As usual, it seems this guy works best with great story and great movies (i hope).

It sounds good to me. Some link to Gladiator battle music but the quiet themes are much more interesting. I must admit i'm more pleased with 90 seconds of this one than 2 hours of the last two or three moviemusic he made.

I hope the rest of the soundtrack will be like that.

Western melodies?Like spirit?ehehe lol
Taiko Synths?buaaaaa...zimmer zimmer...

2-
In the offical site there are a new intro.Is the music by zimmer?
http://lastsamurai.warnerbros.com/home.php

3-
And I put here the link of the label record. The cover is horrible

Seeu

It really bugs me when film studios do away with stylish posters in favour of plastering close-ups of the star's face on the cover.

The previous poster, with Cruise giving his back to the camera, was much more stylish. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325710/posters

Ah well, same old rant.

I'll just post the whole thing...

quote:

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ZIMMER’S LAST SAMURAI

On November 25, 2003, Elektra Records will release Hans Zimmer's score from THE LAST SAMURAI, an epic action drama starring Tom Cruise. The film marks a career milestone for Zimmer: his 100th film score. A pioneer in the use of synthesizers, digital instruments, and the latest computer technology, Zimmer is widely considered to be the father of integrating electronic sound with traditional orchestral arrangements. Set in Japan during the 1870s, THE LAST SAMURAI tells the story of an American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's army in the art of modern warfare.

"The first obstacle I faced with this score was that Japanese music can be truly inaccessible to most Western audiences," explained Zimmer. "So I needed to immerse Cruise’s Algren character into this foreign world to such a degree that it ultimately becomes his home. The key to this was a concept I formed right at the beginning of the project: writing Western melodies informed by a Japanese aesthetic, to find a way of contrasting the romanticism of America with the formality and stillness of Japan. So I wrote a typically overblown, restless, and, ultimately, very Western theme for Algren; but one that also develops alongside the character as he’s drawn towards Katzumoto’s peaceful themes concerning power and nature."

To highlight the formality of Japanese culture in his score, Zimmer makes great use of the large, wooden Japanese Taiko drum. "Everybody uses Taikos in their scores these days, but I felt that nobody had ever really captured their awesome and emotional power. For example, when you stand next to someone who hits an enormous Taiko with something resembling a baseball bat, your whole ribcage expands from the shear size of the sound; but if you tap them lightly, it’s like thunder rolling down a valley." To achieve these sonic qualities for the film, Zimmer turned to electronics: "I spent three weeks recording and manipulating around 10,000 Taiko hits electronically until they started to sound natural, and then selected the best ones by their emotional resonance. The whole process of molding and sculpting these sounds in my studio was very LAST SAMURAI, and I think it’s best summed up by Kazumoto himself in the movie, that you can spend your life looking for a perfect cherry-blossom and it wouldn’t be a wasted life."

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quote:

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Originally posted by HadrianD:

A pioneer in the use of synthesizers, digital instruments, and the latest computer technology, Zimmer is widely considered to be the father of integrating electronic sound with traditional orchestral arrangements.
<HR size=1></blockquote>[/B]

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WHAT THE HELL??? So now Zimmer is the "father" of electronics with an orchestra??? I think you have a ton of REAL composers who did this years before "Video Killed the Radio Star" or in this case MV killed the film music score.

And YES I'm being biased. So THERE.

James

FYI...I preferred Hans when he wasn't a corporation.

Best action track with the clashing sword effect is "Red Warrior," one of the shorter tracks. Has interesting vocal that scares the heebeejeebee outta you if you aren't ready for it. The first and last two tracks are about eight minutes each, the rest average five minutes each... and they all quietly crossfade into each other.

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Originally posted by Dinko:
I was kind of hoping this might be a good old Zimmer score, instead it sounds like it's just more of Zimmer's recent poop.

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The Thin Red Line-type music is heard mostly when Cruise is being shaped by the Samurai leader Kazamoto. He's the peaceful spirit... the powerful one. The music has a heavy calmness. Much of the album is like this.

Zimmerito, all of this music is by Zimmer, although in the liner notes he thanks every one of the Media Ventures teammates. The main theme is huge, heard by itself in sampled orchestral glory in "Taken," and again in "Red Warrior" with the sword clash and scary vocals (they are credited as "Navajo vocals" oddly enough), and eventually the Taiko drums. There are soloists, but nothing to the extent of a Lisa Gerrard-type collaboration seen in Gladiator.

I laugh everytime I hear the shakuhachi, only because Horner used it in every other Ed Zwick film... this time the instrument really does have purpose and "fits," but... but... it cried wolf too many times before, so its effect is lessened. For me, anyway. Thankfully it's not used too much.

Huge huge huge Taiko percussion at the end of "Ronin," but it doesn't last very long.

There's a good build-up of action in the first few minutes of "The Way of the Sword," which eventually gives way to that heavy, slow-rhythmic sampled strings & sampled horns stuff (Hans' meat and potatoes) heard in Thin Red Line... the high dream-like strings from TRL are also in this track... it's as if this is an outtake from TRL.

I too am confused with this need to glorify Imperial Japan. Didn't they do their worst in Pearl Harbour? Like all the Japanese actors (according to the subtitles) speak in haiku and meet outside with funny pools full of toy ships and flags that are a hundred years out of date! On top of that, they aren't evil enough ... like, feeling queesy about bombing Pearl? (the worst had already happened in China) Please! Back to Tom Cruise: I saw a hilarious interview with him on ABC tonight (at least I think it was ABC); I forgot he was one of those weird scientologists!

S.

NP: Outkast ("Good Day, Good Sir")

quote:

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Originally posted by sean:
! Back to Tom Cruise: I saw a hilarious interview with him on ABC tonight (at least I think it was ABC); I forgot he was one of those weird scientologists!

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