Miyazaki's Spirited Away [Original Soundtrack]

by Joe Hisaishi

Overview

Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi is best known for his Takeshi Kitano and Hazao Miyazaki scores -- and yet the two directors couldn't be more different. Kitano's films are mostly adult crime dramas, while Miyazaki's are mostly animated family features. But both are wildly adventurous and deeply (sometimes even secretly) romantic. Hisaishi has done excellent work for each, most notably Kitano's masterful Hana-Bi and Miyazaki's epic Princess Mononoke. If his soundtracks for Kitano tend to have a more elegant, elegiac tone (Kitano's taciturn protagonists often die at the end), his soundtracks for Miyazaki tend to be more sweeping and majestic (no matter what comes their way, Miyazaki's plucky young heroes and heroines always triumph at the end). Spirited Away fits the latter description to a T. As is the custom with a Miyazaki film, a vocal track plays during the closing credits. In this case, Youmi Kimura sings the lilting "Always With Me" in Japanese (the CD booklet includes an English translation). The rest of the score features instrumental pieces performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom Hisaishi has worked for several years. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Details

Release Date:	12/11/2020
Label:	Studio Ghibli / Urp Music Distribution
UPC:	4988008088014
Rank:	24217

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Joe Hisaishi   Primary Artist,Piano,Conductor
New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra   Primary Artist,Orchestra
Susan Egan   Voices
David Ogden Stiers   Voices
John Ratzenberger   Voices
Tara Strong   Voices
Shohei Kaneko   Vocal Director
Yumi Kimura   Vocals

Technical Credits

Masayoshi Okawa   Engineer
Julie Rogers   Translation
Emmanuel Chamboredon   Executive Producer
Suminobu Hamada   Staff,Recording
Joe Hisaishi   Arranger,Composer,Producer,Orchestration
Shinichi Tanaka   Engineer
Tsuyoshi Suzuki   Producer,Executive Producer
Shigeki Fujino   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
Masaya Yasue   Staff,Recording
Kazunori Miyake   Orchestration
Wakako Kaku   Composer,Lyricist
Keith Walner   Executive Producer
Masaki Sekijima   Production Coordination
Christopher Kimball   Executive Producer
Jodi Tack   Layout Design
Shinya Tanaka   Staff,Recording
Hiroyuki Akita   Assistant Engineer
Laetitia Bellon   Layout Design
Toshio Suzuki   Executive Producer
Hirokazu Fujita   Recording
Hiroshi Kuwabara   Recording
Masamichi Ohashi   Recording
Soichiro Ito   Production Coordination