Saturday, November 12, 2005

Today's CD: Composer Meets Director...

I got a new CD yesterday: Joe Hisaishi Meets Kitano Films. It is a selection of great music composed by Joe Hisaishi for some of the most memorable Takeshi Kitano's films.

It is a must-have for Kitano's fans, truly capturing the mood and atmosphere of those films. This is my very first Hisaishi's CD, whose work I really love: his soundtracks for Hayao Miyazaki's films are equally magnificent, real gems, and that's how I actually got acquainted to his work. Then, watching Kitano's films I thought: "Who is this composer, this music is so gorgeous..." And I saw it was Joe Hisaishi again. Not surprised though, he is just brilliant.

The music is perfect. If you see these films, you may feel how beautifully it flows through the story, and the sceneries, acting, everything. It can be jazzy in parts, traditional in others, sentimental, and violent when required. Just perfectly synchronised with the plot - be it a Kitano or a Miyazaki production.

Piano, Japanese drums, synthesizers and haunting vocals are sure to please not only die-hard Kitano's fans, but even people who are not familiar with his films. The tracks on this CD come from several films such as Hana-Bi (definitely one of my favourites, including the mesmerizing track "Thanks For Everything" ), Kikujiro, Sonatine, Brother and A Scene at the Sea.

Follows the CD cover... In case you are interested, it can be purchased at Amazon:


Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Portugal Pics Uploaded (Finally)

Hello:

We have organised the pictures we took in Portugal last September, in case you wish to take a look. Unfortunately we did not write any captions for them, but there are some nice pictures. All the people appearing in the pics, in case you wonder, are my relatives, brother and sisters, nephews, grand-nephews, in-laws and so on. The dogs and cat are Honey the Yorkshire , Rita the Whippet, Xaninho the Cat, Boy the Labrador, and one dog that I had the pleasure to make acquaintance in Sintra. Don't know his name though, but he was a very polite dog that much liked soft cheese, but no toasts!
:)

Here's the link:
http://www.irlbrl.com/images/2005-09_Lisbon/

Enjoy!