

I really like Naotora - I rank it as Kanno's finest orchestral work to date or even finest ever work. Refreshingly free of plagiarism I think, I can't detect anything really. I acknowledge that Star Wars was probably superior objectively, but my personal favourite score of last year was Naotora.

I agree, but IMO, I think only the first one is the best.

I really like Naotora - I rank it as Kanno's finest orchestral work to date or even finest ever work. Refreshingly free of plagiarism I think, I can't detect anything really.
There are some references to previous Taiga drama scores. They're easy to miss, though. For example, a rhythm from Dokuganryu Masamune (1987) shows up in Fuma.

My brother put some Gundam A-Turn (was it that?) by Yoko Kanno this morning and I literally felt like I was in heaven

My brother put some Gundam A-Turn (was it that?) by Yoko Kanno this morning and I literally felt like I was in heaven

Turn A, Naotora, the Escaflowne film, Arjuna, Frontier and Aquarion saw her on her absolute A-game at the orchestra. Turn A kinda holds the crown for me; the turn of the century pastoral vibe, it's booming, heroic spirit and all the Gershwin references push it over the top for me.

I was trying to think of something to say about this Kanno discussion, but I'm so tired of hearing the same arguments over and over again. So rather rather than throwing out overarching claims for another boring "my favorite composer is better than your favorite composer" debate, let's do something a bit different and compare individual pieces utilizing the same idea. So, about that flying escape, who did it better: Williams, Asakawa, or Kanno?

http://picosong.com/wcPTC/
http://picosong.com/wcPTL/
http://picosong.com/wcPTE/


All three of these pieces are similar in their construction, orchestration, the usage context, and even the names(!). No doubt Kanno and Asakawa were heavily inspired by Wiliam's piece since it came first, but it's the execution that matters. So which one pulled it off the best? Which one do you want to play in the background when you're flying away from the bad guys?

Honestly...I prefer Yoko Kanno's idea here. I never really was a fun of ET, even though I recognize it as a stellar piece of music. The very childish and juvenile texture of it just never was my cup of tea. But I don't like music for "family films", so I have a weird bias here. Five Star Stories was fun, but it was over all too quickly. Wings here though...it is just a very mature piece with some beautiful chorus at the end to top it off.

So I give the point to Kanno.

Williams's piece is really glistening and active and full of that classic Williams whimsical Hollywood sound that makes is style so addictive to ingest out of context. The harmonies it wheels into aren't always super fun to listen to but the piece is intriguing in how it dances right up to the line of hyperactiveness or dissonance without ever actually losing focus or going off the rails into straight cacophony, true signs of an indisputed master craftsman and musician. The thematic references and the transitions into them are soooo good.

Asakawa's immediately sounds a bit more classic and straight forward in influence and construction, going w staccato urgent rhythms in the strings and brass at first while giving the former some luscious romantic runs in the middle. It's brief but I love the interplay in all the different moving parts. It's busy and tense but also lovely and not overdriven. The name fits perfectly.

Ahhh, Wings. Excellent choice. Easily my fave of these three, and honestly I don't hear too much similarity to Williams' piece aside from that violin run the track starts off w. That brass theme is so immediately catchy and not at all dissimilar from her Nobunaga fanfares, and I love the thing Kanno likes to do where each section of the orchestra gets to do a different part for the concluding bar of a melody. Mmmm, so good. Unlike Williams and Asakawa's dense, flighty orchestrations, there's a lot of air and clarity to Kanno's piece; often the strings will glide away or the chorus will start w little backing besides a keening flute or something for ornamentation before the rest of the orchestra joins in. Every lil part is instantly hummable and memorable, and the end part sounds like an ancient lost English chorale practically before that good ole Hollywood finish. It's everything I love about Kanno in one lil package, a curious mix of old and new that tells a complete story and just straight up sounds great doing it., all built around the simple easy allure of a good tune.

This was a fun exercise and all three pieces, and artists, are sublime musicians. Thanks for the idea, Zipper.

Great idea:


The theme of Running/Racing/Overcoming the Odds:

John Williams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iClEaJz_A0A&t=1m59s)
Yoko Kanno (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9ZZ2atEgo)
Joe Hisaishi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hstbdf-vOo4&t=3m58s) (until 5m22s)
Michiru Oshima (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkjN-hAFhpk)


James Horner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wkCD4_WkQ4&t=1m57s)
Toshihiko Sahashi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePSnPNTNcI&index=3&list=PLAY2aAj333CpUIuE-jVxPk1Nb_PZ11vxX&t=1m30s)
Akira Senju (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayPq4wEnadM&t=1m41s)
Kohei Tanaka (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6t-6ibfT4E&t=9m35s) (until 11m04s)


Jerry Goldsmith (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIMpZ60qEY&t=12m24s) (until 16m17s)
Masamichi Amano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv_dsrqh3Q&t=4m43s) (until 7m20s)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF-gFlQKOnM&list=PL52D95D7C27936411)


Naoki Sato (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPbZlIT7E0&t=38m45s) (until 40m36s)
Alan Silvestri (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfuavRf7diY&t=5m9s)
JNH (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHOgrQhH5gM&t=31m54s)


Taku Iwasaki (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SQtP8AMN_8)
Kosuke Yamashita (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24GoHwX5uQg)

^^^That is waaaay too many to do all the time, but uhh I'll try. Three or four is a good amount I think.

Michiru OshimaAh, thanks for reminding me, this would have been the fourth option on my comparison list:

http://picosong.com/wc97N/

They aren't very original with these names are they. :P

Poor forgotten Hirano...

http://picosong.com/wc9Wq/

http://picosong.com/wcfsh/

Yoko Kanno (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9ZZ2atEgo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaDOcpqPuO0

Attending to The Zipper's first...

I agree that the cues presented are not at all similar, other than that they start with roughly the same idea, which Williams borrowed from Howard Hanson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO2wTqo-eqg&feature=youtu.be&t=22m38s) so they're all even as far as plagiarism goes. Each piece begins with the same orchestral device, and then go off in vastly different directions; they're not utilising the same idea[b].

They're completely different in style and intent, and they score wildly different scenes.

I cannot fault Williams - but as far as I'm concerned, putting one of Williams' finest scores from his golden era against [b]anything whatsoever is going to result in a situation loaded against the others. There is simply no competition. John Williams is film music, and film music is John Williams. The winner in an "Any Williams versus Anything Else By Anyone" competition will nearly always be Williams.

E.T. is... E.T.

If I may quote myself from a few years ago:


The final twenty minutes of that film is uninterrupted score - and not once, not for one bar, does the music become boring, repetitive, or redundant. Every note is there doing what it should be doing. The score up until the final act has been preparing you for the big themes, and then, there they are - in a symphonic poem, a fantasia of melodies and moods. The sequence incorporates tension, panic, threat, friendship, pain, love, and joy. It moves from the family home to a sinister government research facility, to a chase through the streets of Burbank, then into the sky, and then finally down into the forest. A plan is formulated, which leads to a tense escape from authority - which becomes a furious chase, an action sequence, a brief "beauty shot" pass, and then a shift into the major key - and the big theme gets a proper airing.

All major themes from the score thus far are whipped up in the counterpoint, with Williams deftly tying up ALL the loose threads of his thematic material without missing a beat. The mood shifts and for the final eight minutes, there is barely a word of dialogue spoken - there doesn't need to be, because Williams carries THE ENTIRE CLIMAX of the film upon his own shoulders. Tragedy and sadness gives way to dignity and optimism, gives way to a final maestoso restatement of the big theme - a big fanfare leads to a ravishing major key close against the simplest of simple images; a crying boy looking up at the stars. That's TWENTY MINUTES OF MUSIC folks, half a dozen different themes - proper themes, structured melodies, development, variation, counterpoint, shifts in orchestration, shifts in tempo, shifts in volume, shifts in tension. It passes by in a flash. Williams hits every part of the action, and not once does this compromise the musical integrity of the score. Not once does he fill in time. Not once does he resort to themeless ostinato. Not once does he create tension by increasing the volume. Not once does he stab away repeatedly at one chord. The orchestra - which he treats as an orchestra and not a giant synthesiser - features in a showpiece of virtuosity.

None of those other pieces - though I love them and their respective composers dearly - can come close.

That said...

Asakawa: Short, thematically sparse - there is twenty-five seconds of orchestral posturing before any melodic material appears - which I love, but in a cue that's barely 90 seconds long, every little helps. I love Asakawa's combination of dissonance and pure 1940s Hollywood syrupy romance. It shouldn't work, but it does.

Kanno: Your typical Kanno symphonic fantasia; multiple themes interpolated into three-and-a-half minutes of self-contained, pure musical storytelling. We only wait four seconds for the appearance of the first theme, and only 19 seconds further for the second - it's full of delicious harmonies and thick orchestration but it's a pure melody, too. At 1:06 the famous "flying" gets a lighter, more playful outing - and then a glorious hymn. I love the ending, but at the same time I find it just a little jarring - we suddenly move from the hymn to a traditional brassy cadence - almost like "Oh, OK, that's enough of that!" - but it's utterly convincing in context - and a brief reprise of theme that opened it.

Entirely within the context of the individual pieces presented, I rank Williams - Kanno - Asakawa - taking the entirety of the score into consideration, Williams - Asakawa - Kanno.

Considering the others that were added:

Oshima: Another slow-burner as far as getting started goes - almost a minute of placeholding before the theme comes along... And the theme is there, then it's there again but louder, then there are some descending chords and then it's the end. I love Oshima, but this is not a musically satisfying example of her work - it's a lovely melody, but it doesn't go anywhere or do anything - and it's barely heard in the score. Oshima isn't good at leitmotif - she's good at "right here, right now" scoring - unleashing a delicious theme and a ravishing, thick orchestration... but the film, and therefore the score, doesn't lend itself to any particular kind of thematic development. Williams spent half of ET alluding to the big theme, playing us little fragments of it here and there, and teasing us - before finally letting it go for it, hell for leather. It earned its "big theme" moment. Oshima's big theme moment... it's just there.

Hirano solo: RD is my favourite Hirano score - the one which I think really showcases Hirano's ability; what's going on in this score is simply jaw-dropping. I simply cannot process everything in real time. I have to listen to the same cue fifty times before I can catch my bearings. He was on his way to becoming the greatest film composer who ever lived, and one of the greatest composers - full stop - who ever lived. What a terrible shame that RD turned out to be the beginning of the end for Hirano, and that the state of Japanese scoring has changed so drastically in just a decade that Hirano is now barely working.

Hirano / Hamauzu: If there's ever been a composer/orchestrator partnership in Japan that's genuinely made in heaven, it's this one. I don't rate Hamauzu at all. I find him an utter bore, a rank amateur, and overrated to a point of hilarity... but when you give his raw material to Hirano, something glorious happens. He's got incredibly interesting ideas, and a very, very unique style which he's just not talented enough to realise on his own... but Hirano dresses it up so well - and it's not an example of "shit with a nice orchestral bow" - it actually turns into something really, really amazing - and goes places that neither Hirano not Hamauzu would gone individually. Yoshihisa Hirano is one of the greatest orchestrators who ever lived - the effortless joy with which he juggles the Warsaw Philharmonic is astounding. The music itself is quite interesting, although neither Hamauzu nor Hirano really prioritise melody in their music (as does, say, Uematsu, who lives or dies by his tunes) so it's more about texture and rythym than melody... but it's all done with such panache, it's utterly, utterly convincing.

