Susumu Hirasawa CD's

He is certainly one of my favourites composers/musicians nowadays. Susumu Hirasawa. Today, I have received 3 of his CD's that I've ordered from CDJapan:

- Kenja No Propeller (aka "Philosopher's Propeller");
- Blue Limbo;
- Millenium Actress original soundtrack.

He was born in 1954 in Tokyo, and is a master in electronic music, widely known in the West by his anime and game soundtracks mostly. He is the founder of the techno-band P-Model, with whom he's been working through the 80's until he finally decided to fly solo in 1989, but still keeping his work with the band albeit less frequently.

His first CD in my collection was the soundtrack for Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent, which is superb, with moments alternating between peaceful melancholy and absolute frenzy. Not to be missed. His work seems like a mix of brilliantly orchestrated world music and techno, his songs infused with a supranatural, ethereal quality, which brings them to an almost-"anthem" category. As an example of this, we could mention Paranoia Agent's track "Dream Island Obsessional Park", a joy to listen to.

He can also be sadly romantic and beautifully melodic, solemn, and literally bring tears to one's eyes, as in Millenium Actress's "Chiyoko's Theme". It's just too beautiful. The film also is a gem, unmissable. Hirasawa-san is an activist as well, and also a researcher (and user) of solar energy in his work.

It's really worth visiting his webpage. There you can find free MP3's (never saw such a generous artist, truth to be told!), samples of his released works and also his (also free) Songs Against Carnage - a humanitarian/political statement above all, but also a vivid example of his fantastic work.

Finally - and I only found that today - we can also buy directly from his webpage (CD's and DVD's). It seems he was a pioneer of selling MP3's via web in Japan. At any rate, I am very happy with my purchases! Will listen to some of it now!

Good night!

a.