So I didn't quite know what to think when they said Tamiya Terashima was doing the music for Gedo Senki, the new Ghibli movie animated by Hayao Miyazaki's son (I don't remember his name).  I bought it anyway and it's rather good.  It's true to the standard Ghibli quality in terms of music; a little bit darker and heavier and has quite a few tones of Celtic instrumentation in some parts (bagpipes and whatnot).  The vocalist for this movie is really good.  From what I read on IMDB she's only 19 and was supposed to star in the 2008 Ghibli movie, but Miyazaki liked her so much she bumped her up.  She has a really good voice (you can hear the movie title song if you go to the website, it's really good http://www.ghibli.jp/ged/).  The "Poetry" album as it's called, is all her on vocals singing songs .  Really calming voice.   No Hisaishi is always a bad thing in my book but this is still definitely Ghibli worthy.

~jb

Can't stand to see this thread linger without reply as I'm pretty psyched about this score I've been a huge fan of Terashima since his Ys arranging days, although I confess to not having heard his stuff since.

Hope to chime in with something of more substance after seeing the film, which should be in the next week or two.  Unfortunately I've heard from a Japanese friend that the plot's hard to follow. When is it slated to make it stateside anyway?

Not sure on the stateside release but I've gone to NYC to see all the premiers for Ghibli movies  the last couple years, it will probably be in a few months.

There is a good synopsis on Le Guin's site about it (I think it's a translation of the original synopsis sent to her):

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiSynopsis.html

it was one that caught my eye too, having seen Tamiya's name for the score.

I quite liked it too, if a little dark and nostalgic for a ghibli film, but very well played out and as with his previous work - I love it!

Sounds so awesome; I'd LOVE to see this movie when and if it gets released in the United States (not until 2009?  GAAAH!!!!).  Hearing that Tamiya Terashima does the score (I loved his work on Symphony Ys '95) is great news for me as well.

-Jon T.

I enjoyed this score too. I did go into it with a cynical attitude I admit, because I'm so enamoured of Hisaishi's work, but it is indeed a very good score.

As for seeing the film, there's a very good chance the Japanese DVD will come with English subs, so don't worry about waiting until the bureaucratic nonsense clears up. Import away

A question about this soundtrack, and Korean soundtracks in general. Is the Korean version of the "Tales from Earthsea" soundtrack legit? There are pictures here, here and here.

Well, about the movie, I'm sure to want to see it, since I very much enjoyed the original Earthsea trilogy by le Guin when I read it some eight years ago, and I trust this movie will be of the outstanding Ghibli quality, as well.

It has a Pony Canyon logo on the back cover so it should be the official Korean release (which is distributed by Pony Canyon). And as far as I know there aren't a lot Korean bootleg cds around. Not like in Taiwan or anything. (dvds is another issue though...)

Ah, yes, thanks. That is what I thought, but I wanted to have confirmation.

Can't believe I let all these years go by without ever commenting on this soundtrack. It's definitely unique among the Ghibli scores with its sweeping, epic orchestral sound. It's also very heavily focused on a few key themes that dominate the score. Fortunately excellent arrangement of themes has been a hallmark of composer Tamiya Terashima's work so they sound great throughout, and as a complete OST I'd rank it as one of the most consistent start-to-finish scores in the Ghibli collection.

The arranged album "Tales from Earthsea Piano Plus" is very well done as well. As mentioned in the anime music on Spotify thread, both albums are on streaming services now, so I'd absolutely recommend giving them a listen.

Oh and as jb mentioned at the start of the thread, the featured vocalist Aoi Tejima has a beautiful voice. Even the "inspired by" songbook album for her and the director's follow-up Ghibli film, From Up On Poppy Hill, I've found myself really enjoying.