Really interesting replies, everyone. =)


I agree that the cues presented are not at all similar, other than that they start with roughly the same idea, which Williams borrowed from Howard Hanson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO2wTqo-eqg&feature=youtu.be&t=22m38s) so they're all even as far as plagiarism goes. Each piece begins with the same orchestral device, and then go off in vastly different directions; they're not utilising the same idea[b].

They're completely different in style and intent, and they score wildly different scenes.The pieces are all based on the same idea and context- with the exception of maybe Kanno's piece (since like many of her pieces, are more like mini concertos than anything that matches with a specific scene), they're all portraying the same scene- the good guys making a heroic flying escape from the bad guys. Williams didn't invent that orchestral device, but he unquestionably popularized it specifically for those types of scenes.

Though yes, I do agree that the way the pieces develop is quite different, because the chase scene in each film with its minute details is quite different. And unfortunately, the scenes it was made for are what make or break the pieces. Asakawa and Oshima didn't have 15 full minutes to score an entire chase scene like Williams. Still, I think each piece is more than enough to get a taste of how each composer would approach a similar context with their different methods, and is therefore worthy of comparison.


I cannot fault Williams - but as far as I'm concerned, putting one of Williams' finest scores from his golden era against [b]anything whatsoever is going to result in a situation loaded against the others. There is simply no competition. John Williams is film music, and film music is John Williams. The winner in an "Any Williams versus Anything Else By Anyone" competition will nearly always be Williams.

E.T. is... E.T.Yeah, comparing the entire 15-minute piece to everyone else would have been overkill, which is why I only chopped out only the 'chase' portion to compare. No doubt, in the context of the film and the entire score, E.T. curbstomps everything else mentioned so far. But that particular chase cue on its own, great as it is, is not so unbeatable that the other pieces cannot be put up against it.

Damn it, Streich :D

Intermission before we continue, for an error I made on my side, I posted Ancient Magus Bride way too early, I apologize since roughly half of it was missing. Now here's everything, three hours of score in total. If you ask me one of the more sophisticated anime scores out there with many interesting textures and atonality you rarely hear in media. The prologue score "Those Awaiting a Star" even has a couple of pieces by Yoko Kanno (under an alias) and it features a bigger orchestra and is more melodic than for the television series, though it's still full of atonal stuff. I marked the one's that I think were done by Kanno but it's nothing official. But as Kentaro Sato said, you can't trust in Booklet credits too much and she was listed on JASRAC as a BGM composer so there's that.



Junichi Matsumoto (additional music by Yoko Kanno... maybe)
The Ancient Magus Bride [Complete Orchestral Works]



Download (https://mega.nz/#!7zpCGBaZ!cu_Q002Mby36JANhgV6AdkZK3WXdnYdA00EXpgVTvrQ)

SAMPLE (http://picosong.com/wcLUS/)

Some of the art (especially) for the OVA and the TV series is quite gorgeus to look at. I wouldn't mind if it gets a movie. Perhaps "Riuto Omori" will return ;)


@Tango: Hirano is not out of work or barely works, that's not the issue. He scored an upcoming TV anime (could be 5min), an upcoming anime movie, something for animeNext100, more solo albums, various drama scores (one o two pieces I grab as usual but most is dull) AND concert works, among them a piece for Koto and Orchestra. And that's just this year. Last year's work was mostly unreleased including a 20 minute symphonic suite of HunterXHunter.

I'm sure you know what I mean, Vinphonic. I tire of this game of semantics, so I respectfully withdraw from it.

Did I ever mention how last week I was listening to The Last Jedi and througly enjoying it, though I remember back in December lots of people complaining about it, somehow? It may not be a masterpiece like most of countless epics of Wlliams, but it was definitely such a good listen, with the AUNTHENTIC sound, inspired or not, it was a fantastic listen.. so much I wanted more even after having listened to the whole thing entirely.

Deeply thankful as always for the share Vinphonic, but I still HEAVILY doubt Kanno had any sort of involvement for the BGM aside for the ending song. She might have a tendency to keep a low profile by aliases, but her music certainly does NOT. The sample that you posted shares similarity in the harmonies for "Aust" and "Pains of affection and sadness, difference and difference", and we all know that both of those were composed by Matsumoto.

I'm not sure whether this has been previously covered in this thread, but what do the folks here think of James Newton Howard's score for "King Kong" (2005)?

I agree with tangotreats's ranking of both the individual pieces and full scores: 1. Williams 2. Kanno 3. Asakawa, switch places with Asakawa and Kanno for full scores. I personally prefer Asakawa to Oshima, I wish I could articulate why, in just a few scores Asakawa engages me more than Oshima does, barring maybe Blast of Tempest, possibly her best ever score (I haven't heard too many Oshima scores so who knows). Sorry, but I am not a big Oshima fan, even if I like some of her work. I even prefer Wada to Oshima I think.

I'm looking at this less as a ranking exercise, and more of an opportunity to compare and contrast different approaches to the same sort of motif. It's purely an emotional experience to listen and analyze music for me, and I have fun sharing those responses.

Williams' Harry Potter piece is making me wish I watched any of those movies. Those sprightly flute and bell tones at the beginning of the link play so wonderfully off the mellow violin melody, makes me think of a playfully sister Christmas dance. The harmonies are luscious throughout,and that brass fanfare! I get an impression of taking a grand tour of an amazing new world unfurling out before you, which is more or less what happens from what I remember of the one book I read in the 90's. The piece exemplifies a mingling of wide-eyed wonder and low rumblings of something darker and more mischievous that I find crazy gratifying about the best fantasy scores.

Kanno's Run is always fun. Hey, that rhymes! I prefer Turn A's Spring from the Earth and Escaflowne's Flying Dragon as more suitable and complex examples of the chosen theme, but Run is still a sturdy, sunny, strident action cue that charges ahead out of the gate w a lovely passionate trumpet theme. It never really loses momentum even as it switches around rhythmic parts and motifs, and I just love those soaring brassy cadences.

Streich brought up the Oklahoma theme from Twistser, which yes, is plenty similar in the first minute or so. I dare say it's the rare case of being better than Kanno's piece!!!, but that's a matter of course. One is a confident, purposeful action cue, and the other is a filmic statement of purpose, a full movement that rollicks from pastoral adventure to stormy portent and then sweet, gentle hopefulness. It's quite a marvel of musical storytelling. I don't really prefer any theme in particular to Kanno's, I still kinda prefer hers when put together, but what's here is lovely and delicately performed, wearing clear Williams and Copland influence of its own. Love the acoustic guitar.

The trumpet makes Hisaishi's piece shine w swashbuckling swagger and adventuresome energy. It's basically of a kind w the Tanaka piece, the former a lil more intimate and lofty and the latter all swells and snares and drama. Hisaishi's piece has a hint of French influence that gives it a lil more flair, while Tanaka's sounds so vast and heroic.

Tango said p much everything I would about the Oshima piece, so I'll nominate another for consideration in keeping w the theme from my personal fave Oshima score
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-ICHRCg34&index=11&t=0s&list=PL15618AA8BC998D7F

It's a bit stormier than many of the other pieces but gets across the same regal, classically inspired sound without wearing out its welcome, and compositionally, it's all about charging ahead and marching forward. Just being in the minor key does interesting things for Oshima's traditionally straightforward sense of drama, and I just love the way it builds in the end. One of my favorite ending cadences from her actin pieces, too.

Will try to get to the rest later!

Hirano / Hamauzu: If there's ever been a composer/orchestrator partnership in Japan that's genuinely made in heaven, it's this one. I don't rate Hamauzu at all. I find him an utter bore, a rank amateur, and overrated to a point of hilarity... but when you give his raw material to Hirano, something glorious happens. He's got incredibly interesting ideas, and a very, very unique style which he's just not talented enough to realise on his own... but Hirano dresses it up so well - and it's not an example of "shit with a nice orchestral bow" - it actually turns into something really, really amazing - and goes places that neither Hirano not Hamauzu would gone individually. Yoshihisa Hirano is one of the greatest orchestrators who ever lived - the effortless joy with which he juggles the Warsaw Philharmonic is astounding. The music itself is quite interesting, although neither Hamauzu nor Hirano really prioritise melody in their music (as does, say, Uematsu, who lives or dies by his tunes) so it's more about texture and rythym than melody... but it's all done with such panache, it's utterly, utterly convincing.

I couldn't disagree more about Hamauzu. He has such a grasp on simplicity and tone. I've studied his music and have orchestrated and arranged it. Sure if you are talking about full symphonic music, he leaves much to be desired. However, he doesn't need tons of instruments to make beautiful and moving music. Hirano maybe a good fancy orchestrator but his music is completely inaccessible to me. None of his scores and I have so badly tried to give him a chance, have made me remember a theme or motif. Hamauzu is a string, piano, and chamber ensemble composer these days. His strength lies in his mastery of tone and chord structure. He brings together elements of Debussy, Ravel, and even Ryuichi Sakamoto. When I listen to his music, I feel it in my soul. In the end it is all subjective, just my personal opinion. He isn't the best composer that ever lived, but he is good at what he does at least.

After listening to Vinphonic's Youtube channel and his fantastic suite compilations, I thought I would give it a try with Iwasaki's Yakitate Japan:

https://soundcloud.com/user-507695647/yakitate-suite/s-hZ1Zk

(Please ignore how I forgot to add the fade-in for the final track :()

One of the few rare times when Iwasaki writes something exuberant in the vein of a Silver Age composer, and one of his most underrated and overlooked works. Surprisingly this was recorded around the same time he was working on Agito, so maybe that motivated him to push the orchestra a bit harder than usual. Those with keen ears will hear references to both Zimmer's Backdraft (likely due to it being used in Iron Chef, an inspiration for the anime), and for whatever reason Herrmann's North by Northwest.

@Tango: Oh, nothing of the sort. Just say he hasn't written something as good as Broken Blade in seven years (though for me HunterXHunter has its great moments) and I would even agree. I personally don't rate Hirano among the highest, and as other's said he definitely has not the magic touch of melody that Williams, Hisaishi, Kanno, Tanaka or Oshima possess. What makes him intoxicating for me to listen to is his genius of making atonality sound tonal if that makes sense. Only few composers in history could do that, most ending up sounding like Matsumoto (which is admirable to hear in media nonetheless). Even a composer of a caliber of Jerry Goldsmith was mostly "tonal - now we're in serialism - back to tonal". That and his masterclass of making orchestral percussion equal to other sections of the orchestra. In a piece, it's not his melodies that are memorable, but the construction of it, the colors, ryrhm and textures. In my opinion he was born to write for Dark Fantasy, I find his music works exceptionally while playing Demon's Souls/Dark Souls. Imagine he scored The Black Cauldron or Dark Crystal... or Gargoyles... or Berserk... or Goblin Slayer...

