Another Vintage Soundtrack: Nausicaa OST + Bonus

It's a Joe Hisaishi galore today, as fans of vintage soundtracks around the world rejoice in the music from the first film of Studio Ghibli !! Yes, pals, today we have the OST to "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), a movie from 1984 that is an established classic in the anime fandom and that -much to my shame- I only watched a couple of months ago...

"Nausicaa" tells the story of a young princess of a tiny kingdom in the Valley of the Wind. It has been some time since an apocalyptic war destroyed human civilization and nature, and the survivors coexist under the constant menace of the "Sea of Decay", an spreading woods of fungus and sporae emitting toxic fumes. In there, huge insects rule, and among them the Ohmu, the magnificent caterpillar-looking giant bugs that roam the desert in a stampede at the climax of the movie. When a neighbouring country unearths an old weapon from the war times and tries to use it for destroying the Sea of Decay and its inhabitants in order to regain control of the Earth, it is up to Nausicaa to intermediate between both factions once she realises that even the Sea of Decay has a role in the new ecosystem of the Earth.

Nausicaa would be the first hit for famed director Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli. In this film he would introduce us to some of the recurrent themes in his filmography: strong independent female characters, nuanced "villains" that are not one-dimensional characters but actually have reasons for their deeds, the relationship between man, technology and the ecosystem, the wisdom of the elder, the power of inner strength and belief in oneself, etc... Anybody that ever saw a Ghibli production knows what Miyazaki films are about and how wonderfully produced they are. Part of the enchantment of any Ghibli film is the score, and ever since Nausicaa, Miyazaki has trusted the soundtrack to his long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi.

Western audiences have discovered Studio Ghibli's work after the major success of "Princess Monoke", a 1997 Miyazaki film that got its worldwide distribution rights through Miramax and Disney. As a result of the partnership, Disney launched previous Ghibli films on DVD and VHS formats and distributed in theatres the following Ghibli releases "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (a.k.a. "Spirited Away", winner of the Oscar and the Golden Bear in the Berlin Film Festival) and "Howl's Moving Castle". Those films were responsible for introducing Hisaishi's music to a whole new audience that found in the dupla "Miyazaki-Hisaishi" a creative match made in heaven, not dissimilar to "Spielberg-Williams" or "Burton-Elfman".

Joe Hisaishi is actually a pseudonym; his real name is Mamoru Fujisawa. This talented composer was born in Nagano in 1950 and started playing the violin at age 4. Since early on in his career he began a fruitful association with animation, having composed all of Ghibli's soundtracks as well as the score for "Arion" and for TV productions like Mospeada (a.k.a., the "Third Generation" in Robotech, for Western audiences...). Hisaishi also developed a creative tandem with acclaimed director Takeshi Kitano and his talents can be appreciatd in movies like "Dolls", "Hana-bi" and "Brother".

What you have here is a mega-file in .rar format comprising the original 13 tracks of the OST released in 1984, plus the 9 tracks of the Symphony Album that was released shortly BEFORE the actual premiere of the film, plus the two image songs from the movie sung by the lovely idol Narumi Yasuda (who would later have a career in Japan as an actress...). Those songs were mainly used as background music for the trailers of "Nausicaa". Here you have two of the original Japanese trailers of the movie, courtesy of mondkaktus@YouTube. The first one is set to the title song "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" and the second and shorter one should be taken as a preview of the wonderful music that you will find in the album below:

This two-in-one album will provide you with most of the music heard in the movie. I specially like the Symphony Album, with some tracks from the OST rearranged for orchestra. You may find the sound of the OST a bit dated; as I warned you when I posted the "Windaria" OST, the synths were the "in" thing in soundtracks in the mid-80's, and Hisaishi was stepping out of a phase in his work that found him preferring minimalist arrangements. As a result, portions of the tracks sound like videogame music from the Commodore 64 times :-S, but melodically they are still enjoyable, and when the full orchestra kicks in, your hearing pleasure is guaranteed. Just let yourselves be carried away by the first track and you'll see what I mean...

As always, enjoy and leave comments, for crying out loud...