Joe Hisaishi is the John Williams of Japanese anime, a prolific film composer who has scored all but one of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli animations. Ten years in the making (and rumoured to be the most expensive Japanese film ever made), the hand-drawn The Boy and the Heron tells of a boy’s quest to find his late mother, aided by a talking heron. Miyazaki tells his story in typically outlandish way, his imagination conjuring fantastical beings in weird and wonderful settings. Hisaishi’s music goes hand-in-glove with Miyazaki’s vision, each track a short tableau that skilfully combines East and West harmonic styles, enabling him to root the film firmly in its Japanese setting, while bringing a Hollywood sweep to its universal themes (“Warawara” and “Reincarnation” are good examples). There are pop influences, too, particularly in the opening “Ask Me Why (Evacuation)” and “A Feather in the Dusk”. Listen, however, to the final five tracks to hear Hisaishi’s music taking flight, the final song “Spinning Globe” surely destined to be a Studio Ghibli classic.