@Pensquawk: Hmm... on reflection I find it unlikely that a composer of the caliber and status of Yoko Kanno, just coming from Naotora would agree to write a couple of cues for an OVA for a composer she has no connections with according to my knowledge so perhaps JASRAC made a mistake and credited her for BGM instead of OP/ED but I hear something slightly Kannoesque in some pieces, as I wrote its mostly suspicion and nothing official but it made sense to me for Kanno to be involved since her name is always surrounded by mysterious circumstances ;)

@MastaMist: Loving your/all answers, I agree it's fun hearing opinions on singular pieces once in a while.


@Zipper: You flatter me too much, many times I really think some are no good and I should remake them (but no time :D). Rarely do I create something that I would not change in anyway and think "wow, how did I do that?" (like Katamari or GD2, you know ebb and flow).

I'm going to echo Vinphonic here about Hirano, whenever he works his dissonant harmonic magic, it's absolutely sublime and uncontested as the best display of anything approaching atonal music in the history of media scoring.

But whenever he creates 'normal' music, it's usually rather by-the-numbers and bland. Not much better than Yugo Kanno on autopilot. It's evident in his newer post-BB works, like the first two soundtracks of HxH. Quran seems to be the exception to this rule, but even it was more of a classical pastiche rather than anything original to Hirano. Essentially, his range is rather limited as a composer. Goldsmith and Alex North might not be able to write dissonant music on the same level as Hirano, but when it came to writing everything else, they did it with spectacular flying colors. Hirano... just kind of pedals along in that regard.

And while I love Hirano's dissonant music, I have to admit it's an acquired taste. Usually that type of music is used for threatening/chaotic situations in media scoring, or in the academia of concert halls. But used in the context of something like that upbeat Real Drive piece pensquawk posted, I can imagine most people asking "Why not just write the melody in a normal fashion like Joe Hisaishi? Why do you need that background noise? What does it convey that a normal happy melody cannot?" Basically, in a dramatic context that isn't the life-or-death chaotic bleakness of something like Death Note, Hirano's music just seems dramatically awkward and out-of-context. It's great music, but it doesn't do what most people expect music to do for the medium it's written in. It's inefficient.

It's inefficent. It's marvelous.

"You are the composer, whatever you think is best"

-Some random Japanese director (in Hirano's case Kazuhiro Furuhashi)

I mean, that's the same thing the directors of Dragonslayer told Alex North... results may vary. There's a time and place for heavily dissonant music, and some times are just better than others.

But yes, Hirano's dissonance is also marvelous. Inefficient but marvelous. Much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. :)

Intermission #2 (before awaiting the other impressions), another score I shared I apologize for since it was much too early and again, a huge chunk was still missing.


WHAT?! Really?!

I see this "Origin" is a "series of films"... I hope that doesn't mean years and years waiting for the score...

From 2014, so I'm afraid it won't be until 2022 we can hear GuP Finale in its full form...




Mobile Suit Gundam THE ORIGIN [THE COMPLETE SCORE]
Music composed and conducted by Takayuki Hattori



70s FILM SCORE EDITION (https://mega.nz/#!Hy5TmIAR!2FpjfxmsMl0rPUQJ-6rb2Q5T0K4x2vzLlbzWKQ3dzkM) / THE COMPLETE SCORE (https://mega.nz/#!yqwyxL4Y!N1O4ZTU3apw3oI8F8_qzp41Q1DdGpgj9xHoHpRYxap4)

SAMPLE (Classic Hattori) (http://picosong.com/wcVeM/) / Sample (Modern Hattori) (http://picosong.com/wcVP5/)


Here would be a post by Streich telling us a bit how damn good this Theme is if I could actually find it again. THE END.

Gundam The Origin is perhaps the final work of the original staff that worked on Ideon, Five Star Stories, Oldass Gundam series, Yamato 2199 and even the original Space Battleship Yamato. It's the farewell of a generation of SciFi anime space opera creators, their final loveletter to the Space Opera genre. From the retro designs to the original art by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (cover art) to the (mostly) 70s SciFi musical clothing of Takayuki Hattori. As with Yamato 2199, don't watch it if you hate good anime (you don't even need to watch/like Gundam to enjoy it).

This time I present the score in its full glory, two hours in length as well as a carefully arranged CD of film music that would not sound out of place at all in the 70s, around 80 minutes.

Now for the score, it's my favorite of the "modern" (only really a third of it is) Hattori scores and my favorite Gundam since SEED/DESTINY (14 years ago!!!!!) but that wasn't hard, only Yugo Kanno has a couple of good pieces to show. It's FINALLY Gundam sounding like the 70s again, even more so at times than Sahashi if you ask me, but of course you know who I prefer ;). SEED was goofy and allowed Sahashi to do basically whatever and have fun scoring SciFi in any way he pleased, from Vangelis to Goldsmith. The Origin doesn't really allow for such freedom. First many chuncks are scored to picture, second the story is no fool's play, it's an honest Space Opera, full of drama with high stakes and calling for a more "darker, urgent sound", there's some levity in SciFi conventions but the core of the story/score is tragic and dramatic. Hattori does what he thinks is best, that is a core of pure 70s SciFi like they don't make em no more and the rest is a determination to combine modern elements/style with classic 70s SciFi, incorporating his weird electronic tendencies from his past scores since the 90s and the modern sound palette. I don't mind it at all and compared to Godzilla were he really goes experimental (but in a good way) for the second film, this one barely makes do with the modern tool canvas. It rarely appears in full force, maybe ten minutes total from two hours. But Hattori certainly listened to past Gundam scores before composing this, an uplifting heroic cue with a killer melody sounds like a mix of Sahashi's Justice and Freedom and some IBO, interesting considering this was most likely written before IBO. Other highlights are of course the Zeon march, appearing in modern cloths as well as "classic" ones. It's a march of great urgency and victory of the "bad guys". But the score never is bombastic or "kitsch" even at its most action moments, excluding of course a rock version of the Main Theme as a battle cue, but aside from that the score is very restrained, it's an origin story, not a full-scale conflict yet. It's more textural than drawing attention to itself and sometimes sounding straight out of 60s/70s Television but that's how Japan rolls. Not to mention one of Hattori's best themes ever (especially in the classical variant). If you ask me the score could have used "more obvious" Leitmotif but Hattori is no longer in his younger days. Regardless, in short, I love it and its full of class.

Enjoy

Concerning the Twister similarity, what's interesting is Run contains a little chromatic run in the lower strings and bassoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9ZZ2atEgo#t=2m0s

I wonder if that's a reference to the "tornado motif" in Twister https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOQROSh2mk8#t=4m0s

Thank you for Gundam. I listened to the samples on iTunes last night and immediately discarded it for obvious reasons, but I'm sure somebody else will find value in it. :)

I will post Tamagotchi tonight, as I'm away on holiday for a while after, and I plan on taking a little break from the internet going forwards... trying to stay away from technology, rediscover myself, etc...

Thank you for Gundam. I listened to the samples on iTunes last night and immediately discarded it for obvious reasons, but I'm sure somebody else will find value in it. :)

I will post Tamagotchi tonight, as I'm away on holiday for a while after, and I plan on taking a little break from the internet going forwards... trying to stay away from technology, rediscover myself, etc...

Can you please also post the Sugiyama before going on the self discovery journey, I've already been waiting for so long! Sorry for being a bother :S

So, NNK II's full soundtrack came out today in Japan... =)

Vinphonic, can I count on you to assemble me a huge compilation of all the orchestral music in the Monster Hunter games? Because some sound epic as heck but it's all I'd most likely want to listen to, serious grandeur, but i don't mean the live albums, those are great but I mean in the game itself. I could help proportionate the albums but there's a good hefty thread in the Shrine

Honestly though I hear Kaoru Wada does the arrangments so I'm not a half bit surprised.

---------- Post added at 12:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:10 PM ----------


So, NNK II's full soundtrack came out today in Japan... =)

Tomorrow.. both japanese and international CD's release the same day, June 6th. And it's "full" if you only count Hisaishi's compositions.

I wonder if/when it will turn up here - when is it out in the rest of the world? Will it only be on CD or will it be released digitally too?

I wonder if/when it will turn up here - when is it out in the rest of the world? Will it only be on CD or will it be released digitally too?

June 6th. No digital. Two editions. Japanese and worldwide through Waya Records. Same disc, just translated.

Tomorrow.. both japanese and international CD's release the same day, June 6th.
It's already June 6 in Japan, they're 12 hours ahead of the East Coast here in the States. The soundtrack is already on store shelves in Japan.

It's already June 6 in Japan, they're 12 hours ahead of the East Coast here in the States. The soundtrack is already on store shelves in Japan.

Alright. Let's just wait until it's ripped, then.

It's available digitally at Ototoy - https://ototoy.jp/_/default/p/107537

It's available digitally at Ototoy - https://ototoy.jp/_/default/p/107537

Nice.

What's the word on the new arrangements of tracks from FF7 performed by wind orchestra? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izegx-a6RT4

Not sure if they're for the remake or not.

Hmm... if you ask me they picked the wrong game. Imagine Uematsu getting the budget to revise/realize his Magnum Opus (FF6) beyond the soundchip limitation. But if they do that for FF7 I won't be complaining ;)
The rearrangements are from the recent Brass de Bravo Sienna Wind Orchestra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=318jSw8Jdo0&list=PLIlFBQXSq2FrnLRvkqBgE8u8fp2MdDejW&index=5) album but they only would need to do some slight variations for (symphony) orchestra and its done.
As far as symphonic albums go we already have Final Symphony for FF7 but you never know what Square Enix will do, recently basically everything gets an orchestra album.

On that note Nier&Automata not only gets an orchestra concert but also an orchestral arrangement album in september, probably in Prague but that's my speculation. Some pieces from the arrangement albums are pretty neat: Organ Piece by Miyano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fn9Uqq7ODU&list=PLc_RJ2laVnkCtTofcIBqRN2vsjqfxraHl&index=7) / Piano Piece by Keigo Hoashi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qptaGpilE0&t=13m13s)


EDIT: More Game news: Cygames is expanding again, a new music production company Cymusic has been established.


In our content including games, "music" has a big influence. We are seeking music with higher quality and production value than before. In order to produce music with higher quality, we have established subsidiaries that plan, produce, release and promote music and images, and manage artists.

At Cymusic, we will work on music production and artists / artists management, so that the game and anime industry and the music industry will keep hands in hand and develop each other, and we will actively recruit for the organization.

