Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Anime Juke Box - The Girl Who Fell from the Sky - Castle in the Sky

For the second collaboration between legendary director Hayao Miyazaki and composer Joe Hisaishi we were treated to Castle in the Sky. There are actually two versions of this score. The first was the 1986 version that included quite a bit of 80s synthesizers. Anyone familiar with Hisaishi's work on Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind has an idea of what that sounds like. 

 In 2000, Joe Hisaishi was contracted by Disney (who had struck a deal with Miyazaki for distribution rights in North America) to write a full symphonic score and expand it to roughly 90 minutes. The original synth score was about 40 minutes.

 Being a fan of full symphonic scores, I tend to prefer Hisaishi's revisit. It has some gorgeous moments, and one of them is the opening sequence. Here is the track containing the main theme and one of it's best representations, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. Enjoy!

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2 comments:

  1. Richard BellushFebruary 18, 2016 at 5:44 AM

    Good stuff. Easy to get immersed in that.

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    1. Roman J. MartelFebruary 18, 2016 at 8:17 AM

      Hisaishi is one of my favorite anime composers. But he has a real western sound to his work, and I think that is where his appeal lies. His music sounds like it would fit perfectly in any Hollywood film of the same era.

      That said, he has a signature style that is very much Hisaishi. You hear his piano work and you won't mistake him for John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner.

      The guy is really prolific too, he does a lot of work for non-anime films in Japan as well as television series. But his work with Miyazaki is always special.

      It was hard to pick just one track from "Castle in the Sky", lots of great material in there.

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