Songs from Earthsea

I have a friend who is a huge Joe Hisaishi fan. Huge. We still make fun of him when he chickened out at going to Japan this summer, for Hisaishi’s mini tour thing. Well, we can’t blame him too much; flying to Japan just for a show is a tad extreme, but I think he’s due a trip. This is his copy that I’m enjoying, which is odd because it isn’t Joe Hisaishi.

At any rate, Gedo Senki Kashu (Tales from Earthsea Poetry Book) is actually a vocal album featuring some songs from the Studio Ghibli film, with no involvement from Joe Hisaishi at all, AFAIK. What it is, is the first album by a new vocalist Aoi Teshima. Doubly so interesting is that she plays a character in the movie, too.

But what makes this blog entry happen at all in the first place is how it reminds me of two neat things: KOKIA’s early works, and Akino Arai. The vocal style is rough but soothing, with a stripped and sad-folksy speed to its simpleness. It’s the sort of music that may go with an imaginary dream accompanying a funeral progression at the beginning of a film, or something to that nature.

It’s not all sad, but it is all slow, that said. The CD goes through a variety of moods, but it’s like watching Kino’s Journey; if you “get” one episode, you get them all. And in a way this CD is a journey much like that, too. Our lead protagonist here is a soulful vocal that marches unendingly from one classical arrangement to another, sometimes alone, sometimes with a small troupe. The voice itself is not a bishoujo, either, to stretch the analogy. It would look like someone I’d like to see.