- Cymusic Company Outline

I can only hope that will result in their staff booking some halls around the world for their future projects, their budget is quite massive afterall. They also started their own Animation company that should soon be ready to make projects without any outside help. All games and anime by Cygames would then be directly financed by the company itself without any production comittee involvement in the old sense. All departments from animation to music production will be managed internally without any outside/third party dependance. That can only be good news. CyDesignation has already assembled some of my favorite illustrators in the business and who are now showered with new projects, anime and games, inside the company or offering their work, recently the character design and world art for Maquia. So I'm quite curious who will be a company intern or even head for Cymusic. I guess Ike is a possibility. I joked elsewhere about a Cysymphony project in the future but if it actually happens quote me on that ;)

Who knows, maybe Ike's Nashville session was for the upcoming Shadowverse anime, speaking of which it's high time they release another soundtrack, basically the outtakes of Virgin Soul and then some: Shadowverse - Brigade of the Sky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shIFh6ZSM2o)



And a trailer for Code Vein showed up, the music seems better recorded than for God Eater and some nice operatic piece: Code Vein - 4th Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6k5LkZEZw&t=3m15s) / Soundtrack is out Sep 27. Natsumi Kameoka was also involved so you know some of the orchestrations will be excellent. Btw the recording I posted was an original work so maybe Kantai Season 2 will be announced soon.



@Ponyo: I could do that, but need to do some research first. I believe I already shared Wada's arrangements as far as I can remember. More tomorrow.

@Ponyo: I could do that, but need to do some research first. I believe I already shared Wada's arrangements as far as I can remember. More tomorrow.

No hurries at all, man. Take months if you need. I just want all orchestra tracks within Monster Hunter games. It's a huge job. Which is why I said, take your time.

Wow, a track from Giacchino's new Jurassic World score is out and it is HORRIBLE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l82O8Szw6AM

Listen from 1.17 on in particular.

Wow, a track from Giacchino's new Jurassic World score is out and it is HORRIBLE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l82O8Szw6AM

Listen from 1.17 on in particular.

That is hyperbole, to say the least. It was a fun cue that was a bit on the repetitive side, but to say that it is horrible is just silly. I especially liked the use of chorus right at the end, and the transition from the horn blasts to full down orchestral mayhem at the beginning was nice.

A little prelude to a journey's end ;)


Sound Inn Studios formed their own label and among their new releases is a CD of classical works by "Mr. Bassmann" (Jun Saitoh, who surprisingly plays the Bass...) who is a serious musician and session player (I rate the whole freelance units in Japan among the best session players in the world right now) who performed on a number of well known works: Fractale, Kanno's Nobunaga, Godzilla Monster Planet and Xenoblade 2 among others.

The recording session was conducted by Akifumi Tada (conducting is to Tada what the harp is to Asakawa ;)): Voclassic night - Alla breve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f752TKQGPh4)

The CD can be purchased here: cdjapan (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/DAKSI-18001?s_ssid=e42def5b1db2bbb4b4)

My guess is Sound Inn will release more CDs with works from various artists and session players, recently a work for saxophone, piano and vibraphone. The guess that they have modernized their equipment is true btw. With modern technology they can make a tincan studio orchestra sound BIG with a decent engineer (Godzilla). Still not my favorite recording space but at least the days of "tincan sound" should be gone soon.



And on the "film" front, a trailer for the Danmachi movie has dropped, Inai reports he's very excited to write "Film Music for the Silver Screen". The trailer that dropped is also unbelievably 80s. The only thing they missed is a goofy serious narrator for the subtitles:

Pure 80s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4alTaQ4TK4)

Everything about this trailer just hits all the right checkmarks, from the WB logo to "Your favorite characters... now on the Silver Screen!" and the use of score. This gives me a better throwback to the 80s than the entirety of RPO sans Main Title. Inai also has quite a lot of time to write the score. It will be released in 2019. The staff seems enthusiastic yadayada. Given all that, I will judge him by this score. It's his dream project afterall. I also believe he is at his best scoring courageous moments and the movie should have plenty (even that stupid trashy Magical girl show has such a piece and its just strings yet works well).

Another film score I have my eyes on is Okko's Inn, they switched composers for the film, Keiichi Suzuki (of MOTHER fame) scored it and if that is the real score it might be another Summer Wars: Okko's Inn PV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijUMOSkoLQ)

Another film score I have my eyes on is Okko's Inn, they switched composers for the film, Keiichi Suzuki (of MOTHER fame) scored it and if that is the real score it might be another Summer Wars: Okko's Inn PV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijUMOSkoLQ)

Hmm. It's only about 15-odd seconds of music, so I can't really gauge anything, but I'm interested to hear orchestral music composed by Keiichi Suzuki of all people. I'll keep an eye on this film (and also because it looks surprisingly like something from years ago; at least as far as the character designs are concerned; and I mean that in a fairly nostalgic way).

Anyhow, conversation's been a bit empty at the moment round these parts, so I thought I'd ask another couple of questions to spice things up. I'll answer some of these myself at some point, but I'm interested to see what comes out of these:

1. Are there any composers you've grown to appreciate or respect thanks to this thread? If so, in what way?

2. Are there any soundtracks you feel work far better on their own than as part of a film, game, etc?

3. Conversely, are there any soundtracks that work best within whatever media they were scored for? (I know this seems like an obvious one, given the nature of film music, but I'm curious to know what y'all have to say)

4. What type of soundtrack would you like one of your favourite composers to do in the future (genre, instruments, whatever floats your boat)?

5. Are there any non-orchestral composers who you'd love to see work with an orchestra (e.g. Keiichi Suzuki)?

6. You get to have any film/game/show/whatever rescored by any composer of your choice. What would you rescore, and who would you pick for the job?

7. Are there any composers you'd love to see collaborate on a project?

8. Are there any rearrangements of a score that you feel are better than the original composer's efforts?

I'm looking forward to what y'all have to say. Until then, have a great day!

Samples of soundtrack of new Godzilla anime by Takayuki Hattori. Sounds good.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%8 3%A7%E3%83%B3%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB-godzilla-%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6%E6%A9%9F%E5%8B%95%E5%A2%97%E6%A E%96%E9%83%BD%E5%B8%82-%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B8%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%8 2%B5%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9% E3%83%83%E3%82%AF/1383141236

A Vinphonic/nextday/Zipper/Herr Salat/tangotreats Co-Production
The Legacy of Japan: FINAL GRAND GLORIOUS GATHERING

We have now arrived at Journey's End. The final part of my Legacy Project is about three composers many have or would label "genius" and sing praises to the ends of the earth and back that were denied by the Goddess of Fate a prolific and prosperous career. Not only are they geniuses in their writing but taking their whole body of work and their circumstances into account. From the glorious Golden Age virtuosity of Asakawa to the refined classical elegance mixed with jamming band sensiblities of Keiichi Oku to lateromantic experimentalism of Yasuo Higuchi. What they left us is a showcase of the many unsung composers out there that could be among the greatest had they only a prosperous career. For the record I consider Yoshihisa Hirano among those three.


Legacy of Japan
Tomoyuki Asakawa



Main Title (http://picosong.com/wcTeM/) / Fight! (http://picosong.com/wcTCR/) / Towards Zion (http://picosong.com/wcTCf/)

A few words by Zipper:

There's a chance if you watch Anime or play Japanese video games, you’ve heard the sound of Tomoyuki Asakawa before listening to any of his own works. Any time there is a harp in the background, there is a 90% chance the musician playing it is Asakawa.

As of this moment, Asakawa is Japan’s foremost harpist, performing everywhere from anime to films to live concerts. He seems to be in demand as a harpist, and quite content with his current career. But there is far more to this supposedly mere harpist than his current performance would suggest.

Occasionally, musicians who are session players or playing in an orchestra also have an interest in composing, such as violinist Hajime Mizoguchi and Jazz pianist Bill Evans. Asakawa is one such double act, but unlike many others, his descent into playing harp full-time is something of a mystery and a huge shame. Believe it or not, decades ago in the 80s and 90s, Tomoyuki Asakawa was one of the most promising Japanese orchestral composers in media. A musical prodigy who started playing piano at 4 and won the national Japanese Yamaha Electone junior competition at age 10, among many other prestigious awards, he would later be recruited by Yamaha to be one of their musical envoys, playing piano across the globe under their sponsorship in various large concerts. At the very early age of 15, he attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Over the next 6 years in the university, he received the equivalent of a masters in composition (and believe it or not, the organ) as part of his studies (to my knowledge, he never learned to play harp in college or any professional training environment).

Even in college, Asakawa’s reputation as an orchestral wiz kid seemed to be widely known. As a result, he caught his big break in 1981 at the tender age of 20 when producer/guitarist/singer/songwriter/composer/actor Ryudo Uzaki recruited him to work as the composer for the anime movie Queen Millennia and the live-action movie Station (Eki). Although he was officially credited as only an orchestrator, Asakawa’s contributions far surpassed that of his credits, where he essentially took Uzaki’s melodies and wrote an entire orchestral soundtrack around them. This marked the beginning of his career, and over the next 20 years, he would create some of the best orchestral works ever written in Japan. This compilation will cover most of his work over the course of his career, from the 80s to the 2000s, in anime, live-action, and even documentaries.

If one were to describe Asakawa’s music in a single phrase, it would be “Golden Age”. His music evokes the powerful melodramatic and classical feel of 1940s and 50s Hollywood, most notable for composers such as Max Steiner and Erich Korngold. Intense and longing melodies, grand brass fanfares, all sections of the orchestra moving at once- such music was what defined the Hollywood sound. While it would be considered corny or Disney-like by modern standards, there is no question that the technical ability required to write this music far surpasses anything being needed to be a film composer for Hollywood nowadays.

Sadly, it will most likely remain a mystery why someone as talented as Asakawa surrendered his baton to make a living playing the harp, despite being deeply respected by the entire classical community of Japan and even encouraged by Michiru Oshima and Yasunori Mitsuda to return as a full-time composer, but each time this is brought up on his social media, he politely avoids the topic. He himself is also a director for the prestigious Japanese Composers and Arrangers Association. He knows just about and has worked with almost every composer in Japan. Maybe choosing to play the harp was voluntary on his part, for personal or private reasons. After all, this is the same man who refused to score the old Devilman OVA because he was a Christian.

Or he may have had to quit out of mere lack of demand for his music after Goddess. While other orchestral composers elsewhere already had it tough because anything that didn’t sound like Zimmer was frowned upon, it’s perhaps even more difficult for Asakawa, who lives and dies evoking an era of Hollywood that died a long, long time ago. Even the aforementioned Korngold, who was active at the peak of the golden age of Hollywood in the 30s to 50s, lived to see his music lose favor in the eyes of the public.

Despite both being born as musical prodigies, neither men had the power to have enough opportunity to work with an orchestra whenever they pleased. Asakawa’s latest scores were for two Japanese films in 2010 and 2012, both small in scale and neither one receiving any soundtrack release. Since then, he hasn’t composed anything new.

