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Squiddybop's the man for this question, but following a thread on 'Asian' scores a while back, I did eventually get AZUMI, which is well worth a listen.
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I have those listed below and think they are all
worth adding to your collection especially *
KAZE NO HATE
SHINOBI
ONIMUSHA 2: SAMURAI'S DESTINY
YOSHITSUNE *
CHI TO HONE (BLOOD AND BONES)
NIPPON CHINBOTSU
SEMISHIGURE *
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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2008 - 11:49 AM
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By: |
Squiddybop
(Member)
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I'll hold off on reccomending RED CLIFF until I've actually heard the whole thing, but it's been my most anticipated score of 2008 ever since I first heard of Iwashiro's involvement.
AZUMI without a doubt gets my highest reccomendation. It's one of my absolute favorite scores of the past five years.
A few others favorites of mine:
ASHITA - A tender and wistful score from fairly early in Iwashiro's career. Very nice use of saxophone and pan pipes in this one, though as usual it's his lovely string writing that takes center stage. Out of print, but worth the hunt. A personal favorite of mine.
BLOOD AND BONES - A very dark and somber score that makes excellent use of solo violin. One of his most potent works. For a much lighter violin solo score, check out his lovely score to the Renzoku drama AGRI.
THE INANIMATE WORLD - This is a very interesting ablum from him. Stylistically all over the map, yet somehow it still remains cohesive. Dancing between orchestral and electronic, featuring some lovely string writing, a bit of powerful minimalistic piano, and even a great acoustic guitar track. Not one for everybody, but certainly one for me!
HARU NO YUKI - One of Iwashiro's most moving works. Somewhat subdued and filled with lovely solos. There are some fantastic piano solo versions of the themes in the middle of the album. Unfortunately EMI Japan's releases tend to go out of print fairly quickly, so this might be getting hard to find now.
Unlike many other current Japanese film composers, Iwashiro only rarely dips his toes into the world of animation. But the few times he has the results have been quite impressive. Three scores in particular are worth checking out:
RUROUNI KENSHIN ~ ISHIN SHISHI NO REQUIEM - My personal favorite score from the long running Rurouni Kenshin anime. More guitar and pan pipes in this one, as well as a few lovely themes.
THE DOG OF FLANDERS - There are two albums out for this one: the actual soundtrack, which is good, and the Symphonic World disc, which is fantastic.
MARCO - Another score that displays Iwashiro's love of the pan flute, and since I believe this film at least partially takes place in the Andes, his use of the instrument here probably makes more sense than in any of his other scores. The album also features a pretty nice song based on Iwashiro's theme, and performed by Sheena Easton.
I also wrote a bit about his two Taiga scores (Aoi ~Tokugawa Sandai~ and Yoshitsune) here:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=49724&forumID=1&archive=0
This barely scratches the surface, but hopefully it'll be enough to get you started. I've got somewhere around 40 CDs worth of Iwashiro's music so far, and I can't say I've heard a bad one yet!
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Iwashiro has come up with some very lovely cues for solo piano in his scores. One is "Her Most Beautiful Smile", which I first heard being played on YouTube and which I eventually tracked down to his RUROUNI KENSHIN - SAMURAI X score.
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