Black Lizard

Ran into a 1996 original soundtrack reissue CD by Tomita that rarely
gets mentioned. VAP cat# VPCD 81101
It contains 3 scores of films with stories by Japan's famed writer of
mystery and the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (say it like you have trouble
pronouncing words in English to understand the pun of his name)
the scores are
"Black Lizard" (1968) - the only one by Tomita, often considered a cult
classic and had a US video release in the late 1990s

"Blind Beast"
and "Rampo - ..." something in japanese I haven't figured out yet, this
later score sounds new and is in stereo while the others sound 1960s and
are the original mono recordings

the word "Rampo" is pretty much the only non-japanese text on it and the
cover which maybe is meant to look like I think one of his stories where
a man was locked in a chest I think?

The Tomita one is quite interesting as it alternates Hollywood sounding
suspense cues with decadent late night nightclub music, then there are a
bunch of eccentric variations on Bach's Three part Invention No.2 in C
minor, one of the pieces in "A Sea Named Solaris" (and used in the
Tarkovsky film that inspired Tomita of course). Like he does a slow
almost ambient version with vibes and keyboards. There is a night club
version too! 13 tracks by my count coupled into 5 CD tracks. It's
relatively short but a very interesting score.

It's interesting that the third, newer film has a lot of Franz Schubert,
especially "The Trout". I haven't heard it in context or know what it's
used for but it was striking me a little funny if anything. It's not
specially arranged like Tomita did.


nick
http://www.artskool.biz/jem/it.html






off topic but maybe on interest

Dreamworks is doing a limited release N. American theatrical release of
the animated feature "Millennium Actress" right now. It's
considered the best Japanese animated feature in many years not directed
by Miyazaki ;-). While PG-13 rated it's neither extremely violent, crude
nor aimed at all at kids. I guess it's trying to prove that adults will
like a good story told in drawings or that animation can add nuances
that can really be captured by photographing actors. It's drawn and not
3D. It does offer very articulate and subtle use of color.

Dreamworks will have the DVD/VHS out for the holidays for those not in
the couple big cities it in (see movies openning at www.imdb.com). I
have no info about Europe. The film actually came out quite a while ago
in Japan to quite some acclaim.

It has a simply wonderful electronic score by Susumu Hirasawa. It
contains ambient, classical/film score style synthesis and some
technopop (from someone who worked in that style in the 1970s)

Official album page
http://www.s-hirasawa.com/teslakite/1000nen/e/
The label Teslakite is a genuine independent label and not part of some
global corporation. They deserve to be supported for many reasons
including that they can't effectively go after the Asian made
counterfits of this already popular film's soundtrack showing up worldwide.

 

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 02:40:31 -0400, you wrote:

>Ran into a 1996 original soundtrack reissue CD by Tomita that rarely
>gets mentioned. VAP cat# VPCD 81101

Where did you find it? CDJapan doesn't seem to have it.

 

"Kimba W. Lion" wrote:
>
> On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 02:40:31 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >Ran into a 1996 original soundtrack reissue CD by Tomita that rarely
> >gets mentioned. VAP cat# VPCD 81101
>
> Where did you find it? CDJapan doesn't seem to have it.

amazon.co.jp had it when you punched in Tomita's name in Japanese. I
just got it so it's not out of print like many of those VAP reissues.
The cover art isn't very exciting (and impenetrable to non-Japanese
readers) and it's not Tsuburaya Productions-related so maybe that
helped.


nick

http://welcome.to/synths