Blog
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Album: となりのトトロ イメージ・ソング集 In 1988, Joe Hisaishi found himself caught between two worlds—literally. While crafting music for Hayao Miyazaki’s gentle tale of forest spirits and childhood wonder, he was simultaneously composing for ‘Rakugeki ANZUCHI,’ a dark theatrical production featuring demons and otherworldly horror. ‘On one side, this frightening demonic world. On the other, that pure…
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Album: 紅の豚 イメージアルバム In the world of animated film music, few composers have mastered the art of thematic development quite like Joe Hisaishi. His approach to the Porco Rosso image album ‘紅の豚 イメージアルバム’ reveals a fascinating creative process that blurs the lines between personal artistic vision and collaborative filmmaking, resulting in one of his most…
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The Hidden Theme Ask anyone to name the music of My Neighbour Totoro, and they will almost certainly sing the same melody. The opening theme — cheerful, instantly recognisable, impossible to forget — has become one of the most beloved pieces of music in Japanese cinema. It is the sound of childhood, of summer, of…
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Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 In the sunlit world of Kiki’s Delivery Service, where cobblestone streets echo with accordion melodies and the Mediterranean breeze carries hope on its wings, there exists one moment of profound darkness. Among Joe Hisaishi’s predominantly major-key soundtrack, ‘Kiki’s Heartbreak’ (Shoushin no Kiki) stands as the sole minor-key composition—a musical island of melancholy…
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When Musical Architecture Meets Mediterranean Soul: The Dual Identity of ‘A Town with an Ocean View’
Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 What happens when a composer must capture the essence of a young witch’s awakening spirit while working under impossible deadlines? Joe Hisaishi faced exactly this challenge when crafting ‘Umi no Mieru Machi’ (A Town with an Ocean View) for the Kiki’s Delivery Service soundtrack, creating one of the most structurally fascinating pieces…
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The Composer of the City, Revisited In the previous essay in this series, we traced the arc of Joe Hisaishi’s early career — from his beginnings as a minimalist composer working in relative obscurity, through the discovery of Terry Riley and the revelation of A Rainbow in Curved Air, to the conscious decision to become…
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Album: 風の谷のナウシカ イメージアルバム 鳥の人… What happens when a composer abandons the traditional rules of film music? Joe Hisaishi discovered the answer while crafting one of animation’s most beloved themes, ‘Far-Off Days (Nausicaä’s Theme)’ from the image album ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Image Album – Bird People.’ This haunting piece would not only…
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Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 When Joe Hisaishi stepped off the plane from New York in June 1989, he had exactly one month to capture the essence of a young witch’s coming-of-age story in music. The composer faced an impossible deadline: create an entire orchestral score for Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ in time for the film’s…
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Album: 風の谷のナウシカ イメージアルバム 鳥の人… What if film music didn’t chase emotions, but instead painted the world through a character’s eyes? This radical question lies at the heart of Joe Hisaishi’s groundbreaking work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, where pieces like ‘Giant Warriors – Tolmekian Army – Princess Kushana’ from the Image Album…
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Something Has Changed If you grew up with the Studio Ghibli films of the 1980s and 90s, you know what Joe Hisaishi sounds like. You know the sweeping waltz of Howl’s Moving Castle, the playful bounce of My Neighbour Totoro, the aching lyricism of Princess Mononoke. You know the melodies — because they are, almost…
