Category: Song Reviews

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ サウンドトラック ～飛行石の謎～ Picture this: a composer sitting in a Tokyo café with his stopwatch, meticulously timing every movement on screen while sketching musical phrases. This was Joe Hisaishi in June 1986, preparing to revolutionize how animated film music is created. His track “A Merry Chase” from Castle in the Sky’s soundtrack would become…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 Picture this: you’re composing for a young witch’s adventure, and suddenly you find yourself channeling the chaotic energy of Tom and Jerry cartoons. This unlikely collision of influences shaped one of Joe Hisaishi’s most playful compositions, “Migawari Jiji” (Substitute Jiji), from the Kiki’s Delivery Service soundtrack. During rehearsals for his 2019 World…

Album: 紅の豚 イメージアルバム Behind every Studio Ghibli film lies a musical conversation between director and composer that shapes the very soul of the story. For Porco Rosso, this dialogue between Hayao Miyazaki and Joe Hisaishi produced one of anime’s most distinctive soundscapes—one where jazz sensibilities meet orchestral grandeur in unexpected ways. At the heart of…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 イメージアルバム What happens when a composer creates music for a film that doesn’t yet exist? In 1989, Joe Hisaishi found himself in precisely this situation, crafting what would become the image album for Studio Ghibli’s “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” Among the collection’s standout pieces is “Kaze no Oka” (Hill of Wind), a composition that…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 Picture this: you’re sitting in a recording studio in 1988, tasked with creating music for a film about magical forest creatures and two young sisters. The challenge? How do you craft a soundtrack that captures both the everyday mundane and the fantastical without falling into the trap of creating ‘just another children’s…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 What happens when a director counts beats with his fingers and declares there are too many notes? In the case of My Neighbor Totoro’s main theme, it leads to one of cinema’s most beloved musical moments. The collaboration between director Hayao Miyazaki and composer Joe Hisaishi on “Totoro” reveals a creative process…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 In the annals of film music history, few songs have emerged from such serendipitous circumstances as ‘Sanpo’ from My Neighbor Totoro. What began as a simple demo recording by vocalist Azumi Inoue became one of Studio Ghibli’s most beloved opening themes, fundamentally reshaping how composer Joe Hisaishi approached children’s cinema. The story…

Album: 紅の豚 サウンドトラック Sometimes the stars align in the most unexpected ways, bringing together creative forces that seem destined to meet. Such was the case when Joe Hisaishi sat down to compose the soundtrack for Hayao Miyazaki’s “Porco Rosso,” particularly the evocative piece “Partner ship” that would capture the essence of 1920s jazz-age romance. The…

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ イメージアルバム ～空から降ってきた少女～ In the spring of 1986, composer Joe Hisaishi found himself thousands of miles from home in London’s prestigious Air Studios, putting the finishing touches on what would become one of his most beloved musical creations. The track “Flaptor” from the Castle in the Sky Image Album represents more than just another…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 イメージアルバム Picture this: a young Japanese composer sits at his synthesizer in the late 1980s, tasked with creating an entire musical world for a story about a teenage witch learning to fly. But there’s a catch – he needs to imagine not the familiar landscapes of Japan, but something distinctly European, somewhere around…