The information is a bit old by now, but if anyone has been following Hiroaki Yura’s blogging activities, you may have noticed that he’s made a post regarding the recording of the soundtrack to the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie which is currently looking towards a February release date in Japanese theaters. Satoru Kousaki will still be the composer as usual and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how his minimalist style interacts with the orchestral work that Eminence puts out. Somehow, my gut feeling tells me that they won’t be using the entirety of the Eminence ensemble. Maybe something on a smaller scale unless they’re flying Kousaki out to Australia to do the recording. Still, a fully orchestrated movie score is something to look forward to at any rate.

As a note, the minimalist piece heard in the one-minute trailer for the movie is apparently Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies N°1. My pretensions to having a hefty amount of knowledge about classical music took a beating that day. (Thanks Smankh! :p)

Speaking of Eminence and Australia, those of you out in Perth have the Destiny: Promised Legacy concert event to look forward to if you’re planning to attend the Perth Anime Convention (or PAniC) on January 23. The concert is going to play a few of the songs used in the Project Promise album using around 7 of its musicians. Tickets can be purchased here. Also, if you’re not that big on Makoto Shinkai and are more of a game music fan, Yasunori Mitsuda will be making an appearance, so that’ll make your trip worth your while.

More information here.

We’ve affiliated ourselves with the Nihon Review as their main provider for soundtrack reviews (and they’ll be contributing soundtrack reviews from time to time as well). To help them out, we’ll be linking to their reviews from time to time. Do take a look at what they’ve put out because their reviews come highly recommended and are definitely worth reading. Also, their staff blog makes for good complementary reading to the reviews so that you get a chance to pick at their minds. If you’ve the time, do join their forums and say hi.

And if you’ve even more time, you can apply to write for them. They’re running a staff contest right now with the objective being to add a few more writers to their review crew. If you’re looking for a fun experience and an avenue to strengthen your writing chops, do apply! They have spots open for blog writers too.

Finally, I’ll be contributing a bit to Original Sound Version in the area of J-music that isn’t VGM. It’s nothing time-intensive and will not detract from my focus here, but it’ll be fun helping out their blog team which I’ve worked with a bit over at Eminence. They’ve done an excellent job at keeping their pulse close to the VGM scene, and since I’m on break from Eminence at the moment, it’ll give me something to do in the meantime.

And that’s it. We should have a few reviews coming down the pipeline as well as a resumption of the Decades Reminiscing thing that I’ve been doing.