Album Release: Spirited Away - The Music of Life (3.0)

It is with great pleasure that I give you my newest album project, "Spirited Away - The Music of Life"! This is an exclusive vip release, it won't see the light of day in the public for another while.

The album is based on Joe Hisaishi's masterful and classic score from 2001's Spirited Away, the oscar winning animation by Studio Ghibli. Included are seven arrangements for solo arrangements, performed by yours truly, and three collaborative tracks that feature talented artists Kanae Nozawa, JoyDreamer and REVEN. All of which are wonderful artists that I had the utmost pleasure to work with! They bring so much to the album in my opinion. Artwork is once again drawn by artist extraordinaire; Phil Dragash! No one can quite draw those gorgeous, dreamy backgrounds like Phil. Without further ado, here is the tracklist!

Tracklist:

01: One Summer's Day
02: The Dragon Boy
03. Bathhouse Morning
04. Always With Me - Short Version
05. The Sixth Station
06. The House at Swamp Bottom
07. Always With Me (ft. Kanae Nozawa)
08. Reprise
09. The Name of Life - English Version (ft. JoyDreamer)
10. The Name of Life (ft. REVEN)

One Summer's Day is quite special to me, one of the first tracks I ever learned and it is my most viewed score on Musescore, I believe it's in the top 10 of the most viewed scores ever on the website. This version of the mix is quite improved from the Emotional Anime one. The Dragon Boy is this album's high effort, difficult arrangement and I'm quite happy with it, I tried my best to encapsulate the feelings and melodies of the original (which is an orchestral masterpiece!). Bathhouse Morning is a piano medley, and includes stand-out motifs such as "Sootballs" and "No-face". I think it's this album's "sleeper" so to speak, underrated track! The opening and middle section are so beautiful, and I'm pleased with how I was able to arrange the whole thing. Always With Me is featured two times; originally the ending song of the movie, I've applied it both as a cute, short piano solo (great for all levels to play!), and as a full version with Kanae-san, in a duet. The Sixth Station is a somber, moody and gorgeously composed Joe Hisaishi piece that most people will recognize from the film. One of the hardest to pin down in accuracy and in emotion. The House at Swamp Bottom is one of the shorter and lesser known tracks on the album. I didn't absolutely have to cover this one, but it's quite cute and I adore the middle section in particular (where I doubled the melody with an extra octave). Reprise, ah, one of the staple tracks from the soundtrack that plays during one of the final scenes. There was some pressure to do this one, but luckily I do love the track and I found a good balance on complexity, length, and difficulty here. It is somewhat shortened but still lengthy and inclusive of its main parts and emotions. And I think intermediate players can play it just fine, I'm glad I didn't go in too complex of a direction with it. Its beauty is carried by the simplicity of the melody, and straightforward dynamics. The Name of Life was the perfect way to end the album I think! A lyrical version of the One Summer's Day main motif from the movie, originally in one of the bonus soundtracks. And just as One Summer's Day starts the movie, it ends with The Return, and keen listeners will notice that I included the final notes from that track at the very end. I must admit I tore up from listening to these, Joy and REVEN's performances are stellar. What are your favorite tracks?

For the release itself, you can expect all of the regular goodies included; the wonderful artwork by Phil, 320kb mp3 files, and of course the complete score.

You can DL it as part of my discography here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/massive-update-98905690

I hope you will enjoy the album, there was a lot of work that went into it as per usual, especially the collaborative tracks. Until then, see you in the next post!