1980s and 1990s Mood Music Film Orchestras from Japan

When film orchestras adapt themselves for the mood music and easy listening genre, they can either interpret the original scores strictly to reproduce the actual movie moment, or they can go creative by transforming the original into something lush, uptempo, or add the spice of trendiness drawn from the pop music fashions of the day.  It is always more exciting that orchestras do the latter, especially if they are simply dedicating a tribute through the key theme of a movie. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for example, is remembered mostly for Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’, and The Way We Were for the Alan and Marilyn Bergman composition of the same name. What some less internationally well-known Japanese orchestras have done is to take these single memorable themes and reinterpreted them for a frame such as ‘movie moments of the 1960s’, or ‘music for cafes’, or ‘twilight sounds’ etc. There are very many classy Japanese acts that have done this in the 1970s through the 1990s – which I cannot review largely because I do not know they exist due to the lack of publicity in languages other than Japanese (which I cannot read) – so I have chosen two discs here: The Film Symphonic Orchestra, and the Film Studio Orchestra.

As the lead picture above shows, The Film Symphonic Orchestra plays the ‘Music of Love and Prime’. Here’s the track list:

This recording was among the first wave of mood music CDs introduced to the world when the CD revolution was in its infancy in 1982-4 and what struck the listener was its scenic soundscape, one that took the listener travelling from 1960s Paris, and Provence, to 1970s Middle America, to 1950s milk bars, rustic coffee shops in the Mediterranean, and to the occasional disco ball. That last destination was evoked by the disco interpretation of ‘A Summer Place’, which seemed odd at first in this collection, but then again, it was a nice detour after romance all around the world. ‘Treize Jours en France’ [13 Days in France] starts off the journey with an anonymous whistler performing the lead notes while the orchestra takes up the famous bridging melody, keeping to this interplay throughout. What this does is to evoke the romantic tension between the two lovers in the original film but for the non-contextual listener, the effect is to reproduce something approximating magical Paris in the mind’s holiday photo memory. The whistling substitutes for the accordion lead popular in some renditions such as the one by Caravelli and his Orchestra. Now that you get into this mood, the rest of the song line-up takes turns to be romantic, nostalgic and meditative. Listen to ‘Al Di La’ played mostly on strings, with the occasional presence of the accordion; or to ‘La Ragazza di Bube’ for its gypsy like evocation of a Neapolitan countryside; or to the mental image of a lush prairie in ‘Something for Joey’. Finally, I must single out the evergreens, ‘Sound of Silence’ and ‘Melody Fair’, for the Orchestra’s commendable ability to switch into the contemplative mode of the Baroque musical era with the key leads played on harpsichord. Need I write more? This disc is one of a kind in lifting the music of the movies into your own personal treasure chest of memories.

 

 

The second disc under review is titled: MEET THE MEMORY – 60s MOVIE THEMES. Played by the Film Studio Orchestra. Manufactured & distributed by Victor Entertainment Inc., Tokyo, Japan in 1994, catalogue number VICP 18006. Like the previous disc, this is an easy listening grand orchestra recorded in Japan, as far as I can tell, and nowhere else. Given the virtuosity of the arrangements, I would guess that the players assembled could have been members of the Caravelli and Franck Pourcel orchestras. The ‘sound’ of the romantic Sixties captured from the film catalogue of that era would appeal instantly to fans of Caravelli and Pourcel – all the arrangements are lushly recorded with lead notes played either on piano, harpsichord, or brass, always supported by strings playing counterpart. The 1960s was an era of enormously tuneful song easily transcribed for a large orchestra and the Film Studio captures it accurately. The moment you start with ‘A Man and a Woman’ who then go on to declare ‘I Will Wait for You’, you’ll realise straightaway that this is an album to listen to from start to finish at one sitting. What’s more it is released on Japan’s renowned Victor Entertainment label. This CD was marked as ‘Sample’ in the centre of the disc (see picture) hence you can guess that it was given to radio DJs to play ‘on air’!
TRACK LISTING:
1. A Man and a Woman
2. I will wait for you
3. Plein Soleil
4. Theme from ‘Love Story’
5. Love theme from ‘The Godfather’
6. Love theme from ‘Sunflower’
7. La Lecon Particuliere
8. Treize Jours en France
9. Love theme from ‘Romeo and Juliet’
10.  Tonight
11. Edelweiss
12.  Lara’s Theme
13.  Moon River
14.  Charade
15.  Some Enchanted Evening
16.  Love is a Many Splendored Thing

Enjoy, till my next blog post on the music we all love.

AC