Didn’t mean to blog again before leaving on vacation, but this was too good to pass up. Via The Ghibli Blog – Joe Hisaishi, the brilliant composer behind classic Studio Ghibli soundtracks, conducted a live charity concert on June 23, 2011 in Paris with the Star Pop Orchestra and a full choir. The YouTube videos of the concert were sublime – the Princess Mononoke theme that Daniel Thomas MacInnes had linked in The Ghibli Blog was very good, but my favorite piece from the concert has got to be the My Neighbor Totoro theme:
When Joe started playing the piano around 2:40 into the video, I went “HOMG MAESTRO!” The children’s choir added all the right notes, and I just love how this arrangement manages to be wistful yet playful and grand, all in the same piece. Truly beautiful. And the Totoro theme is just so iconic, it makes you want to clap along with the audience and burst into rapturous cheers!
I stumbled across HearJapan a little while back because I heard that they were donating 50% of all sales to Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief efforts. It’s a terrific site which features great (less mainstream) Japanese music – I just shelled out for a bunch of Dirty Old Men songs myself – and I highly recommend checking it out, especially while the relief donation promo is going on. It’s also a great way to legally support your favorite Japanese artists!
The first time I browsed through HearJapan, I searched for “Studio Ghibli” on a whim – and I was really surprised by the number of cover albums that came up, for just about any instrument and genre you could think of! From jazz to rock, “speed” piano to marimba – there’s even an album titled Ghibli Computer which consists of “a collection of Studio Ghibli covers completely rewritten with old school computer sounds accompanied with a bouncing beat.” Amazing!
I’m kind of a traditionalist myself, so my favorite album from the bunch was Azumi Inoue’s Ghibli Meikyoku Selection~Dear Ghibli. I liked how the arrangements featured a full orchestra and piano ensemble, not to mention the fact that Azumi Inoue was the original singer of Ghibli classics like “Kimi o Nosete“, “Sanpo“, and “Tonari no Totoro“; her voice is wonderfully soothing and also quintessentially Ghibli at the same time. So I was happy to shell out a bit to expand my music collection AND contribute to relief efforts in Japan at the same time! Win-win if there ever was one.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Nujabes lately. I’m generally not a hip hop fan, but there’s a real addictive yet soothing quality to Nujabes’ works. I think it’s because his songs invoke a real lightness of being.
Some of my favorite Nujabes tracks include Reflection Eternal, Folklore, and Windspeaks, but my current favorite is Luv (Sic) Part 3. The lyrics are especially inspirational, and fitting as a memorial tribute to Nujabes as well.
Nujabes – Luv (Sic) Part 3 feat. Shing02
It’s funny how the music put times in perspective
Add a soundtrack to your life and perfect it
Whenever you are feeling blue keep walking and we can get far
Wherever you are
Like a movie that you can’t predict
Like a book that you can’t resist
I sing along a song that’s oh so sensual
bring along a sip to make it all so sexual
verbally that is, making love to the music means vibing to the beat at night
with the whole city fast asleep, out cold
true words seem to rise to the lips, take hold
of a poet in me, most powerfully
I feel free when the world doesn’t owe it to me
It’s so hard to find a gig that lives up to the billing,
trying to find a reason to work, god willing
I admit, my thinking is wishful
like a star upon a child gazing up to the ceiling
how far do we have to stretch the truth
to fit the lifestyles borrowed and overdue
we can take it all back to the register
and start all over from the canister
let’s break it all down into pieces of bright
moments that pass by like a meteorite
throw on your favorite reel that’s good to go
on the analog player watch the people glow
sit back to the breeze let the memories flow
comedy tragedy all the highs and lows…
I’ve been looking at Japanese album covers lately for design inspiration, and I googled mink on a whim, mostly because I remembered seeing her e+motion album cover posted to Animepaper as a NANA scan:
I actually have no idea why this cover was tagged as a NANA scan, because as far as I can tell none of mink’s songs were ever used for the NANA series – not to say mink couldn’t have been inspired by Ai Yazawa’s work, of course. I’m also not sure who illustrated these album covers, but I suspect that mink herself might be the actual designer. In any case, these cover illustrations are really quite beautiful. I love the stark simplicity, the movement of the lines, and the abundant negative space.
I went digging for Pogo a little while back. Jay really loved his music and used them in her Clash challengevideos, which made me want to check out his works a bit more thoroughly than when I first stumbled on him through Gids.
Pogo is the pseudonym for the emerging 21-year old electronic music artist Nick Bertke in Perth, Western Australia. He is known for his work recording small sounds from single films or scenes, and sequencing them to form new pieces of music. Pogo’s music and videos have attracted a large and devoted following that continues to grow every day.
His most notable track, Alice, a composition of sounds from the Disney film ‘Alice In Wonderland’, was received with much success gaining 4 million views on YouTube as of December 2009. Pogo has since produced tracks using films like ‘Up’, ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Sword In The Stone’, ‘Hook’, ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’, and ‘Toy Story’.
Many of Pogo’s catchy tracks are also available for free download from his site, so definitely swing by for a listen and/or download!
I was a huge fan of Gaia 09, so I was tickled pink to see the release of Gaia 10 – which may be one of the most personal yet expressive celebrations of nature that I have ever seen. The digital goodies offered by the Gaian Community are so present, they truly are constant reminders of nature’s beauty. And it’s so easy to take part – all you have to do is snag the gorgeous desktops, themes, or icons, use, and enjoy!
Our vision and believe is in the power of a community to create a positive movement to show the beauty of our planet… By creating digital art, reminding us of the beauty of nature everyday.
Apart from a thorough perusal of Gaia 10′s gorgeous gallery, I’d also recommend checking out the Places We Visit While Listening To You music album, which is filled with soothing tunes and available for free download. Seriously, what’s not to love here?! Go check out Gaia 10 NOW, if you haven’t already!
Putting aside the fact that my DS usurped my PS2′s spot in my limited attention span, and I haven’t played my DS in a while – I would’ve thought that Final Fantasy XIII would be THE game to make me finally acquire a PS3. But it’s gotten such lukewarm word on the street that I’ll be waiting for the new Kingdom Hearts game to come out before I get that PS3
The theme song for FFXIII is really nice though, even though I did raise an eyebrow when I saw that it was by Leona Lewis – not a name I would’ve ever associated with Final Fantasy, and also I had pegged her for a one-hit (“Bleeding Love“) wonder. But everyone who managed to last through the game seems to agree that this song fits. So YAY FOR PRETTY MUSIC, and I’m glad that Leona came out with another good song that I can now add to my YouTube playlist \o/
My boyfriend was flipping through the channels last night, and he ended up settling for the second half of August Rush. We’d seen it before, but I had forgotten how awesome the soundtrack was. The guitar slapping song, “Raise It Up” (that little girl has an amazing, amazing voice)… all really great music, but my favorite is definitely “August’s Rhapsody“. It’s hauntingly beautiful and never fails to give me the chills, especially near the middle-end. Perfect note to end this movie on!
