As for the piano score, you might want to try asking Lelangir (who has a link to his site in his comment). He might be able to transcribe it to sheet music. Hope that helps!

starting suspensefully.. then changing to a strong and heroic feel with the staccatos and then when you think its going to be a strong war song at the climax, it changes into a sad, crying emotional song with the choir singing high notes.. makes you feel the sadness and hopelessness in a victim of war position. absolutely love it. especially when they used this track when the war broke into the colony and people dying…

@lelangir
Kenji Kawai is overrated in my opinion and he’s prone to repeating himself and writing melodies that aren’t really all too attention-grabbing when you view it without the context. At least, his score for Eden of the East and Fate/Stay Night didn’t work for me when I listened to it outside the anime.

Maybe scrounge around for Kouhei Tanaka or Akira Senju’s V Gundam score? Those have been recommended to me at some point even if I haven’t listened to them.

I thought the mixture of electronica (new) and orchestra (old) was great, and really fit perfectly with the Gundam universe (samurai + WW2 history + future technology).

Track 1: Starts soft and channels itself to a slow crescendo into a burst of light at 0:44 and then goes into an intense strings segment that then sidles off as though to create a bit of a lull in the ensuing conflict. The fanfare around 1:20 has an air of excitement and the feeling of intensity still shines through. Piece crescendos up and down quite a bit as the buildup continues until it fires forth in a blaze of glory at the end.

Yeah, there are parts that are unnecessarily loud which could be argued as him trying too hard to bring out the epicness which might not be needed. That is, less is more sometimes.

Track 2: The piece starts off with the lower brass section with a percussion accompaniment and the strings enter to create that layer of intensity in anticipation of the glorious choral part. The music futzes around many avenues before really delivering that awesome crescendo that ushers in that moment of awesome. The feeling of epicness percolates throughout the entire track and the energy and awesomeness that it brings to bear makes this an exciting listen.

Certainly a different take to it versus your impressions. I like the whole of what is offered here but also agree that the individual parts don’t really get to shine since the loudness of it all eclipses the individual sections and if you’re looking for the latter, you won’t get that here.

Track 3. This one starts a bit more softly as though to convey a sense of solitude out in the vast reaches of space. The piano makes it poignantly allowing you to be able to reflect on the situations that are to come. Once the violins come down, it’s a very smooth melody that makes you want to feel calm and relaxed. Not as bombastic as some of the other pieces and there’s a sense of quietude that might even be a bit of unnerving. The violin swing at 1:45 feels like you’re looking upon a majestic sight. Once the piece comes to life around 2:50, it’s really beautiful as you’re gazing on a magnificent spectacle and this piece curries the energy really well through an engaging motive.

Less is more and there’s a lot of poignancy to this track that I really like. Guess it hits on your point that Sawano tries too hard to be bombastic and that tracks like “The Univers” demonstrate that he can convey whatever aura he’s trying to achieve (sadness, epicness, what have you) and deliver if he doesn’t become too zealous with making things loud.

Good stuff, thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Track 2, when it reaches the louder parts (again clipped), sounds like the composer mixed far too many things at once. You hear orchestra, choir, and loud percussion all at once and no one thing is really given the chance to shine. The clipping is most noticeable because there are sections in track 2 where the music gets quieter and the peaks are not cut off.

Contrast the above two tracks with the peaceful, quieter music of track 3 and it is clear that the composer could have taken a much different approach. As far as my other major criticism, it comes down to much of the music not really touching me. I won’t bother to go through the rest of the album because I’ll just do more complaining about clipping and overly crowded music. I think if Sawano had great melodies for the epic parts, he could have let them shine more by leaving the orchestra alone and could have had just as epic an effect if not more so.

As for it not being remarkable, well, chalk it up to my preferences for the sweeping feel that it delivers. I’m a sucker for that kind of sound.

Nevertheless, thanks for bringing this to my attention. It’s something he’s done in the past (and I’ve never thought it to be too bothersome) and that pretty much means Sawano won’t be your thing.

P.S. electronica and drum beats do not an epic soundtrack make.

But yes, as long as the singers don’t butcher the non-Japanese lyrics when they sing, that’s good enough for me. English is about all I understand, so when I hear grammatically incorrect construction or pronunciation that’s just outright bad, that’s when serious songs start deteriorating since that sort of thing gets on my nerves.