Customer Reviews

Arjuna: into the another world

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't impressed with Arjuna's soundtrack at my first listening... (Mind you that I haven't seen a single episode of Arjuna)... I thought the sounds were too weird compared to Escaflowne or Cowboy Bebop (which I truly love)... But to appreciate Yoko Kanno is to know the theme she's aiming for in the anime... So I listened to this CD once more with open ears (which is usually the case with Yoko Kanno... She creates BGM music most of the time, so usually I find that it takes about a second or third hearing of the OST to really appreciate it)...

1. Early Bird - Calm and peaceful piece sung by a girl (or a boy; can't tell)... It sounds like an out-of-this-world language--typical Yoko Kanno...

2. Awakening - I like the chanting here... Very ominous and feels like a dungeon music...

3. Clóe - My favourite peice in this soundtrack along with Mameshiba (track 18)... This song is just amazing... A must hear!... It's fascinating how Yoko Kanno was able to realize that a child singing this particular tune can make this piece 100x better; 'cuz I think it won't be as good if it's played instrumentally... Also, the harp (I think) and piano helps with the singing...

4. Time To Die - A dark song indeed... The song gets funky by the end when the electric guitar starts playing...

5. 2nd Life - Another great guitar track... Very folk-like yet modern...

6. Diving - The beginning and end seems like normal nonsense chanting... But it's probably an out-of-this-world lyrics yet again... Then there's nice guitar chords with a Spanish feel to it in the middle of the song...

7. Clone - A lot of people hate this one... I don't think they realize that the song really does make you think of clones (well at least for me)... I picture out-of-control clones while listening to this piece... Thus, I like it!...

8. Feel The Circle - A quaint yet forboding music box music with some strings blending nicely...

9. Aerobics - Nice electric guitar music... Reminds me of a car commercial of some sort... (hehe... and kinda catchy)

10. Omega Blue - This track wasn't in my listening taste for a long time... But now, it's really becoming quite a favourite Arjuna track of mine...

11. Drop Of Time - Another out-of-this-world lyric'd song... Quite short, really...

12. Earth Resonance - This piece I like... Sounds like an empowering song with some nice singing (no words)...

13. Prophet - Chanting... At first, the chanting doesn't seem to go anywhere; but there's some singing to this one...

14. Before Breakfast - Wow... A troubadour-like music with some woodwinds, fiddle, and guitar strumming... Reminds me of movies about the Middle Ages (HA!... But "ELM" from Cowboy Bebop IMO is a better troubadour-like music)...

15. Bells For Her - A peaceful yet sad piano and violin piece... I like how this piece ends...

16. Motorcycle - A Maaya Sakamoto song with a midnight club feel to it (did that just made sense?!?!)... The BGM to this song really feels like you're riding a motorcycle too... It gets better and better once while listenting to it IMO...

17. Diamond - I love this piano piece... It's simple yet it's very catchy...

18. Mameshiba - This is a great song sung by Maaya Sakamoto... It starts with guitar strums then drums... The best part of the song IMO is the bridge and the chorus of the song!...

19. Kookie - A girl (or guy, yet again) singing in the same "weird" lyrics as most of the tracks in this OST... Quite short too...

20. Aqua - "Weird" lyrics that reminds me of a certain Macross Plus piece... The chorus is the best part of the track...

21. Mameshiba (instrumental verson) - A hidden track... First time I heard this piece, I thought it sounded familiar... This is basically a piano and strings version of Mameshiba's chorus... It's very nicely done and sounds somewhat original in it's own way...

I can't emphasize enough how much I love this disc. The music is beautiful, moving, inspiring, and always creative. Yoko Kanno is a genius. This soundtrack is a testament to her artistic range and to her dedicated striving for perfection. She recruits top talent to help her realize her vision. The first time I heard Maaya Sakamoto singing "Mameshiba", I knew I had to know more about the voice, the composer, the arranger, the musicians. I've been watching episodes of the Arjuna anime lately, and I find that the music enhances the experience to produce moments of ecstasy. This disc also happens to be one of the easiest of Yoko Kanno's to find at an affordable price, so buy it before that is no longer the case.

I've never seen the show, but there's no way it could be worthy of this amazing score, which stands alone as a triumph of composition, musicianship and production. Possibly Kanno's best. I've been a fan of her's for a few years now, but I hadn't heard of this one until i found it cheap on Amazon. Across this album, she's got psychadelic guitar rock blending seamlessly with Akira-esque percussion pieces, lush orchestral themes, choral interludes, flamenco flourishes, eastern european folk styles, and some of the lushest j-pop imaginable - sometimes in the same song (though none of Kanno's typical electronic dance, jazz, or blues music is present). Far from being the scattered stylistic tour de force you'd expect (which would be fine with me), it somehow hangs together as a coherent listening experience all the way through. Themes re-emerge with radically different instrumentation and every few moments brings a new surprise. A perfect balance of aggression and tenderness, (boldness and comfort, sympathy and style) cuts through the album and makes it a devastating listen every time. I keep finding new favorite moments.

