ALBUMCastle in the Sky (Original Soundtrack)Joe Hisaishi
ALBUMNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Original Soundtrack)Joe Hisaishi
ALBUMNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - SymphonyJoe Hisaishi
Joe Hisaishi's Popular Music Videos
Ashitaka and San
Joe Hisaishi
One Summer's Day (from 'Spirited Away')
Joe Hisaishi
My Neighbour TOTORO
Joe Hisaishi
Merry-Go-Round of Life (from 'Howl’s Moving Castle')
Joe Hisaishi & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Zange
EXILE ATSUSHI & 久石 譲
The Rain
Joe Hisaishi
Summer
Joe Hisaishi & London Symphony Orchestra
Labyrinth of Eden
Joe Hisaishi
Merry-Go-Round of Life (from 'Howl’s Moving Castle') [Visualizer]
Joe Hisaishi & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
One Summer's Day (The Name of Life) [English Version] [From "Spirited Away"] [Visualizer]
Joe Hisaishi & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Artist Playlists
Joe Hisaishi Essentials
Buoyant melodies take flight in his Studio Ghibli soundtracks.
Joe Hisaishi: Studio Ghibli Works Essentials
His swooping soundtracks help define the animation studio.
About Joe Hisaishi
Artist Biography
Joe Hisaishi is a less-is-more composer who achieved fame as a maximalist while still holding onto his minimalist impulses. Born Mamoru Fujisawa in Nakano, Nagano, Japan in 1950, he was exposed to hundreds of films a year by his cinephile father. After scoring his first animes in the early '70s, when he was enthralled by new age and electronic music, he changed his name to a Japanese take on Quincy Jones (“Quincy” can be written with the same kanji in “Hisaishi”). His 1981 debut, Mkwaju, is an album of African-inspired minimalism for percussion ensemble, but Hisaishi switched gears in 1986 for his first film with Hayao Miyazaki. Laputa: Castle in the Sky expanded his synthesiser sketches into lush orchestrations for international audiences and heralded the start of a long partnership with the Studio Ghibli cofounder. Hisaishi’s emotional rollercoaster of a score for films like My Neighbor Totoro (1998), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001) reflected the heroes' bravery, innocence, melancholy and sense of enchantment. While playing John Williams to Miyazaki's Steven Spielberg, Hisaishi also produced pulsating (and Japanese Academy Award-winning) music for Takeshi Kitano's 1993 gangster film, Sonatine. But he has declared 2009’s Minima Rhythm, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to be his favourite of his own works, a grand, symphonic interpretation of melodically minimalist ideas that reconciles the austere and colourful aspects of his brilliant career.
Hometown
Nakano, Nagano, Japan
Genre
Soundtrack
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