HISAISHI, JOE

The single-LP vinyl release of Joe Hisaishi’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Symphony Version (known in Japan as Kaze no Densetsu or Wind Legend) holds an incredibly sacred place in the history of film music. Recorded in 1984 just before the release of Hayao Miyazaki's definitive eco-fantasy epic, this album features masterpieces from the film meticulously arranged and produced by Hisaishi himself for a 50-piece orchestra. While the theatrical film soundtrack famously experimented with early, jagged 1980s analog synthesis to mirror a toxic, dying world, the Symphony Version completely strips away the cold electronics. Instead, it reinterprets the score as a grand, sweeping classical tone poem that elevates the mythic scale of Nausicaä’s universe.