However, at only 58 years old, he is far from retirement age, and even if he doesn’t write for large orchestras anymore, he still actively composes for himself and his harp, and helps others arrange music for concerts and media works, often times uncredited. And in the environment of Japan, where musical trends never truly die, maybe Asakawa will be lucky enough to find another great gig as a composer some day again. Five Star Stories gets quite the publicity lately, with the Manga going strong and being on the cover of various magazines so perhaps there might be a chance of him returning if they announce a remake/sequel for FFS. Until then, please enjoy this large collection of his music, and remind yourself each time you hear a harp in the background of your favorite Japanese score that there is a possibility a certain semi-retired orchestral master played it. :)




DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!bmJHTBrS!9brZoLWOmo9egdaXXIVUoZ0hKrrDvw7yxnpRAM1l9WQ)

Below is a detailed description and evaluation of his scores by Zipper which is very much in alignment with my own opinion:

The Five Star Stories is arguably Asakawa’s most well-known work, and my personal favorite of his. Rather than taking the grandiose way of sci-fi like Williams’ Star Wars, Asakawa takes a more tender and almost ballet-like approach like something you would hear from Tchaikovsky. “Elegant Escape” is the prime example of this, and its dashing brass and winds give it a light yet tense beauty. Of course, the golden age romanticism is still occasionally there, in tracks such as “Beyond the Universe”, which is literally a Korngold piece. Asakawa also incorporates his organ composition knowledge and uses it to give the soundtrack a slight touch of sci-fi, decades before Zimmer’s less glamorous attempt in Interstellar. But what puts this soundtrack at the very top for me is just how cohesive it is. Like any great soundtrack, the music is powerful enough to tell the story even without the visuals of the film (even though it is missing roughly 20 minutes of music from the film). There is some fantastic thematic development in this soundtrack, from the various permutations of the Fatima (love) theme to Sopp’s theme. This is a soundtrack that came straight out of 1940s golden age Hollywood. Fitting for a film that centers around a giant golden robot rescuing a damsel in distress. Ironically enough, he would work on another film for the same franchise two decades later (Gothicmade)- as a harpist.


Wataru is a difficult soundtrack to talk about, because the circumstances surrounding it are a bit strange. Co-composed by both Asakawa and Toshihiko Sahashi, there is a very notable contrast between their music, played by what sounds like a jazz-hybrid orchestra. Thankfully, despite the faulty soundtrack credits (especially the third one), it is easy to tell who composed what. While Sahashi took charge of the more 90s synth and jazz/funk tracks that were typical of both his earlier works and other super robot soundtracks of its time, Asakawa wrote a sea-farring swashbuckling orchestral monster. This compilation contains only the Asakawa tracks, arranged in a less schizophrenic manner than what was originally presented on the discs.

On a paper, this may be a top contender for not only Asakawa’s most technically accomplished soundtrack, but also one of the best scores ever written in the history of media music, full-stop. Forget Cutthroat Island, this was THE swashbuckler of the 90s. Before, I used the term “orchestral monster” to describe the music, and that is exactly what this is. The entire soundtrack has the orchestra moving in all directions everywhere, and requires multiple listening to appreciate just how much is layered in each individual piece. Strings, brass, and woodwinds play and shift in tandem, and the poor 40-piece jazz hybrid orchestra is trying their very best to keep up with Asakawa’s instrumental chaos. And boy, there is a lot of chaos in this soundtrack. While never atonal, the brunt of Wataru has a rather overbearingly loud, dissonant quality to it similar to Alex North’s Spartacus. This stuff is not easy to listen to. The highlight of the score, “Fight Dragon Round” is something that sounds like a hellish doomed battle between a tiny ship and a giant sea creature, while the Demon pieces such as “Ruler of the Fortress” would make you think Asakawa was scoring the Apocalypse. But like Spartacus, there is a lot of melodic optimism underneath that wall of dissonance that keeps the music all together. At its heart, Wataru is still a golden age swashbuckler. “To Tomorrow” is very much a typical Korngold intro, while “Into the Vortex” is the sort of thing you would expect to hear in the background when Errol Flynn swoops in to save the day. The first half of “Lion Dragon” and its reprise, “Phoenix Dragon Birth” are spectacular showcases of grandiose heroism and triumph, while “Sheng Temple” and “Heart of Fantasia” are both gorgeous romantic pieces. There is also a small dose of impressionist beauty with pieces like “Glow Fantasia” and “Moon Goddess”.

If there is one negative to say about this soundtrack, it’s the aforementioned studio jazz-hybrid ensemble is completely out of its league when dealing with Asakawa. Not only are there portions that have lacking delivery, the ensemble itself also emits a timbre that is at odds with the music, turning powerful dissonant trumpet runs into strange swing flings. It’s clear that this orchestra was assembled more to suit the jazzy style of Sahashi for this soundtrack. Still, for a 40-piece orchestra trying to play music made for a 120-piece orchestra, they pulled off a valiant effort.


The Candidate for Goddess is Asakawa’s final anime work, and is quite literally a space opera of a score. While some portions of it do contain carry-overs from the dissonant action of Wataru such as “Attack of Victims” (also occasionally suffering from the “jazz timbre” of Wataru, leading me to suspect the two soundtracks were recorded around the same time), the soundtrack as a whole has a jubilant early Broadway sound to it, made clear from its opening piece “Towards Zion” and others such as “Launch of Goddesses”. Some pieces like “Fellow Students of G.O.A.” almost sound like they could have came from a 1950s family romcom. Asakawa also dips into new territory by providing a wordless opera piece with “Blue and Infinite.” Of course, there is more impressionist music fitting of for the depths of space, such as in “Good-bye, My Home Town” or “Ingrid of My Adoration”, which could have came right out of Star Trek. However, the real star of the soundtrack is the gorgeous and appropriately named “Brilliance”, a majestic vocal piece with many melodic variations throughout the soundtrack. While Candidate is not my favorite Asakawa work, I still consider it a great one to end his anime career with.


Jungle Emperor Leo is somewhat of a continuation of the grand jungle adventure sound of Keniya Boy, but with a lighter pastoral atmosphere and occasional mickey-mousing to match the tastes of Osamu Tezuka. There are two versions of the music: Symphonic Fantasy and Symphonic Suite. Make no mistake, these two are different. While Symphonic Fantasy was written to be used in the show, Symphonic Suite takes the themes and turns them into a concert work. While the nature of the music is unfortunately rather fragmented even in the suite, everything still sounds beautiful. The grand highlight comes from the Miklos Rozsa-like movement of the third part of the symphonic suite, which contrasts the exotic natural wildlife with invincible military might.


Keniya Boy may not have been the first anime soundtrack Asakawa worked on, but it is the first one where he was given the entire spotlight. And boy, did he use that spotlight. Although it was credited to Ryudo Uzaki, with Asakawa once again being relegated to a mere orchestrator credit, there is no question that the music is entirely his. Unfortunately this soundtrack only contains around half an hour of score despite the film itself having roughly an hour and a half of original music, with no future soundtracks since to give a full listening experience. Still, what is here is good enough to immerse oneself in the world of the film. A mixture of 40s jungle adventure and 70s sci-fi, Asakawa writes music to match. From the Prologue, the viewer is punched in the face with a powerful introduction in the vein of Holst’s Jupiter, before moving into a glorious romantic melody and then a wonderfully luscious waltz. The sci-fi influences reveal themselves in “Grand Kilimanjaro”, where the whirling woodwinds give the impression of the beautiful unknown, before turning into another grand romantic and contemplative melody with a grand crescendo comparable to the climax of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo. Tender themes such as “Savanna Sunset” and “Zega and Wataru” contrast with the vicious power of “WILD BOY KENIYA”, and everything wraps up nicely with the Epilogue, which reprises the various themes and gives as cinematic a goodbye as any grand old adventure film. This is also one of the few times where Asakawa is given a concert hall to record the music in.



Moving onto his live-action works, Rex- a Dinosaur Story was a horrific and infamous movie often mocked by the Japanese, their equivalent of Howard the Duck. Thankfully, it didn’t stop Asakawa’s music from shining. The soundtrack plays out like a gorgeous lullaby, culminating in the beautiful “The Earth Loves You”. And while Candidate for Goddess had a Broadway-like sound to some of it pieces, Asakawa delivers a straight-up 1950s Broadway piece with the Main Title, including an English choir that don’t do too bad of a job sounding like the real deal.

The Asian Highway was a score written for an NHK documentary, and is quite different from the rest of Asakawa’s work. While the intro piece is typical of Asakawa, the rest of the soundtrack takes influences from Japanese melodies and Vaugh Williams’ pastoral style. The end result is a harmonically dense and breathtakingly beautiful piece of work that will soothe anyone’s soul. Despite being rather short, this soundtrack gives an impression of what a Taiga Drama score written by Asakawa would sound like.

Kizuna is also quite a departure from the usual Asakawa golden age sound. Not only is the score more muted in its romanticism, Asakawa also writes some straight-up atonal music for it. The rest of the soundtrack consists of impressionist chamber pieces. While he doesn’t flex his orchestral muscles here as much as he does in his other soundtracks (likely due to the smaller ensemble), there is still much to like. The highlight of this score is the marvelous “Daybreak”, a passionate yet beautiful piece that sounds like a combination of Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown and Miklos Rozsa’s Spellbound.

From a Sheet of Scenery is a small collection of chamber music that is more classical in nature. While it’s nothing dramatic or complex, it’s a very pleasant listening experience, with some virtuoso solos. Great music for a sunny afternoon.

Daisy Day is a surprisingly popular score, and rather than being a cohesive soundtrack, it’s a collection of tunes, mostly written and played by Asakawa on his harp. Rather than the music itself, this soundtrack is indicative of where Asakawa is nowadays in his life and career.

Also included is a folder of various orchestral rearrangements of pop songs and film suites. Even when working with the melodies of others, Asakawa never once loses his own voice.

Candidate for Goddess is from my CD-Rip. Five Star Stories, Wataru, Jungle Emperor, Asian Highway and Kizuna were provided by Herr Salat and nextday. A sheet of Scenery is by nextday as is most of the orchestral arrangements. Kenya Boy was provided by Zipper, Daisy Day by sugimania.



Legacy of Japan
Keiichi Oku



Overture (http://picosong.com/wcTya/) / Main Theme (http://picosong.com/wcTyW/) / Resolution (http://picosong.com/wcTq3/)

A few words by Vinphonic:

Keiichi Oku is a Japanese keyboardist, composer, orchestrator, arranger, performer and college professor. He was the keyboardist in the Japanese band Spectrum from 1979-1981 until he worked as a media composer, and is currently a professor at Senzoku Gakuen College of music.

Another brilliant composer with a flawless sense of melody that should have gotten a lot more work and budget as his genius deserves. Nonetheless the most prolific of the trio of exceptional composers with one of my absolute favorite anime scores of all time under his belt, Ashita no Nadja.

From the very first note your instantly in his world. (http://picosong.com/wcNtJ/)

It was so good Oku gave up writing orchestral symphonic music for anime after a few other attempts because he understood he just can't top it. A Violin concert piece for Yumekoi Merry was his last great contribution to the medium and his farewell until now was "A Town where you live" in 2013, which was straight out of the days he started as a composer to come full circle. Nadja was so good it even won an award in 2009, the JASRAC International Award for background music. The score for Nadja uses a lot of classical pieces or pieces written in a certian classical style but what makes it genius is that amidst all the masterful compositions Oku rearranged and interpreted, his own score doesn't fall behind at all but instead stands head and shoulders proud alongside them. If someone who is not familiar with the concert world was told the pieces found in Nadja are originals he would not raise an eyebrow. Rarely have concert pieces sounded so convincing as studio recordings. I consider this Oku's Magnum Opus and he wrote it as his last mayor orchestral score, a crowning achievement after 20 years in the business, after which he focused on the academic field and being a teacher. The original material is there in abundance, from Waltz No. 5 to Resolution, together with vibrant and brilliant orchestral (Leitmotif) writing and a delightful playfulness and romance, make this an unforgetable magical journey.

