Sennen Joyu (Millennium Actress) Original Soundtrack

what a wonderful music love the as well remember watching the movie millennium actress then heard run but that's not all it brought tears when hearing prince of key later on i found out about Lotus-2 just brilliant

In a strange way, this soundtrack score is like a 'remix' album, as it contains a number of pieces taken from the album Philosopher's Propellor, remixed into instrumentals for the album, other also it contains also music from two other Hirasawa releases: Kun Mae and Landscapes, both of which were released under Hirasawa's Shun side project and are hard to find these days (I have Landscapes but haven't even seen Kun Mae for sale), so it's great to be able to hear something from those rare releases. Aside from the reworked pieces of music, the original compositions are really great too, mostly nice ambient pieces, some using piano heavily, which is nice. My favorites are Gate Of Wish, Winds In Tandem, and Run, though I can't say there are any weak tracks. The soundtrack also is fun to listen to outside of the context of the film, which is very important I think for a soundtrack (thought that might be mostly because a lot of the music reminds me of other releases other than the film itself). My only complaint is, with so much material and melodies being available elsewhere, the album loses some of its value in my ears. I still prefer to listen to the original tracks from Philosopher's Propellor, but don't let that deter anyone from not picking this up. Hirasawa's soundtracks are very interesting, and while he does recycle a lot of material into other commissioned projects, that doesn't mean they are any less essential than his original albums (or ANY of his releases for that matter). Hirasawa is a wonderful storyteller through his music, and while the soundtracks he does may not be his story being told, he still does so with all possible effort and fortitude.

A special piece of sound, truly. For such a delicate and rich-detailed movie, this soundtrack really understands how to support emotions in a special way. Less traditional but full of new-style strings this CD is worth a buy!