Spirited Away OST

The other day I decided to watch Spirited Away, one of my all-time favorite animated movies, again, but this time I chose the English dubbed version. I remembered someone once said to me that Japanese is the cutest language ever, and I think in this case, that is aboslutely right. Though the voice actors did a fine job, it appeared that the original Japanese voice cast was part of its charm. Anyway, this time around, I paid more attention to the score, and it intrigued me enough to go look it up and found out that the composer is Joe Hisaichi, who also composed score for most of Hayao Miyazaki's works. It's funny how there's almost no English websites about him. Eventually, I sit down and spent a whole house listening to all the score, and while some of the more orchestral tracks don't really work on a standalone listening experience, the more serene pieces most certainly do. Every time I hear those, I keep picturing images in my mind: green meadows underneath a deep blue sky, train passing the river after a rainy night, or the train station with quiet, black, intangible spirits...Achingly beautiful...


Day Of The River
The Sixth Station
A Road To Somewhere













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Don Peris

Mid-Novemeber. It's about time we torched the holiday spirit again, no?

Don Peris is the guitarist of The Innocence Mission/husband of their singer, Karen Peris. As you can see, they've been around long enough to be called 'veterans'. Under his own name, Don has released two solo albums to date and the latest and third one, to be released soon this winter, will be holiday-themed. It's entitled "Brighter Visions Beam Afar", a collection of 15 Christmas carols, all arranged and performed solo with his acoustic guitar. After having a sneak peek at two preview tracks, I can say that this album's bound to be a lovely, heartwarming gift for this Christmas, especially when a portion of the profit will be collected for charity. Fans of the band shouldn't miss this release, neither should fans of simplistically wonderful acoustic guitar instrumental. The two following tracks are available on his MySpace, but to save you all the trouble of badly tagged mp3s and difficult download systems, I've tagged them properly and uploaded them myself. It's probably a bit too early, but hey, better be prepared.

Don Peris - Silent Night
Don Peris - Angels We Heard On High











MySpace/Buy/More mp3s at his official site

As a bonus, here's one more ditty, from his second album, "Go When the Morning Shineth ":

Don Peris - Day Trip

lanterna

lanterna (which means 'magic lantern') is the solo project of Illinois-based guitarist Henry Frayne. With a delay pedal and a guitar, he creates what I'd like to call 'day trip music'. Instrumental and spacey, his music is the perfect soundtrack for those highway journeys, when you feel like "Okay, I've had it with all the noise and hurry of the city, let's just take a few days off, and drive to the countryside, on those winding roads". It's lively, it's sunny, it makes you feel so warm inside. lanterna has made a total of five albums to date, the most recent one being the 2006 'Desert Ocean', out on the instrumental label 'Jemez Mountain'. I surprisingly like his stuff considering I hardly ever got into anything like this before. If you're not convinced, then just try 'Brightness' first, and grab the rest if you're not afraid for more.


Highways (2004):
lanterna
"Brightness" (mp3)
from "Highways"
(Badman Recording Co)
Buy at Insound

Brooklyn (mp3)
Canyons (mp3)


Sands (2002):
lanterna
"Greek Island" (mp3)
from "Sands"
(Badman Recording Co)
Buy at Insound



elm street (2001):
lanterna
"B Minor" (mp3)
from "elm street"
(Badman Recording Co)
Buy at Insound


Desert Ocean (2006)
Luminous