Oku isn't as virtuosic, glissfull, romantic and full of Bravado as Asakawa, but more like an elegant, methodical, and refined older brother. What Nadja demonstrates transfers to all his TV work, a magic touch of melodic gift with Golden Age scoring approach: Overtures and long End Titles. In general Oku's orchestral work is full of catchy and/or great themes and melodies and all packed in exhubertant orchestral clothing. He was also quite prolific as an arranger and excelled at that task too, delivering some of my favorite pieces for the Orchestral Game concert series, an excellent heroic concert suite for Arc The Lad, a brassy concert work for a T-Square album, a powerful and energetic symphonic memorial for Ayrton Senna with a bit of his band persona shining through and many symphonic arrangements of bouncy pop pieces that are concert grade par excellence. He even wrote a piece for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta that was performed live on stage. His scores are full of classical gravitas, from Golden Age Overture to Violin Concerto. In Lord of Lords Ryu Knight and Ojamajo Doremi shines his band persona through the strongest with that special Sax touch of his, warm, peaceful and catchy:

Izumi the Priest (http://picosong.com/wcNDp)

On that note my absolute favorite composers alive right now and working were/are also/originally band players jamming it to a catchy tune (Williams/Kanno/Tanaka/Sahashi/Iwasaki/Yamashita/Matsuo/Oku/Hattori/Oshima/Hisaishi/Amano/etc.).

There's another side to Oku that is on the other hand just plain weird, even weirder than Isao Tomita. Oku's classical interpretation albums dedicated to Mozart, Beethoven and others are strange electronic/Keyboard works that I find difficult to enjoy. Some of his early Band works in his TV scores is also not to my taste and pretty much a product of its time and nothing more. That said, in Doremi I just can't skip it. He very much refined it at that point in the early 2000s and its bouncy nature is much to my liking, similar to Takaki's Precure.

In my opinion, the one who could inherit Oku's musical approach, should he not return to the scoring stage again, is undoubtly Hiroshi Takaki, who hopefully will be getting the chance to work on a symphony orchestra again. He has a few more years to grow before he reaches Oku in his best condition, afterall he wrote Nadja after being over 20 years in the business as his crowning achievement but with Mahou Tsukai Takaki already achieved a level of orchestral writing that is comparable to Oku's early works in quality.





DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!auY3nADJ!NrWl45UNbINbc1mE6k2Cdg6iABydHwvhr26J0zQUUnE)


This orchestral collection is a collaboration between nextday and myself and orginally started as a request by nextday. Herr Salat provided Ayton Senna and Crusher Joe, nextday provided From the Northland, At 17, the Symphonic Pop albums and the Atlanta piece. Symphonic Arrangements and Marmalade Boy are my CD-rips and the latter has not been shared previously in FLAC around this place. Megaranger, Yumekoi Merry, Emi, Doremi, Digimon and Nadja are from the web. I should note I've also remastered Nadja to give it a more classical character. I would have loved to share Nadja in FLAC too but OST 2 is perhaps the rarest anime soundtrack I know, from 200$ upwards and my most hunted trasure.

https://vgmdb.net/album/73970

If anyone has it, let me know!

I've also edited most soundtracks a lot so that all orchestral pieces are now separate from the band/nonorchestral stuff.




Legacy of Japan
Yasuo Higuchi



The Merry Bunch (http://picosong.com/wcTff/) / Superpowers (http://picosong.com/wcTfV/) / Because I'm a Person too! (http://picosong.com/wcTfA/)

A few words by tango:

Herr Salat (a kind, generous man with impeccable taste) is the man to thank for making this wonderful music available. He jumped through some hoops and paid dizzing fees to Japanese middleman agencies to obtain this old and very rare LP. From Japan to Germany, the record finally ended up in my care, here in England - and I transferred it to the digital domain. I can say without doubt that the time I spent doing so gave me my happiest hours for I-don't-know-how-many months.

Yasuo Higuchi is a name that should be foremost in the mind of any music lover. He wrote what is probably my favourite score of all time; for Suguru Sugiyama's breathtaking Phoenix 2772 - both film and score immeasurably ahead of their time in 1980. Calling it a film score is doing it injustice, because it's really a symphony. On the other hand, it is a masterpiece of musical storytelling - so perhaps it's an opera without words. Listen to the beautiful violin solos, as performed by Mariko Senju (Akira Senju's sister).

Bremen Four is a fantastic companion piece to Phoenix 2772 - action and romance abound, with Higuchi's flawless sense of melody, imaginative orchestrations, and totally unique and exciting harmonic language all present. The cue "Superlovers" is Higichi's arrangement and abridgement of Richard Wagner's "The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg" prelude. As a bonus track, I have included at the end of the album, the full Prelude as performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Klaus Tennstedt.

Gundam After War X is more of his superb classical style, with even a full chorus present, all intercepted by his venture into various musical genres, some very much of its time.

His work for the World Masterpiece Theater series are numerous short cues that are a nice contrast to his lengthy symphonic works. Even in just 30 seconds he accomplishes many things other composers struggle with for entire minutes.

Higuchi also worked on compilations of famous classical pieces, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. Richard Kapp selected these pieces himself, and Yasuo Higuchi (and Kapp) produced sensitive arrangements for the same ensemble that performed Higuchi's Orientation and Violin Concerto. The result is survey of melody and warmth - spotlessly performed by the Philharmonia Virtuosi Of New York (sadly disbanded, after Kapp tragically passed away from cancer in 2006). Just like their previous album, this isn't about showing off, virtuoso runs, or larger-than-life orchestral shenanigans... it's largely about lyricism, beauty, and elegance. You'll recognise the tunes, but the arrangements are all new and extremely beautiful. If you're like me, one of those folk who think Clair de lune shouldn't ever be arranged for anything because its original solo piano version is sublime... just give Higuchi's intimate chamber arrangement a try... just wonderful.

As irony would have it, he is perhaps the least prolific genius the world has ever known - at 64 years of age he has scored only a handful of anime projects and a similar number of concert hall classical works. Phoenix 2772 is his Violin concerto re-orchestrated and substantially revised.

Higuchi is not merely a symphonic acrobat of virtuosity; he is an artist of sublime beauty and intimacy. For those who may worry that Higuchi's foray into "serious" classical music would turn out to be some monstrously pretentious piece of avant garde squeaky-gate nonsense, please let me dispel your worries. Classical Higuchi is warm, romantic, eloquent, approachable, and lyrical.

He's the only composer who excites that same part of my musical psyche that Yoshihisa Hirano does - with a completely unique style, an orchestral technique to die for, and a flawless sense of melody. It's a sumptuous mix of very-late romantic theatrics mixed with tantalising modernism. A genius.

The only thing comparably exciting to listen to was once upon a time Yoshihisa Hirano when he wrote Real Drive and Silk Road Boy Yuto.




DOWNLOAD (https://mega.nz/#!Wm4iCIjb!uF4pSVMEL_v6aWaQxHvq7qo2QiyhOX-zOuMenNBldwk)

Everything except Phoenix 2772 is provided by Herr Salat, the legend and our savior, and then transfered from Vinyl by tango. Phoenix is by Tango. Symphonic Works contains his Orientation, Violin Concerto, Trumpet Concerto, Fuma and Symphonic Dance. Symphonic Arrangements contain Double Focus and Instant Classics.

It is best to say no more and just experience his music.




-THE END-




And so it ends, my two year journey of my Legacy project (which unintentionally started on the date of the thread's anniversary). From 1995-2015: The Art of Film Scoring to 2017 in Concert, from Yoko Kanno to Yasuo Higuchi. Many people reached out to me thanking me in puplic or private for making their day a little brighter or even enrich their lives. What good is money compared to this genuine gratitude. I thank you all as well in return for indulging me on this path. The only one left I could share is Reijiro Koroku but nextday has many of his works online and he is already featured in many of my legacy posts so that would make it quite redundant.

Dear amish already shared the bulk of Yoshihiro Kanno, Shigeaki Saegusa and Tamiya Terashima and Tango and others already sung the songs of praises for the far too early deceased legendary Kentaro Haneda.

Others have already gone out of their way to present the works of Akira Ifukube, Toru Takemitsu and friends, so there's really no need to do something about them either. The next game or anime collection is a decade away at best and there is also a massive thread about old anime soundtracks so that leaves nothing left. I might continue my "Year in music" series if time allows it.

So, at least for the next few years, this marks the end of "Legacy of Japan". I dearly thank all contributors and supporters, online and offline who made this colossal task a managable one. From conception to reality, six years of effort, hours upon hours of great music I had the pleasure to work on and archieve, sometimes together with fellow members.

It was my greatest pleasure to bring this music to your ears and I hope I can make your day and life a little brighter with hours of wonderful, wonderful, wonderful music. Much of the music here has deeply affected me, touched me and inspired me. It is beyond amazing what the Japanese entertainment industry has offered throughout the decades and I hope you find yourself reliving my joy the first time I listened through it.

I look forward what the future will bring and am ultimately optimistic about it. I always am and always will be. At least when it comes to an industry that is comprised of thousands of people burning for a medium, absolutely loving what they are doing, and being generally skilled and equipped by an inbelievably high standard, especially in musical education and concert appreciation. I look forward what their game and anime industry will turn out to be years in the future.

Now I will give all three geniuses a sepratate thread in time and add a few new categories for the Main Thread and link other contributions here that still have working links (I checked) and call it finished over there too. Once that's done you are free to archieve my thread in whatever way you please. Store, safe, share, reupload.

One more thing, I forgot to include the Symphonic Poem "The Sea Prince and the Firechild" for my 80s and 90s anime collection by great Sugiyama. A separate link is now included under symphonic arrangements.

And I will attend to your question, FrDougal, at a later time and date ;)

What's up everyone. Havn't been to the forum in a while. I'd say a year and a half, two years maybe! Can any of you tell me if orchestral music sheets are still traded somewhere?

I looked around, having a hard time figuring it out! Don't really know where to post to ask either.

Thanks!

Asakawa AND Higuchi in one post? Just wonderful! :D
Many thanks to Vinphonic and all the rest of you who go to such great lengths to make this music available. I and others have said it before countless times but your dedication is invaluable.

When LLL released their expanded release of Lair, the ordering of their tracks was a mad house. You had the main title in the middle of the first disc, Break the Ice came before Prologue...it was nonsense. I always wanted to get around to doing a chronological order, and I finally manged to.


