Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 17, 2012 in
Cinema 
Since the late 70s Ryuichi Sakamoto has been a musical powerhouse of J-pop and numerous film soundtracks. He got his start playing the keyboards with the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) from 1978 until the group broke up in 1983. After that he went solo and also produced records for quite a few other artists in addition to working on movie scores. One of his first soundtracks was for the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Of course as an anime fanboy my favorite from the 80s was the soundtrack to the 1987 film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. Read more…
Tags: J-pop, Japan, Soundtrack
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 3, 2008 in
Cinema,
Television 
My favorite John Barry theme is from the 1960 film Beat Girl, but with the current James Bond buzz I’m happy to see John Barry get some long overdue recognition for his talent.
John Barry invented the spy movie score
Unique arrangements ushered in a new genre of films
“Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,” says David Arnold. “John Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.” Arnold, who recently completed scoring “Quantum of Solace” (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry’s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original “James Bond Theme” for “Dr. No”).
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Tags: 007, 1962, James Bond, John Barry, Soundtrack
