Yuki Kajiura to compose for "FSN Heaven's Feel" movies [standalone OST March 27/2024, UBW/HF concert on 21-22/9/24]

not the strings themselves which are for the most part boring as hell (maybe that was intended ? Lol).
I have the heaven's feeling that it's really intended. Sharp, squeaky, piercing strings all over the soundtrack, with lacking of other instruments, making you feel really bad. If she wanted to do a Fate/Zero like soundtrack, she could have easily added horns and drums in a more heroic way. But that's not the route of Sakura, defined by tragedy, loneliness and dark twists (in my humble opinion).
It creates a real atmosphere, yet I'm wondering if it was the best idea to do it like that...
I think she also wanted to differ from KnK which had more low-pitched sounds.
 
I think that the job should go beyond that. First making a listenable CD, then edit it to fit the scenes, that's my personal opinion as a listener but also that of some others very well known composers who think this way.
Like who? What movie composer edits their film score from album versions? (Putting soundtracks based on songs aside and ignoring situations like Alien where the editor basically rejected the original score and edited the soundtrack from the same composer's other movies as well as others - that was not the composer's choice or doing.)
CD versions being different from film versions is standard practice (for standalone "flow", $$$ or whatever other reasons) but I don't think I've heard any composer say they edited a film score from final commercial versions.

Anyways, I've probably flipped my opinion again and again on what an "OST" release should be over the years (whether it should flow as a standalone or just be the goddamn score that I heard in the movie) but, to stay on topic, all I know is:
I'd be very very very sad if all I got from Kara no Kyoukai was just the Music Collection, without the "complete" individual OST tokutens.

Edit: added again and again :) and final
 
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^ Hmm maybe I'm wrong or maybe I didn't understand what you want to say.
Movie composers never edit film scores from album versions, but some of them edit them from experiments that are studio exclusives.
I think that some hollywood composers spend much time for the recording before thinking about editing the tracks for the movie. They call it the "Recording Sessions", you certainly know it.

For example Hans Zimmer made more than 16 hours of experimental music for Dark Phoenix, with long suites that finally ended up being short builds in the actual CD. Same for Pirates of the Caribbean etc.

Same for Steve Jablonsky, a good example would be Battleship with way more expressive music in the recording sessions than in the final product.
Also, "We Have to Go" from Transformers 5 and later released "We Have to Go/Ospreys" is a good example that shows how he created a suite that he had in mind before editing it to fit the movie. (Incredible track, oh yeah).

And basically, Hiroyuki Sawano creates many variations that he puts in a single long track, that is later divided in several short pieces scattered on different episodes. Yeah I know, this guy's way of working is very questionable but still...

Trying to dilute this post in order not to be classified as off topic: YK's El Cazador de la Bruja to cite only one example, I don't think that she seated in front of the TV show's sketchs and said: oh I can just put some shorts BGMs there and there. She really explored the world beyond the anime scenes.
Unlike FSN/HF, it looks like she just wanted to make tracks fitting scenes -very well, and I have to applause- but without going any further...
 
Trying to dilute this post in order not to be classified as off topic: YK's El Cazador de la Bruja to cite only one example, I don't think that she seated in front of the TV show's sketchs and said: oh I can just put some shorts BGMs there and there. She really explored the world beyond the anime scenes.
AFAIK not a single TV show Kajiura has worked on was scored to footage (sans 2 scenes in Fate/Zero if I remember correctly, or maybe that was just that they specifically recorded music for the summoning scene and completed the animation later set to music - I don't remember where that interview was). She probably never even saw a script for many of them. Kajiura and Mashimo have described several times how they would work - Kajiura was free to compose whatever based on a description sheet from Mashimo and he would use it how he pleased.
It really wasn't until later that she started contemplating her approach to composing for anime and being more careful as to not overpower dialogue. Much to our disappointment today. lol. If she was scoring the show today, we probably wouldn't have gotten anything close to what we got back then.

I can't really comment on your examples, because other than Pirates of the Caribbean I've not listened to them. And those OST as standalones were fucking cancer to me. Thankfully we have sessions/complete bootlegs out there...
 
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It really wasn't until later that she started contemplating her approach to composing for anime and being more careful as to not overpower dialogue. Much to our disappointment today. lol.
Exactly, that's precisely why I'm complaining. She can make better music without overshadowing the show !
PS: Transformers scores are among my favorite scores, I don't get it why you call it cancer :p

So nobody comments on "despair and hope"? The ending of the track is so good, it really added to this tragic scene :'(
 
Exactly, that's precisely why I'm complaining. She can make better music without overshadowing the show !