1. Lair Main Title
2. Prologue
3. Love Theme
4. Diviner Battle
5. Funeral Pyre
6. Blood River
7. Preparing for Battle - Maelstrom - After Burners
8. Bridge Battle
9. Rohn's Theme
10. Serpent Strait
11. Darkness Theme
12. Mokai Camp Attack - Reach Mokai City
13. The Holy City of Mokai
14. Return to Mokai City, Pt. I
15. Firestorm
16. Return to Mokai City, Pt. II
17. Elegy
18. Diviner's Theme
19. The Last Straw
20. Lost
21. The Search for Food - Campfire Discussion
22. Breaking the Ice
23. Steam Giant
24. The Search for Water - Deadman's Basin
25. Desert - The Guardians Decide - Prophet Battle
26. Ruins of Mokai
27. Defenses Overrun
28. Rohn Is Tricked - Hope
29. Mokai Theme
30. Final Attack
31. Bridge of the Ancients - The Ice
32. Lodan
33. Battle for Asylia
34. Epilogue
35. Lair Main Menu
36. Lair Concert Suite
37. Lair Trailer
38. Lair Battle Variation #1 - The Hero (synth demo)
39. Rohn Theme - The Quest (synth demo)

To accomplish this, I used the original release and TazerMonkey's rip as a reference point. I am still not 100% sure, as I have no idea where Love Theme and Steam Giant are supposed to go. So I just made some wild guesses.

Hope you guys find this useful.

.

Richard Rodney Bennett Vol 2 from Chandos - BLIMEY that was fast! https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205212

I do not understand how they're deciding what to record - some of the items on the disc have already been recorded - TWICE - but there are some premieres there, including the second symphony which although atonal and angular, still manages to burn with filmic excitement and dynamic orchestrations.

Five years ago, Chandos said they didn't do a volume 2 because nobody was interested. Now, there are THREE volumes. Go buy the bloody thing, encourage other people to buy the bloody thing. The classical music recording industry is balancing on a knife-edge.

I've one surprise for Asakawa's fan...Stay alert on here soon

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate https://youtu.be/-70Tmxcf_2g

Richard Rodney Bennett Vol 2 from Chandos - BLIMEY that was fast! https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205212

I do not understand how they're deciding what to record - some of the items on the disc have already been recorded - TWICE - but there are some premieres there, including the second symphony which although atonal and angular, still manages to burn with filmic excitement and dynamic orchestrations.

Five years ago, Chandos said they didn't do a volume 2 because nobody was interested. Now, there are THREE volumes. Go buy the bloody thing, encourage other people to buy the bloody thing. The classical music recording industry is balancing on a knife-edge.

this is likely my next entry in my hidden treasures thread which i can use again after months of inaccessiblity.thanks for the recommendation.

In general I buy everything by Christopher Gunning and Ron Goodwin in regards to British classical composers but Bennett is fine too ;)


@xrockerboy: Nice that Smash Brothers is employing an orchestra again and this sounds closer to Melee than Brawl. The other tracks feature some real instruments this time as well. I hope the game has a story mode for cutscene music with a real ensemble but the Main Theme (Menu), Opening and Credits are 99% confirmed to be a real orchestra. I also think another Smash Brothers concert is on the horizon, a symphonic game concert by "Famitsu" was just announced for August featuring music from various RPGs from the NES/SNES era and more.


Another piece I forgot to include for my Legacy collection was this little gem shared by Sirusjr ages ago:

Elvandia Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Tu6Ke6djQ)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!Xu41mKbL!rs8CsXMGabc2dNLFEnbjDMb6SHkG_JzSPTQjShSqZ30)


Also, how about a mini-Piano concerto by Joe Hisaishi :)

The Dream of the Lambs (http://picosong.com/wcDKh/)

The Ultimate theme is really nice and catchy but nothing beats the Brawl theme, that's orchestra epic right there, choir included.

Tomoyuki Asakawa/ A dreamy Day

New Asakawa's music. Enjoy it:
https://mega.nz/#F!UaxAmJbB!lTc-FnN2ortLBwS_uu1vDg
This is: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/DLDH-1846

AHHHH why haven't I looked in iTunes for Asakawa earlier :D

Many Thanks sugimania, for this delightful share. Allow me to return the courtesy...


Ladies and Gentlemen, Asakawa's very first pieces from 1981 (yes, before Station, making this his debut?) and his very last glorious piece with an orchestra in Golden Age style, from 2006.



Tomoyuki Asakawa/ Queen Millennia: Film Suite

Oldest Asakawa. Enjoy it.
http://picosong.com/wcpFX/


Tomoyuki Asakawa/ Goodbye Summer's Day

The latest orchestral Asakawa. Enjoy it.
http://picosong.com/wcp3x/

These two belong in the "symphonic arrangement" folder.
He also did a new artist arrangement album in 2017 called LUNA, but its just strings.

So anyone check out John Powell's latest album Hubris? It is quite different from anything he has done. It is the most classical sounding work he has composed in his career, imo. It reminds me of Vaughan-Williams especially in the first track "The Prize is Still Mine".

Ah, thanks again Vinphonic. I've listened to Queen Millenia before, but having all the fragments put together yields a much better result. The music is clearly Asakawa, but the ensemble sounds so different in tone than his other works. It's a bit alien like Wataru's jazz-hybrid ensemble. The vocal piece is nice too, classic Asakawa in 2006? Who would have imagined.


@Hubris:
It's a step up from his film works but nothing special. I've seen Iwasaki, Kanno, Amano, and countless others create choral and vocal pieces that blows the pants off that half-hearted pastiche.

And yet people on various forums are saying rubbish like how writing this makes Powell on the same level as Williams. Well, if you're stuck in a dessert, even sewer water would taste as good as spring water.

Powell's album ranges from occasionally vaguely interesting, generally tolerable, and often humiliating.

He scores well for chorus, but... well... that's about it. The title may be the most accurate, fitting name for a work of art in history.

Sorry, again, on behalf of England, for unleashing this shit on the world.

I listened to Yugo Kanno's symphony a while back and was more enamored by it than any note in Powell's piece. It's not stunning, but it's far more competent and original than Hubris. How is it that a mid-tier Japanese composer like Yugo Kanno can write better concert music than "the best composer in Hollywood after John Williams"? It just proves that even with the same level of classical training and without the constraints of film scoring, some composers are simply just mediocre compared to others.

Well for one, Japanese composer live in an environment were the 70s are not yet dead, the 80s are not yet dead and classical music in media sure ain't dead. I already touched upon their stellar musical education system that EVERYONE must be a part of. If your whole country is familiar with classical music and generally comfortable playing instruments, expectations are a little higher on average. I haven't yet heard a bad Warsaw score for instance.

But you don't need Japanese composers for reference, just compare it to Gunning, Addisson, Goodwin, Davis, Holst, Easdale, Elgar and friends if Powell wants to venture into the territory of British classical composers and well... it doesn't hold up all that well. I hold him to the standard of Elgar and his companions. If this was a film score it would be delightful, however. But Powell is not the first that should employ his skillset more on films than on concert works, just look at James Horner, sometimes brilliant film composer but not at home in the concert hall. Problem is I rank Powell not as a brilliant film composer either... He is in his late 50s, we would have heard something by now to suggest otherwise. So I cannot really disagree with mediocre. But he has his fans and even a few scores I really really enjoy (Chicken Run etc) but the bulk of his work is uniteresting to me these days. He's still a cut above the rest of his colleagues but he works for an industry I don't care anymore for. I will say he deserves his concert in London FAR more than Giacchino or Brian Tyler if you ask me. Ultimately, I expected a little more... as you said, in todays environment its lovely to hear this sound but it's still far from the league of past ages, like pretty much all decent orchestral scores from Hollywood I've heard this year.

But you don't need Japanese composers for reference, just compare it to Gunning, Addisson, Goodwin, Davis, Holst, Easdale, Elgar and friends if Powell wants to venture into the territory of British classical composers and well... it doesn't hold up all that well.Or, compare Powell to John Barry. Wasn't even classically trained, but he still wipes the floor with Powell as a composer. Having that training is just like having a box of tools. But Powell doesn't like using his tools for whatever reason (unless they're sample libraries), and the few rare times he does like this, it's too banal and underdeveloped to proudly display, like a man who just spent his whole life in a wheelchair having to walk for the first time.

On the subject of British composers, I was going through Malcolm Arnold's works when suddenly, Wataru!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ox2MELRw8

I'm convinced that Powell has the skill. But he's been in the business of writing modern Hollywood scores too long to shake it off. He arrived on the scene at a time when it wasn't permissible to arrive at a personal style; he joined the Hans Zimmer factory, scored films which wanted a Zimmer score but couldn't afford him, and that's pretty much the story of his career.

When a film composer goes classical, you start to get a feeling of what they want to write. Yugo Kanno's "symphony" is a 45-minute long Sunday afternoon drama theme... but it's not pretentious, it's prototypical Kanno, and it sounds like he wanted to write it because he had something to say. Powell's album... I dunno, I'm getting nothing - except that this is the kind of angsty music you write when you're upset that people aren't taking you seriously as a composer. It sounds like Powell saying "I'm not just a cheap Hans Zimmer!" but proving that, whilst he might very well NOT just be a cheap Hans Zimmer, that's really all he knows how to be.

I wasn't expecting much, and I got less than what I was expecting.

Likewise with Solo.

Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom, on the other hand... I wasn't expecting much, but I got slightly more than I was expecting. The cue recently posted was arguably the worst of the score. It's still a crappy, directionless, themeless Giacchino score... but a handful of cues are almost listenable - and that exceeds my expectations. I saw the film this evening, and even though I found it a failure, I really appreciated that it was trying - I think Giacchino was trying, too. Within the film, particularly, there's something about the way the score is used that makes me smile; not because it's good, but just because I miss it. Pretty much the entire score is "OH S*** WE'RE ALL F*****G DEAD!" music and I like the fact that Giacchino isn't staying in the background, afraid to he heard at those moments. The score's still a piece of shit. But... it's less of a piece of shit than I was expecting - and it's recorded in London, so the sound quality and performance is excellent.

damn a lot of the two orchestral works vol1 cd from richard rodney bennett is straight up old school john williams.love it! keep the filmscorelike classic music recommendations coming.btw does anyone have the whole de wolfe collection of frederic talgorns production music? never found more than two of 10 i believe.

FrDougal: Question time :D


1. Are there any composers you've grown to appreciate or respect thanks to this thread? If so, in what way?

2. Are there any soundtracks you feel work far better on their own than as part of a film, game, etc?

3. Conversely, are there any soundtracks that work best within whatever media they were scored for? (I know this seems like an obvious one, given the nature of film music, but I'm curious to know what y'all have to say)

4. What type of soundtrack would you like one of your favourite composers to do in the future (genre, instruments, whatever floats your boat)?

5. Are there any non-orchestral composers who you'd love to see work with an orchestra (e.g. Keiichi Suzuki)?

6. You get to have any film/game/show/whatever rescored by any composer of your choice. What would you rescore, and who would you pick for the job?

7. Are there any composers you'd love to see collaborate on a project?

8. Are there any rearrangements of a score that you feel are better than the original composer's efforts?


1. Shiro Sagisu. His pop works are great. And I really grown to like his 90s work, Evangelion in particular. Btw Shiro Sagisu is on twitter now and shared a recording at Abbey Road. Hopefully with Amano (for Eva 3.0 perhaps).
Kenji Kawai. Hated him at first but that's because he scored Gundam after Sahashi. His enormous body of work has a few gems I discovered here that made me really like him, sometimes even love.

