Film Music of Toru Takemitsu - 7 CD Box Set - 武満徹映画音楽 - Various artists, Orchestras and Ensembles - Victor Entertainment Japan, 2006

These are probably the rarest Takemitsu recordings around. Toru Takemitsu composed music for at least 70 films (I have read that it's actually around 90 but I haven't researched this) and the music can be exceptionally wide-ranging: traditional Japanese soloists and ensembles, Western classical tradition, avant-garde and everything in between (jazzy lounge and space age music, anyone?) I feel that some of his best film scores are those which have his delicate Debussian touches combined with traditional Asian music and soloists. The employment of the koto, biwa and shakuhachi is particularly effective. I cannot think of any other composers who have explored so many genres within their film score discography. This boxed set is such a precious gem collection and an immense pleasure for any Takemitsu fan. A comprehensive boxed survey of the great Takemitsu's film music would be an ambitious undertaking to say the very least - and I'd guess that it would take the world record for the only recorded collection that would be physically impossible to lift in one go ;)    And yes, I know about the "complete" Bach recordings I came close to buying them once..

One film composition that I am especially fond of (unfortunately it's not included in this collection) is Takemitsu's delicate and ethereal score to Kihachiro Kawamoto's "House of Flame", which is a wondrous stop-motion animation work by the brilliant filmmaker and animator Kihachiro Kawamoto. Kawamoto uses three-dimensional puppets and flat paper figures in combination with various background effects, such as drawn animation and multi-plane layering and the effect is stunning. I urge anyone interested to get the dvd "The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto" which for me is magical viewing and one of my favorite animation dvds. 

I checked youtube to see if Takemitsu's score for House of Flame has been shared as a performance however it is the short film (19 mins) itself by Kawamoto that is posted. Unfortunately the video as uploaded here has Russian subtitles which will make it impossible to follow the story for most audiences. The "original" has English subtitles and thus one would have to save the file and hope to locate a .srt subtitle file on the 'net someplace. If you don't mind the titles, needless to say the score and visuals make up for it. The audio quality is ok. If you care to check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whnBvlbVhV0

Disc 7 is unnumbered

The actual boxed set:

Disc(s)/Tracks info (almost all of the texts in this set are in Japanese):

Disc one: Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

1-1 Kwaidan/Ghost Stories
1-2 Harakiri
1-3 Glowing Autumn
1-4 The Inheritance
1-5 Hymn to a Tired Man
1-6 The Fossil

Dusc 2: Directed by Masahiro Shinoda

2-1 The Petrified Forest
2-2 Silence
2-3 With Beauty & Sorrow
2-4 The Assassin
2-5 Samurai Spy
2-6 Ballad of Orin
2-7 Clouds at Sunset

Disc 3: Directed by Nagisa Oshima/Susumu Hani

3-1 Empire of Passion
3-2 The Man Who Left His Will on Film
3-3 Dear Summer Sister
3-4 The Ceremony
3-5 Bad Boys
3-6 A Full Life

Disc 4: Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara

4-1 The Face of Another
4-2 Summer Soliders
4-3 Pitfall
4-4 Shiroi asa
4-5 Woman in the Dunes
4-6 Jose Torres
4-7 The Ruined Map
4-8 Rikyu

Disc 5: Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Toichiro Narushima, Shiro Toyoda, Mikio Naruse, Shohei Imamura

5-1 Dodesukaden
5-2 Time Within Memory
5-3 Illusion of Blood
5-4 Scattered Clouds
5-5 Black Rain

Disc 6: Directed by Kon Ichikawa, Noboru Nakamura, Hideo Onchi

6-1 Kyoto
6-2 Alone on the Pacific
6-3 Twin Sisters of Kyoto
6-4 Nijuissai no chichi
6-5 The Kii River
6-6 Once a Rainy Day
6-7 The Call of Flesh
6-8 Wonderful Bad Woman
6-9 Shiawase

Disc 7: Bonus Disc

7-1 Beast Alley (Eizo Sugawa)
7-2 Saigo no shinpan (Hiromichi Horikawa)
7-3 Sabita en (Masahisa Sadanaga)
7-4 Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (Masahiro Shinoda)
7-5 to 7-17 Conversation with Toru Takemitsu  -Entirely in Japanese :(



Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd1-Tzadik.zip
http://www3.zippyshare.com/v/GA79A6qm/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd2-Tzadik.zip
http://www97.zippyshare.com/v/nzgn8Kt2/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd3-Tzadik.zip
http://www54.zippyshare.com/v/pFsj3huL/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd4-Tzadik.zip
http://www63.zippyshare.com/v/cc4SZPnK/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd5-Tzadik.zip
http://www10.zippyshare.com/v/RxtaneXp/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd6-Tzadik.zip

http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/YDRGxPqb/file.html

Takemitsu_Film_Music_cd7_bonus-Tzadik.zip

http://www61.zippyshare.com/v/1DlfLH1B/file.html

Booklet notes (majority is in Japanese):

Takemitsu_photos_booklets.zip

http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/Z3xI8tK7/file.html

Enjoy everyone!!