Joe Hisaishi, composer, born on December 6, 1950.

Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲) was born December 6, 1950, in Nagano, Japan, with the name Mamoru Fujisawa (藤澤守). His musical training that is inspired by the tradition of western symphony, pop, jazz, electronic music and new age as well as minimalism, began very soon, when he began taking violin lessons at five years old; highlighting quickly in their interpretation as well as in the proboscis.

At a very early age, he also remained “trapped” by the film, so that this conjunction of learning and interests bent unequivocally that these two arts would charge a decisive role in his life.

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His passion for music did not make but is sure to grow with the passage of years, and studies, and at the age of nineteen, Fujisawa , he enrolled in the Higher School of Music of Kunitachi, where he majored in composition under the tutelage of, inter alia, one of the key figures in the composition of music for anime: Takeo Watanabe , graduating at the end of the 60s.

Already in the 70s, his passion for music did that “drink” is inevitably the cultural mix of music, Japanese folk, new-age and electronic music that emerged in your country. Genres that influenced the young Fujisawa, in particular the wave of electronic music Japan headed by the Yellow Magic Orchestra of the sadly disappeared Ryuichi Sakamoto . All of this led him to work as drummer of minimalist music, acquiring a wide experience in works of the movement of The New York Anaesthesology School.

After working in a recording studio to score in 1974, the career of the young Fujisawa takes a big boost after a composition of his own for an animated film titled Gyatoruzu the First Human received great praise. This work was followed by others on this first time as Robokko Beeton, Sasuraiger and Tekuno porisu 21C.

In 1981, now with the stage name of Joe Hisaishi (inspired by how to translate the kanji approximately the last name of the famous record producer highly admired by Fujisawa : Quincy Jones ) released his first album, named MKWAJU, and the second Information, in 1982.

Both very experimental and served as a great cover letter for a film producer who was impressed by the way you create music of the young composer. That producer was neither more nor less than Isao Takahata , which recommended an emerging Hayao Miyazaki , who was working on a new feature film, which was the young man who composed the soundtrack.

That movie was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and – according to the words of Hisaishi – your beauty narrative inspired him to deepen as never before until that moment in his way of composing. In fact, here began one of the creative collaborations most important and prolific of his career, and his composition was a pioneer in the music of the animated films Japanese.

Between 1980 and 1988, he composed the scores of Mobile Suit Gundam Movie II: Soldiers of Sorrow, Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, Arion, Robot Carnival, Crest of the Royal Family. In 1983, he also composed the soundtrack of the popular television series of science fiction Mospead, which is then used Carl Macek to Robotech.

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Two of the most important works of Hisaishi has composed also in the 1980s: the scores of Sasuga no Sarutobi and Futari Taka. Also in that decade, it would arrive two collaborations more with Miyazaki : Tenkuu no Shiro LAPUTA (1986), and Kikis Delivery Service (1989) where the slope symphony the composer was already more manifest.

The 90s bring Hisaishi another of his collaborations most iconic; which was to unite his way with Takeshi Kitano , for which over 12 years creating soundtracks that are so important in his career as A Scene at the Sea (1991), Sonatine (1993), Hana-bi (1997), Kikujiro no Natsu (1999), Brother (2000) and Dolls (2002) all of them with sonorities that go more deeply into the dramatic and distressed from a very beautiful way and with a great prominence of the piano.

Stories, all of them, which also served him to grow a lot as a songwriter and a storyteller through his music. This decade also brings you two new collaborations with Miyazaki: Porco Rosso (1992) and Mononoke Hime (1997). The first offering a score very bucolic and varied, and the second, a stunning and extensive score symphony with an unforgettable theme associated with the protagonist.

In 2000, the margin of his last two collaborations with Kitano, appears in the road of Hisaishi composing the music for your production first non-Japanese: Le Petit Pouce (2001) this would be followed by productions in Korea: Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005); China: The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2006), The Sun Also Rises (2007) and The Legend (2007). With a special mention to the last two in terms of the quality of composition and orchestration in both scores.

They are likewise three new collaborations with Miyazaki that appear in this decade: Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001), Howls Moving Castle (2004) and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008); sheet music full of beautiful melodies and symphonism, the last two as well as more measured, but no less beautiful, the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning Chihiro; where the composer is more about his role a more intimate and contained without sacrificing the large formations of the orchestra. This facet reaches one of his high points in Departures (2008), a film directed by Yojiro Takita where Hisaishi gives absolute prominence to the cello in this beautiful story about life, death, and family.