Oh trust me everybody here who got into Kajiura pre-KNK/Kalafina is hoping for a return of that thinking. :)

Edit: @Justisamuel Shameless plug, on a similar note of standalone releases, I'd like to invite you to the YK Anime Music Guide thread to check out my NOIR rips. It's interesting how the anime tracks were changed/updated for the OST release (they had money? saw an opportunity in the CD release?). Unfortunately for me - I have a preference for the anime versions so I still hope they release them one day. Obviously you might disagree but it's kind of in the same line of this discussion.
 
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Literally all new vocal tracks were Tokyo Konsei (with a bit of Kasahara mixed in). Somewhat disappointed since I'm much more of a fan of individual singers or a combination of them. The soundtrack was a good match for the film but I only took 6 tracks for my music playlists.
 
Watching the movie rn.

The whole school sequence with Shinji was horribly horribly horribly done when it comes to music (#06-08). Why use those short choirs (and upbeat BGMs) on a fight like this? And then that goddamn fanfare...

the butterfly emerge should've just been instrumental and it would've been surefine. Like you can't even clearly hear Kasahara and the choir at one point under all the SFX so why bother.

that scene in the rain also could've been better - read: stringless; at least until more people showed up.

the einzbern's castle fight was unintentionally hilarious with the music, colorful explosions and Rin jogging. I feel like this whole fight would've been so much better/more effective without Kajiura at all - like the middle sequence. I mean, I think like you should feel these are basically two tanks fighting and Kajiura's upbeat bgm with those horrible choirs just doesn't do it for me at all... Or maybe it's the sound director's fault and he wanted music at all the wrong places in the movie...

despair and hope worked great on the other hand IMHO.

again, petals and butterfly shouldnt've played at all IMHO. made the whole scene so much more cheesy. or at the very least started much later, with the 2nd Remi entrance...

I beg you is flawless for this movie.

So yea, everything was surefine except the fights (just no, complete disconnect from the situation) and tender moments between Sakura x Shirou (cheesefactory).

Thank you for reading. This was grunty playing sound director, lol.
 
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So... ummm... I'm doing stuff for fun... lol... Would anyone be interested in a custom version of the movie audio? With altered music cues. lol.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for music changes to try out?
I think I removed all the music but also a lot of SFX with it (and rather messed up the dialogue/SFX balance in general) so to still keep it sounding decent I might not do everything.
 
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I thought I'd finish a rev1 today but nope... hopefully I'll post it tomorrow. I'm on the Einsbern fight. I'm curious what you're going to think of some of this. I mean, I'm removing cheese but also adding some new, lol.

Edit: Sent it out.
 
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I just saw the movie too. I agree that the chorus was totally uneeded in the school fight - way too epic for what was happening. Most of the rest of the music fit well, especially the candy bgms. I think Kajiura managed her goal in this one, the music, even when upbeat it didnt disturb from the plot. Sad that it also means its not that good as stand-alone soundtrack.

PS; flowers and petals played during the intercourse scene. I think "Love is Power" would match much better :XD: unless the bgm meant to imply what "Heaven's Feel" title meant.
 
Just finished watching the movie. Thought the music worked fine as a soundtrack, although for me not so much as a music album to listen to with the lights off and a snifter of scotch in hand. Haven’t listened to the soundtrack by itself yet though. Hearing I Beg You during the end credits made me appreciate the song much better. I liked the reference to Believe and thought it worked perfectly in context. Not a huge fan of the movie, although I’m looking forward to the last chapter. I did like the dream scene with the candy critters.
 
the einzbern's castle fight was unintentionally hilarious with the music, colorful explosions and Rin jogging. I feel like this whole fight would've been so much better/more effective without Kajiura at all - like the middle sequence. I mean, I think like you should feel these are basically two tanks fighting and Kajiura's upbeat bgm with those horrible choirs just doesn't do it for me at all... Or maybe it's the sound director's fault and he wanted music at all the wrong places in the movie...

(...)So yea, everything was surefine except the fights (just no, complete disconnect from the situation)
I kinda flipped my opinion on this yesterday after removing the first part of she rules the battlefield music from the movie. Having removed the music from Alter's appearance, I feel like the buildup intro got me in the totally wrong mindset on that first watch.

I realized that I got that fight completely wrong. It wasn't supposed to be tanks. It wasn't supposed to be "epic" as in grand. It wasn't supposed to be a fight I was invested in. It was supposed to be b0nkers. Just a b0nkers fight with 2 gods of the battlefield obliterating literally everything. Now the rest of the track and visuals work absolutely lovely for me. It really is b0nkers, BGM included.
 
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