So, is there anywhere I can get this recording? Does it even exist? Are there any other Kurosawa films you recommend and whose scores have been recorded as well?

Help.

Anyway, from what I can gather, The Seven Samurai score was released on the same CD as Rashomon by Varese, but it appears to be long out of print. Happy hunting!

Nearly twenty years after the film was released, he allowed the main title from YOJIMBO (1961) to appear on a compilation LP called "The World of Masaru Sato" (one of a series of Worlds-of-Japanese-Composers that Toho Records put out during its brief heyday -- must've been at least a dozen of em).

Around 1984, there was a 10-LP set of Masaru Sato scores, one LP of which was devoted entirely to Kurosawa. That one sold out immediately, and I never could track it down.

And around 1980 or so, Victor Records was allowed to rerecord suites from RASHOMON (side one) and SEVEN SAMURAI (side two). Varese reissued this to the US market on both LP and CD -- but I DO NOT recommend this rerecording, it's just nowhere near what it should be. In many spots it barely sounds like the same music.

Kurosawa also authorized, around the same time, a "Drama LP" of SEVEN SAMURAI, which was mostly music against dialogue, but did have some cues with little dialogue or sound effects. This has never been reissued, as videotapes have made it irrelevant. (Kurosawa was also very touchy about letting his stuff come out on videotape.)

Finally in 1992, he buckled and allowed a five-CD box set to come out, covering all his films from the beginning (SANSHIRO SUGATA, 1942) to the next-to-last (RHAPSODY IN AUGUST, 1991). None of these scores are complete, but the SEVEN SAMURAI suite is a briskly arranged 20 or 30 minutes. It's not a long score to begin with; I didn't feel anything important got left out. Problem is, you'd have to find the entire box set to get it, and it's long out of print.

The box set also includes incomplete suites from various Masaru Sato scores for Kurosawa; these were expanded upon in a later 1993 series of Masaru Sato "Best of" CDs. One of these was an all-Kurosawa double CD. Between that and the box set version, one could probably assemble a complete YOJIMBO (among others).

If you're looking for something in the style of SEVEN SAMURAI (by Fumio Hayasaka), however, you will be disappointed by the RAN score. Which is not to say you wouldn't LIKE the RAN score, but it's way more subdued. But it's probably the easiest to find, whether in Japanese, American or European issues.