At this stage, such is the legacy of the binomial Miyazaki – Hisaishi in the year 2008 were held 3 concerts (4, 5, and August 6) in the stadium, Budokan, Tokyo, to celebrate 25 years of this union. It was an event packed involving about 1,200 musicians (200 symphony orchestra, 800 for choir and 160 of band music). A unique concert that served as a model for the concerts that the composer offered subsequently in France and the United States.

Of the hand of the decade of 2010 is the second soundtrack for a video game in the career of Hisaishi (the first had been in the year 1992: Tengai Makyo II Manjimaru). This game comes mentored by Studio Ghibli along with the developer Level-5 and, without a hint of doubt, is to present one of the greatest works of the composer, which includes a wonderful central theme within a symphonic work that is composed for a video game.

It also appears at this time a new team in the race of Hisaishi , the formed together with the veteran Yoji Yamada to give life musically to the stories of Tokyo kazoku (2013), Chiisai ouchi (2014), Kazoku wa tsuraiyo (2016) and Kazoku wa tsuraiyo 2 (2017). All soundtracks, simple transitioning between comedy and sentimental, but very effective in the passing of all the stories.

How not, also in this decade, the ways of Miyazaki and Hisaishi , they met again. And they do so to give life to Kaze tachinu (2013) which, although more contained musically than previous work for Studio Ghibli , magic and refinement of the music are still magnificent-wire in a beautiful story. And, behold, the who recommended a young Miyazaki had a young composer to Nausicaa, was also directing a feature film at the same time that his colleague did the same with Kaze tachinu.

This film was Kaguya-hime no monogatari. And for the first time (and unfortunately last after the death of Isao Takahata ), after three decades associating his name to Studio Ghibli, Hisaishi was going to compose the soundtrack for a film of the late director. The result was a beautiful score halfway between the intimate and emphatic. By endowing with your music to the lush beauty of the images in the film of Takahata ‘s a plus narrative within the reach of very few.

A maturity that has continued to show in the last few years until you reach Kimitachi wa do ikiru ka (The Boy and the heron). Possibly the last movie of Miyazaki (although with this man, you never know), and the more minimalist and subdued all the compositions created by Hisaishi for a film of his dear friend. Soundtrack to lack to see the film, promises to be a great emotional burden by telling this new story of genius japanese behind the apron, glasses and cigarette eternal.

Prolific as a few, over the years, Hisaishi has created his own record label, called Wonder Land Inc. His career outside of the cinema continued in 2004 carrying out a tour of piano. In 2006, he published another studio album titled, Asian X. T. C. renowned for his works.

He received the Medal of Honor with purple tie from the japanese Government in 2009. Appointed professor of the National School of Music in Japan. He has also won eight times the Award of the Japanese Academy for Best Music. He has written a handful of symphonies to date, the two last completed during the confinement of the pandemic 2020-21.

A very prolific composition followed by a series of concerts throughout the world with all tickets sold out (five consecutive days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2022). And many more performances and concerts scheduled for the next two years, without forgetting the interpretations of his Second Symphony and a new work, Saga for viola and orchestra.

In short; we are faced with one of the great geniuses of the contemporary music whose legacy up to the present, 476, work as a composer, 400 as an arranger, 83 as a performer and as many others as producer. A background within the reach of very few that insurance will continue to increase with the passage of the years to come (although this is something that has already been made) with golden letters in the history books of music.

Of the hand of the decade of 2010 is the second soundtrack for a video game in the career of Hisaishi (the first had been in the year 1992: Tengai Makyo II Manjimaru). This game comes mentored by Studio Ghibli along with the developer Level-5 and, without a hint of doubt, is to present one of the greatest works of the composer, which includes a wonderful central theme within a symphonic work that is composed for a video game.

It also appears at this time a new team in the race of Hisaishi , the formed together with the veteran Yoji Yamada to give life musically to the stories of Tokyo kazoku (2013), Chiisai ouchi (2014), Kazoku wa tsuraiyo (2016) and Kazoku wa tsuraiyo 2 (2017). All soundtracks simple transitioning between comedy and sentimental but very effective in the passing of all the stories.

Joe Hisaishi : Studio Ghibli Experience, Part 1

Track List:

0:00 – One Summer’s Day 4:32 – The Sixth Station 8:23 – Ashitaka and San 12:23 – Merry-Go-Round 17:36 – Fantasia (for NAUSICAÄ) 24:34 – Innocent 27:07 – il porco rosso 32:00 – The Wind Forest 36:55 – Merry-Go-Round 41:23 – Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea 44:12 – Castle in the Sky 50:46 – Cave of Mind