2.

Anime: Yoko Kanno's Aquarion. How the hell can something that dumb end up recieving a glorious classical score...
Game: Katsuro Tajima's work, Wataru Hokoyama's Afrika, Lennie Moore's Outcast and Yuri Poteyenko's Age of Pirates belong in the concert hall, not merely in games.
With Films its difficult because a good film score is inherently linked to the picture and works both in and outside the film.

3. Suprisingly a bit of both is Hellsing, it is so over-the-top-ridicolous that only the most bombastic Warsaw score could do it justice. I wouldn't even care about the OVAs without the music but with it it's one of my absolute favorite series. Otherwise many Hitoshi Sakimoto game scores fit the bill.

4.

Kohei Tanaka: Fullgrown Opera works.
Toshihiko Sahashi: STAR WARS (in the 80s)
Keiichi Oku: Classical Warsaw score ala Nadja
Hirano: Dark Fantasy films (in the 80s)
Michiru Oshima: Symphonic Poems... oh that's already happening :D

5. Naruyoshi Kikuchi and Daisuke Ishiwatari

6.

With composer change: Lord of the Rings by John Williams (or anyone from Britain like Doyle or Davis), Harry Potter 4-8 by John Williams, Berserk TV - Yoshihisa Hirano, Sailormoon and Cutie Honey reboot - Toshihiko Sahashi
Without composer change: Nadja + Warsaw, Simoun + LSO, Kohei Tanaka's studio recordings with a symphony orchestra, pretty much all of them.

7. Oshima and Asakawa / Keiichi Oku and Kohei Tanaka / John Williams and Yoko Kanno / Joe Hisaishi and Philipp Glass... wait that already happened :D

8. Taku Iwasaki's take on Zimmer/RC, no contest.

I'm convinced that Powell has the skill. But he's been in the business of writing modern Hollywood scores too long to shake it off. He arrived on the scene at a time when it wasn't permissible to arrive at a personal style; he joined the Hans Zimmer factory, scored films which wanted a Zimmer score but couldn't afford him, and that's pretty much the story of his career.

When a film composer goes classical, you start to get a feeling of what they want to write. Yugo Kanno's "symphony" is a 45-minute long Sunday afternoon drama theme... but it's not pretentious, it's prototypical Kanno, and it sounds like he wanted to write it because he had something to say. Powell's album... I dunno, I'm getting nothing - except that this is the kind of angsty music you write when you're upset that people aren't taking you seriously as a composer. It sounds like Powell saying "I'm not just a cheap Hans Zimmer!" but proving that, whilst he might very well NOT just be a cheap Hans Zimmer, that's really all he knows how to be.

I wasn't expecting much, and I got less than what I was expecting.

Likewise with Solo.

Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom, on the other hand... I wasn't expecting much, but I got slightly more than I was expecting. The cue recently posted was arguably the worst of the score. It's still a crappy, directionless, themeless Giacchino score... but a handful of cues are almost listenable - and that exceeds my expectations. I saw the film this evening, and even though I found it a failure, I really appreciated that it was trying - I think Giacchino was trying, too. Within the film, particularly, there's something about the way the score is used that makes me smile; not because it's good, but just because I miss it. Pretty much the entire score is "OH S*** WE'RE ALL F*****G DEAD!" music and I like the fact that Giacchino isn't staying in the background, afraid to he heard at those moments. The score's still a piece of shit. But... it's less of a piece of shit than I was expecting - and it's recorded in London, so the sound quality and performance is excellent.

Have you listened to How To Train Your Dragon? or Xmen Last Stand? Or Green Zone? Or Pan? Yes his first mainstream score Face Off was in Zimmer/MV style but since 1998 and his collaborations with Harry Gregson Williams (Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek) his music other than the closely recorded percussion (which is sometimes looped) has few things in common with Zimmer's. He has revolutionized the action thriller music with Bourne Identity, style copied and temp tracked all over the place. To quote you "the story of his career" has being huge number of animation movies and action thrillers both type of film music he has been dominating before his downsizing since 2012 to care for his dying wife. He is one of the most expensive composer to hire in hollywood. Hardly a cheap knock off. Hubris is excellent, very pleased by his music in classical mode.

Some context about Hubris : https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8459904/john-powell-debut-classical-album-hubris-interview

Welcome to the thread(!)

If you want a discussion, try again with respect.

Previous post edited to be more respectful, my apologies. Thanks for your welcome and yes I would like a discussion since you seem very knowledgeable about music. Powell is viewed as the only good composer with Harry Gregson Williams to come out of Zimmer's clone factory with a proper unmistakable style, so I don't understand your disdain.

Here's a little something some of you may enjoy.


KINGDOM
(the British show, not the American one!)



Kingdom was a television show which ran from 2007-09 and featured Stephen Fry as the eponymous Peter Kingdom, a level-headed lawyer doing business in a "quirky" community. Mark Russell graced the opening of each episode with an angelic title theme that just sweeps you off your feet. The charming incidental music for the series is string-heavy and occasionally choir is interspersed. As Peter begins digging into his dead brother's criminal past and connection with the mob, he discovers that he may not be very dead after all; this intrigue is underscored by synth but strings continue to have a vital presence.
Most of these tracks seem to be taken from the third series. This release runs 40 minutes long and probably has the main title theme too often, but I for one don't mind.

Music by Mark Russell | 16 tracks, iTunes M4A (https://mega.nz/#!N5EkCSzB!U2-QFHtNQ9uB7L15ux1U34DCseXXJiNZ3MnaQswxLfI) | sample 1 (http://picosong.com/wcWSB/); sample 2 (http://picosong.com/wcWSi/)

Thanks Skelly, will check it out.



Holy moly, I checked in on Puzzle & Dragon again and this is without a doubt Kaoru Wada's A game. Easily in the league of Lodoss and Mars Daybreak. Not quite Inuyasha level (taking the entire collection into consideration) but this is Wada who is obviously enthusiastic and you just feel the brass players going all out. From reminiscent trumpet pieces to glorious action and plenty of heroic leitmotif, please, oh please, let this score be released, with Yamashita's glorious final cues from Puzzle X Dragon as bonus, thank you. Masotan is also continuing to make me smile, there's also some pieces in there that clearly have the trademark of a Jazz musician. Thankfully the soundtrack is just around the corner.


OK, I take it back, this could be Wada's best score since Inuyasha.

Puzzle & Dragon - SCORE PREVIEW (http://picosong.com/wcWhF)

It's also pure 80s.


In other news, Kan Sawada joined Piano, Yoko Kanno's company. He scored/arranged/conducted some commercials and hopefully a few media projects sometime soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb6LR95gJP4 (he is in the video if you pay attention :D)

And another weird classical music video showd up, I guess more anime works by the same author of Planet With. Now this is English music I take my hat off to. They really love Elgar. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up in Planet With, either inserted or arranged by Tanaka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2oHqJaVikE

The score from Tanaka so far makes me very happy too, this sounds straight out of Granzort and orchestra is there (brass sounds complete and good), hopefully it's like Puzzle & Dragon with a huge chunk of orchestra only pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh-j_kBv-B4
But I'm always biased towards Symphonic/Orchestral composers who jammed in band.

And I'm getting a good vibe from Suehiro's new show in summer: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6m4iw0

No PV for FILM SCORE's project yet but I have some expectations.

daprosinik - Thank you, it's appreciated. I will definitely give you a proper answer as soon as I finish work.

In the mean time...


This could be Wada's best score since Inuyasha

I unreservedly agree, altohugh I would follow up with the rider that Wada has only written a handful of scores since Inuyasha - and since Inuyasha was a runaway success franchise with nearly 200 episodes and four full-length movies, it's not surprising that it got some pretty good music. Wada was never going to match it with Ace Attorney or Jikenbo. He was probably the strangest choice to take over from Yamashita on this show, but he's knocking it out of the park. I still think Yamashita's score is the musically superior of the two - and I'm pretty sure that it will not be released. Wada's scores still tend to be. Maybe they will do a big set with both composers' scores eventually. It would be nice. It turned into Yamashita's most substantial anime score in over a decade. We have to take what we can get nowadays.


And another weird classical music video showd up, I guess more anime works by the same author of Planet With. Now this is English music I take my hat off to. They really love Elgar.

This stuff drives me nuts. I know it's not intended that way, but the whole trailer feels like as giant piss take and we're the butt of the joke. I really don't like it when important national music is tortured into promoting things that have nothing to do with it. This is Japan all over; "doesn't matter where it came from, doesn't matter what it is - if it sounds good and it fits, let's go for it" - that attitude has created some of the most diverse and fascinating scores in the history of the artform... but I just wish they'd leave stuff like this alone. A national anthem showing up in a show where there's a reason for it to play within the story, fine, wonderful, of course - but just shoving it in a trailer for some wanky anime... no, that doesn't work for me. (Yes, I know Land Of Hope and Glory isn't our official national anthem; it does, however, fulfil that role unofficially for England, since Scotland and Wales both have official national anthems as distinct from "God Save The Queen" but England doesn't.)

Well, I'm not British enough to fully understand your plight but I kinda get it. At least your anthem is glorious, our official one is not that great compared to the one that was used by the Socialist republic, musically speaking. At least your official/unofficial anthems weren't used for Japanese porn games/animations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kN9H-YET6k&t=4m45s

Though that could very well be the case, it's better not to know :D :D :D





Shiro Hamaguchi
SHIROBAKO in Concert
Akiba Wind Orchestra "AKIBA WINDS"



Download (https://mega.nz/#!Lupn0Z7D!dljea1bMcLKnX_TmiVVwNj1Z3KgXokcled42hFn7NLw)
Concert Suite (new) (http://picosong.com/w9wuL/)

The SHIROBAKO movie is another film score I will keep an eye on.

OK, I take it back, this could be Wada's best score since Inuyasha.
Samurai 7? Mikumari no Miko is probably Wada's best theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAZqxzdCvA

Still waiting for that OST 2.

I rank Inuyasha above Samurai 7. I was talking more about the caliber. Inuyasha is hours of score with plenty what I like about Wada + it has several symphonic arrangements. Samurai 7 has plenty of unreleased material and more traditional Japanese period pieces and less orchestra. Not to say its not a great companion to Inuyasha.

Though, unless P&D has a finale with equal punch as the previous series I doubt a single piece will be as good as Lux Centuriae.

In terms of amount and enjoyment I could have mentioned Mars Daybreak. I could also have mentioned Casshern but that's one Wada score that works better in the show itself than on album, it's simply sublime with the visuals: Scene 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMKb2REBM58&t=1m51s) / Scene 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylutP4zuIfw) / Scene 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX6r7YXWLic)

richard harveys spotify page is overflowing with all kinds of orchestral and choral greatness.soo much fun!!

I am listening to Yugo Kanno's score for Batman Ninja and that main theme is pretty nice! I am finding this is about the one Yugo Kanno score I can actually listen to :). He pulls of the Batman sound very well with that mixture of Japanese goodness.