Project Promise Update: The Arrangers’ Circle and Upcoming Q&A

projpromisecd

UPDATE: We finally have a review up of the Makoto Shinkai Promise album.

For people who have not read this post, the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, based out in Sydney, Australia, will be releasing a 13-track disc this December containing arrangements of Tenmon’s musical compositions in honor of Makoto Shinkai and his 10 years of work as an anime director, animator, and scriptwriter. Until recently, we’ve only had a glimpse of what this disc was capable of delivering through the tracklist; what we didn’t have was a solid idea of what what to should expect out of these arrangements. But now that my Eminence contact has disclosed the names of the arrangers, fans of Tenmon and Makoto Shinkai can rejoice! With people like Shiro Hamaguchi, Akifumi Tada, and Yasunori Iwasaki at the helm, the arrangements should turn out to be awesome!

Shiro Hamaguchi

First off, we have none other than Shiro Hamaguchi. The fact that his name came up isn’t a huge surprise since he’s done a lot of orchestral arrangements for such franchises like the Final Fantasy series as well as the spectacular String Concert of Haruhi Suzumiya along with anime works like One Piece and Rosario to Vampire (both of which were done with Kouhei Tanaka). Furthermore he has worked alongside Eminence for many of their concerts including the Night in Fantasia Concert just last month and because of his experience, he was probably a natural choice to have in this group of arrangers. His presence alone is a strong indication that this CD will be definitely worth listening to because of the creative spin that Hamaguchi puts into his music. That is, he does a really good job with taking the original piece and seamlessly working it so that while one can still recognize the original melody, it’s different enough such that it can stand really well on its own. After all, if he can improve something like “Koi no Mikuru Dentetsu,” there’s no piece that’s beyond his ability to arrange into an excellent orchestral or piano track.

Koi no Mikuru Densetsu
[audio:01 Haruhiorch.mp3]

Akifumi Tada1

Though I’m very much familiar with Hamaguchi, the other two aren’t exactly household names (at least, they didn’t ring a bell to me when I saw their names). As you might have been able to guess from the picture, Akifumi Tada will also be a part of the circle of arrangers and while I recognize the titles that he’s worked on, I’ve never actually watched any of them, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you how skillful he is with composing and arranging music. I suppose the least I can do is listen to Ah! My Goddess’s ED theme to at least get some idea for how it’ll go.

Finally, Yasunori Iwasaki rounds out the list of arrangers. Like Tada, the anime series that he has worked on are recognizable, and unlike Tada, I have watched one of the shows that Iwasaki has worked on. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I actually remember much about its music. The show in question was Grenadier, and given that show’s fanservicey tendencies, I don’t really remember all too much about the music, effectively putting me at square zero in terms of knowing what to expect out of Iwasaki.

Upcoming Q&A
With that in mind, I’d like to turn it over to you, the reader. I have been granted an opportunity to send a list of questions to the people working on Project Promise and while I do have my list, it’s also likely that you’ll have some questions you’d like to have answered by the arrangers and even by Tenmon himself! If so, just type your questions into the comments and I’ll include it along with my list of questions to be submitted to the arrangers. Just let me know to whom the question is to be addressed (e.g. Hamaguchi, Tada, Iwasaki, or the group as a whole). Also feel free to ask general questions about Project Promise if you have them since Eminence’s founder, Hiroaki Yura, will be more than happy to take your questions. I’ll be sending the questions fairly quickly (in about 24 hours) so get them in while you can!

As a note, the Q&A will be submitted on the Eminence website. Hopefully a response will come by quickly so with no further ado, submit away!

zzeroparticle

Anime Instrumentality's Founder and Editor-in-Chief. As you can probably guess, I'm a big anime music junkie with a special love for composers who've put out some beautiful melodies to accompany some of my favorite anime series. I tend to gravitate towards music in the classical style with Joe Hisaishi and Yoko Kanno being a few of my favorite composers, but I've come to appreciate jazz and rock as anime music has widened my tastes.

8 thoughts on “Project Promise Update: The Arrangers’ Circle and Upcoming Q&A

  • October 27, 2009 at 4:21 am
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    I haven’t heard Yasunori Iwasaki’s name in years, lol…

    I guess the only burning question I have is: will the version of Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho that Eminence played during their Destiny Reunion shows in 2007 be on the CD?

    Reply
  • October 27, 2009 at 11:25 pm
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    Don’t really have any questions for them, probably because my brain is burned out from work.

    Looking forward to the release!

    Reply
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  • December 1, 2010 at 8:55 am
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    Does Eminence also release the music scores that are featured in their CD albums for sale as well? I’m interested in the piano solos sheet music on the Promise CD and had trawled through the Internet (including Eminence’s website) but couldn’t find any such item for sale. Any suggestions?

    Reply
    • December 1, 2010 at 10:56 pm
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      @K
      Well, I did ask my Eminence contact, and it sounds like something they might do in the future. For now, there’s no immediate plans to release the arrangements in sheet music form, but hopefully, there’s enough interest out there for them to make it possible.

      Reply
  • December 5, 2010 at 3:14 pm
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    @zzeroparticle
    Thanks for the prompt response, much appreciated. Let’s hope the scores will be available someday. By the way, fantastic website. Great work, keep it up! 🙂

    Reply
  • December 6, 2010 at 12:09 am
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    @K
    No problem. I do know that Eminence has emerged out of some financial issues with all the gigs they’ve lined up recently, so hopefully that gives them the revenue to look into other product lines beyond just concerts, CD sales, and expand into stuff like sheet music.

    And thanks! Always glad to hear from anime music enthusiasts like yourself!

    Reply

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