I posted a song of Joe Hisaishi's before - the main theme to the moving Korean war film Welcome to Dongmakgol - but Hisaishi is much better known for his soundtracks to the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is sometimes called the Japanese Walt Disney, not because of any real stylistic similarity between the two, but more because both animators are known for a series of consistent masterpieces, and because both have significantly impacted the national culture in which they lived. Just as images of Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Peter Pan can be found plastered on merchandise all over the United States, Totoro, Jiji, and the Catbus pop up all over Japan (although to be fair, Disney characters are fairly common in Japan as well.)
Much like Spielberg continues to use John Williams for all of his scores, and James Cameron relies on James Horner for his, Hayao Miyazaki has formed a lasting collaboration with Joe Hisaishi. The animated environmentalist film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was the beginning of that collaboration. Although Hisaishi goes mostly for orchestral styles nowadays, this 1984 soundtrack contained a great deal of synthesized music, popular both here and in Japan at the time. This is the opening theme to that movie. The song begins with the aforementioned synthesized motif, which plays from 0:00 to 1:17. It accompanies the pre-credits scene which introduces the dystopian world of the distant future, a world rendered toxic by centuries of pollution, in which humans are sparse and giant mutant creatures run rampant. The orchestra kicks in at 1:18, where the beautiful main theme accompanies the opening credits of the film. These credits are accompanied by ancient paintings that depict mankind's downfall one thousand years before the beginning of the story. The synth returns at 3:53 where we are introduced to the teenage girl, Nausicaa. Even this early in his career, Hisaishi is as good as ever. Although I could do without some of the more ethereal computer music, his orchestrations are more than enough to make this a worthy soundtrack, and they establish the film's universe wonderfully. The moment Hisaishi's main theme started as I watched the movie for the first time, I new that this was going to be a great film.
Album info: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TKCA-72717
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