Soundtrack Review: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Posted by Jon Blough

September 18, 2009

If you're new here, you may like to get all my posts in your feed reader using my RSS feed or get all Soundtrack Geek posts by Email. Also check out Soundtrack Fans, a new social network for soundtrack fans. Thanks for visiting!

Tenku Shiro Rapyuta 301584 Soundtrack Review: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) This is a review of the motion picture score Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Joe Hisaishi.

“A dazzling combination of robust action and serene beauty”

It never ceases to amaze me that every Joe Hisaishi work is filled with such vibrant energy and beautiful, memorable thematic statements. You would think after doing so many animation scores for Hayao Miyizaki all his works would have begun to blend together, but each has stood out on its own individual merits. The earlier works stand out with their innocent performances, while his later works enticed listeners with their darker, more mature tone. Even Nausicaa, with its occasionally irritating electronics, has a number of essential cues for any collector. Mentioning Nausicaa is important for this review, for the soaring spirit of that score would be expanded on into a more epic achievement for Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Soaring Theme

For Laputa, Hisaishi introduces another sweeping, soaring melody perfect for the airborne nature of the film. The theme trumps the admittedly gorgeous theme for Nausciaa with its swelling performances, though with Laputa the recording and performance are both more resonant. Its performances on choir are absolute triumphs of emotional composition, with “The Collapse of Laputa” proving adept at preventing listeners from doing anything else but listen. A number of other moments are striking in their beauty as well. A slower more innocent theme is beautiful when surrounding by the fluttering woodwinds of “Morning in the Slag Revine”, while a heartfelt woodwind theme in “Memories of Gondoa” may be the score’s finest solo performance. A trumpet fanfare for Pazu demands more performances given how much pomp and whimsy it has. The light, playful bouncing in “A Fun Brawl (Pursuit)” foreshadows the playful nature of Hisaishi’s subsequent score for My Neighbor Totoro, though here the performance is much more vibrant and racing. Only the soaring theme to close the delightful “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” flies too close to Nausicaa to stand out on its own.

Appropriate Electronics

The electronics here initially seem far more appropriate in their useage than they did in Nausicaa. Gone for the most part are the grating guitar performances and dated synth keyboards, replaced by a sparkling atmosphere. It’s not a sophisticated layering that would make fans of Jerry Goldsmith proud, but it is an improvement nonetheless, and if you aren’t demanding full-blown orchestra in every cue the opening of “Memories of Gondoa” could probably register as likeable. They certainly add to the jubilant orchestral track “Laputa: Castle in the Sky”. However, the rest of the uses are definitely weaker. I’m not terribly sure how to describe the opening minute “On The Tiger Moth”; some will appreciate the odd electronic thumping behind the playful string plucking, and some people won’t. The synth keyboard hits to close the aforementioned cue are too harsh. “Robot Soldier (Resurrection/Rescue)” and “An Omen To Ruin” have all the sophistication of a Brad Fiedel Terminator piece, with the latter featuring an obnoxious jet engine sound. Based on its initial recording, Laputa comes with the same kind of odd fusion of enthusiastic recommendation and adamant warning label.

Conclusion

The 2002 redubbing of the film for American audiences brought a complete redesign of the score into a longer, more orchestral work, and the album was thus better for it. Right off the bat “Prologue/Flaptors Attack” and “The Girl Who Fell From The Sky” demonstrate the more robust brass performances, a quality cemented by the more energetic orchestrations given to “The Chase” (the reformatting of “A Fun Brawl”). Purely synthetic cues from the Japanese release are now quite tolerable, with most of “Robot Soldiers/Resurrection and Rescue” now joining new tracks “The Dragon’s Nest”, “The Invasion of Goliath”, and “The Final Showdown” as some of the composer’s most propulsive and heroic fare. The electronic beat behind that latter cue is a much more appropriate use than anything else the composer had ever attempted. Even shorter and more minimal cues give the score more depth and beauty; the brief performance of the title theme in “Floating With The Crystal” contains enough swelling majesty to entrance any listener, while “Stones Glowing in the Darkness” crafts an understated, meditative lull. The US release is absent “Carrying You”, the beautiful song performance of the main theme, and the release does contain a few more cues that could have come straight out of Nausicaa (most notably the middle of “Disheartened Pazu”), but otherwise there is very little to cause complaint. With no irritating parts to be heard, the US version ranks as one of the finest of Hisaishi’s scores for the films of Miyizaki, a dazzling combination of powerful action and serene beauty.

1986 Japanese Album (39:06)
1.   The Girl Who Fell From The Sky (2:26)
2.   Morning in the Slag Ravine (3:01)
3.   A Fun Brawl (Pursuit) (4:28)
4.   Memories of Gondoa (2:47)
5.   Discouraged Pazu (1:45)
6.   Robot Soldier (Resurrection/Rescue) (2:32)
7.   Carrying You (Chorus Version) (2:03)
8.   Sheeta’s Decision (2:03)
9.   On The Tiger Moth (2:32)
10.   An Omen To Ruin (2:18)
11.   The Moonlit Sea of Cloud (2:33)
12.   Laputa: Castle in the Sky (4:35)
13.   The Collapse of Laputa (2:00)
14.   Carrying You (4:08)

2002 US Album (60:45)
01. Prologue/ Flaptors Attack (2:53)
02. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (Main Theme) (2:35)
03. The Levitation Crystal (1:20)
04. Morning in the Mining Village (1:08)
05. Pazu’s Fanfare (1:11)
06. The Legend of Laputa (3:07)
07. A Street Brawl (3:16)
08. The Chase (2:55)
09. Floating with the Crystal (0:52)
10. Memories of Gondoa (1:24)
11. Stones Glowing in the Darkness (3:23)
12. Disheartened Pazu (4:59)
13. Robot Soldiers/Resurrection & Rescue (2:46)
14. Dola and the Pirates (2:12)
15. Confessions in the Moonlight (2:42)
16. The Dragon’s Nest (3:31)
17. The Lost Paradise (1:58)
18. The Forgotten Robot Soldier (4:39)
19. The Invasion of Goliath (3:22)
20. Pazu Fights Back (3:24)
21. The Final Showdown (2:26)
22. The Destruction of Laputa (Choral Version) (2:08)
23. The Eternal Tree of Life (2:47)