I first came upon this beautiful music in an episode of the HBO series "Carnivale". The choral music from Bulgaria and unlike anything you've ever heard and although I've heard many of the songs numerous times, I still get chills with each listening. These other worldly tunes come highly recommended and you'd be denying yourself greatly if you didn't take a listen!
While I will continue to post various albums in addition, I thought I'd do a string of post dedicated to one of my favorite film directors, Takeshi Kitano. Kitano's the god of "Meta" yakuza films and his acute sensibilities regarding all aspects of his craft are usually unsurpassed, always controversial and at times mislead. Beginning his career as a stand up comedian, Kitano accidentally fell into film making when the director of Violent Cop (その男, 凶暴につき) had to drop out of the project. The film was supposed to be a comedy but Kitano, now at the reigns, decided to completely alter the project and thus began the first of many experimental Japanese mob movies. His films of course have taken on many different themes as the times have gone on, but this is the film that molded his career for the past 20+ years. This score, done by Daisuke Kume, compliments the film very well. Particularly the main theme standouts but so does Kume's variation of French composer Erik Saite's piece, Gnossiennes I
. The film is great and so to is the soundtrack and both come recommended. Enjoy!
Akira Kurosawa is one of the most prolific directors to ever grace the world of cinema. In fact he was named "one of five people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years". His films were diverse, experimental, enigmatic and highly influential. Classic Westerns like the "Magnificent Seven" and "A Fist Full of Dollars" are undeclared remakes of his films and even George Lucas admits that he when he re-wrote the original Star Wars, he modeled Kurosawa's 1958 film "The Hidden Fortress". Kurosawa was a master at what he did but he also relied on the talents of his casts and crew to carry the films and he often built long lasting working relationships. The scores to his films were no exception and the two albums in this post feature the works of five composer over the span of Kurosawa's last 18 films. KUROSAWA~THE FILM MUSIC OF AKIRA KUROSAWA~, begins with his epic 14th film "Seven Samurai" (although his 13th is in there on track 2) and continues chronologically to 1990's "Dreams" (my personal favorite). Each track is a compilation of memorable pieces from each film and serves as a fantastic musical retrospective. The second soundtrack covers Kurosawa's last 3 films (all composed by Shinichiro Ikebe) and contains the complete soundtrack of "Dreams" and selections from the the others. Highly recommended! Enjoy!