I've been fan of Yoko Kanno for some time now, and I know that she is amazing. But when I first heard this album I was completely blown away.
Many of the tracks are very 'tribal' sounding and use Kanno's strange unique language for flavour. It also features a couple songs by the lovely Maaya Sakamoto.
This OST is a must for anyone and everyone.

:)

All the disc is excelent but the vocal is better, if you want a god work of Yoko Kanno this is a god choice.

I can't get enough of this album! The songs are so eclectic and calming that I frequently put this cd on for background when I'm reading.

I have so many Yoko Kanno records at this point that I have to ask myself whether I judge the soundtracks to things I've seen differently than the ones I haven't. Her Cowboy Bebop work remains my favorite of hers, but maybe that's just because I've seen the show.

I haven't seen Arjuna. I don't even know what it is. All I can tell you is that the music is solid. Yoko Kanno can, when she's on her game, achieve total mastery of any style of music she chooses, from jazz to classical to blues to techno. This record doesn't have the same emotive power of Cowboy Bebop (though perhaps if I'd seen Arjuna I'd feel differently) but it's still by any standard an excellent and remarkably varied soundtrack. But Yoko Kanno fans will find themselves on somewhat familiar ground here. For example:

- Early Bird is a piano-and-child-like voice ballad, similar to about three other tracks by her with the word "bird" in the title on other albums
- Awakening is a thunderous orchestral prog rock epic, a la everything on the Ghost In the Shell Standalone Complex record
- 2nd Life is a guitar-and-percussion could've-fit-on-Wolf's-Rain affair
- Aerobics is aggressive action-rock, sort of instrumental Pushing the Sky (see Cowboy Bebop the movie)
- Diamond is a catchy little piano ballad, the sort that you learn to play while taking piano lessons, but, like, fun to listen to. The sort that find their way into seemingly every Yoko Kanno score.

etc. etc. This is not in any way to denigrate this as Kanno aping herself, but rather to say that she's put her distinctive stamp on this eclectic score, and fans will find familiar motifs and explorations here. Arjuna is a bit more orchestral than Bebop, Standalone Complex or Wolf's Rain, but snatches of all of their styles can be found here. It's not her most polished work, but it's an excellent record and I recommend it.

I've never seen the anime, because based on reviews and a few YouTube snippets, I expect it would be disappointing. Besides, there is no possible way it can live up to this score Yoko Kanno composed for it.

In fact, I'm guessing she composed it without even seeing the series herself, or even the storyboards. Perhaps a summary of the plot. Half the compositions are too colorful and driven to act as background to anything but a straight-up music video, or a silent film written specifically for the songs. They certainly don't belong in a belabored, inconstant anime TV series, where they get chopped up in indifferently edited scenes or stuffed into the background of turgid dialogue.

Of the half-dozen standouts, one song in particular has just leapt into my ears from random play. It's track 13, "Prophet". When the timpani rolls out about halfway through the song, all the hairs on the back of my scalp stand up and tingle, and I can't help but think of a huge sunlit earth spread out before me as I'm falling through the sky. That imagery is the kind of thing this whole album inspires.

Vast open wilderness, huge wild animals, dusty frontier towns, ancient tribal rituals and legends, explosions and waterfalls... That's what this music puts in my head. With an electric-guitar edge to it to pull it over into the rock-opera section of operatic. A score much louder and larger than it has any right to be. And, I can also add, more coherent than Wolf's Rain or Ghost In The Shell.

For a good companion CD to mix into this one, and more of the same epic, bombastic stuff, try the Vision of Escaflowne collection of soundtracks - for the movie or the series.

Ten out of ten, A++++, Would Purchase Again, et cetera.

The songs in the CD are just awesome, some are like most of people here said, aou of his world, and other like 'Before breakfast' makes you wanna stand up and jo jumping everywhwre because of it's oh-so-happy-melody, another one that I l8iked a lot is 'omega blue' out of this world, stuck in you head melody that have chants and has a very nice bridge part. Another one I recommend also is time to die, cause the first time I listened to it, I was like oh-my-god. It starts in a very peaceful way and gives you the idea of lying somewhere confortable while feeling life drain out of you, like everything coming to an end. I thought 'Okay, it's slow, but come on, it's time to die, maybe the person is laying somewhere' the voices from the back makes you feel weird and then, it comes the strong part, like someone else said here, funky. That's not so funky, but it's very energetic, I listened to that part and all I could think about was 'run, thy're after you', it was a persecution part. Going to the vocals, Sakamoto has a wonderful voice, I've listened to her in wolf rain and I was like, 'Oh, I love this voice!' It sent shivers down my spine (really) they make you feel happy, like you can do anything. To end this review, I recommed people to see Arjuna, It's a very strange but still incredible anime. Arjuna's head is really out of this world.

Yo no sé mucho de la música que ha hecho Yoko, pero este trabajo realmente me parece más que magnífico!!! Su música hace que, como Cris, dejes tu cuerpo y viajes a traves de otros mundos . . . Por ahora, las piezas que adoro, sin duda son: Early Bird, Clóe, Earth Resonance y Mameshiba pero creo que con el tiempo podré disfrutar de todas.Ustedes, ¿qué dicen?