Anime Music on the AIRS Ep. 11 – Piano Music
This 11th episode of Anime Music on the AIRS is the first to feature a specific instrument, namely, the piano. Unlike our previous piano post, this set of tracks don’t feature just a solo piano; we wanted to touch on any track that might be of interest that features a piano at all, so you’ll get a few where the piano might play second fiddle, but is still crucial to making the music enjoyable. Again, there’s more piano music than this program can handle in just one episode, so I expect us to revisit it again at some point.
YouTube sucks, so I’ve decided to switch over to Mixcloud (follow us for updates!). If you’d prefer to user the links or the stream posted below, feel free to do so as well!
Anime Music on the AIRS Episode 11 – Piano Music by Zzeroparticle on Mixcloud
Anime Music on the AIRS ep. 10
[audio: AIRS Ep 11.mp3]
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Index:
0:53 – Nodame Cantabile – Allegro Cantabile – Suemitsu and the Suemith
6:00 – Genesis of Aquarion – Mythical Artistic Sonata – Yoko Kanno
11:37 – Piano no Mori – Forest of the Piano (advanced version) – Keisuke Shinohara
16:36 – ARIA the OVA ~Arietta~ – Nanairo no Sora wo – SONOROUS
24:21 – Little Busters – Two Sugars – PMMK
26:29 – Kaleido Star – Sora’s Theme – Mina Kubota
32:04 – Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou – Haru wo Shiraseru Mono ~ Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou no Theme – Makoto Yoshimori
37:14 – Soukyuu no Fafner Exodus – Kusabi – Tsuneyoshi Saito
40:50 – .hack//SIGN – Rain and Storm – Yuki Kajiura
44:38 – Un-Go – Fantasy – LAMA
48:50 – Psycho-Pass – The Way of Life – Yuugo Kanno
Hopefully there’s a lot for you all to discover, but more importantly, enjoy! Part 2 will come once we hit Episode 20. Until then, Episode 12’s theme will be whatever you/I think is epic. This is definitely one you’re all bound to enjoy, so go nuts with your suggestions on this one by letting us know in the comments below!
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Very good list! Nice to see Aria, Nodame, and a Key Works piece. HAve you tried the Ground Defense Force Mao-chan soundtrack? Soundtrack for a cute show doen on just a piano.
For next week’s epic theme I have a couple of suggestions:
Hiroyuki Sawano – MOBILE SUIT (esp after 1:15), UNICORN (from Mobile Suit Gundam UC) (many of this composer’s works is really epic)
MAN WITH A MISSION – Raise Your Flag (Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans op)
LxT – Clattanoia (Overlord op)
JAM Project – The Hero (One Punch Man op), Nageki no Rosario (Gravion op), plenty of others from JAM Project
Yup, definitely one that someone told me to check out awhile back. Only a shame that I can’t find a source with all the track names to be able to rip it properly 😛
For some reason, piano pieces themselves just don’t usually resonate with me as much as other instruments, and I seem to have a very low tolerance (read: I get bored quickly) with “average” piano pieces.
That being said I really loved Piano no Mori ; those arpeggios flowing among slightly discordant rhythms are a real pleasure to hear, they remind me of what Debussy did a lot. Which is a really nice compliment coming from me seeing how much I like his works! 😀
And, well, the entire Aquarion soundtrack has always been so brilliantly grandiose despite the plot being much less stellar. The music is the only reason I watched the show, and I’m always wondering how Yoko Kanno singlehandedly managed this.
(By the way, thanks for always including the MP3 downloads! I’m listening to your podcasts on my phone, so it’s really nice to be able to preload them!)
Running thoughts!
The go-to opening to kickstart the show, there probably aren’t any others which have such gusto yet fit the show’s theme. I’d probably succumb to using the Garden of Words OP piece, heh.
Indeed, I quite like the Piano no Mori one, which is as close to an actual classical piece as it gets… probably. (I don’t listen to many of those, heh.)
I’ve yet to be able to digest SONOROUS’ undulating vocals, but perhaps someday it can, as Arai Akino’s did.
Really like Kubota’s outing here with the early stops being used nicely before settling into a good melody, first time hearing it. Perhaps it can be juxtaposed to Hamaguchi’s HanaIro work eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUV0dqs2Z34 where flow and momentum is the order of the day. (I can’t find the movie sequel piece to this where the piano carries much more of the song… so we’ll have to settle for that one.)
That Natsume piece is always unfair.
Wasn’t expecting you to cover something as recent as Fafner Exodus, but this is as good as a piano concerto in anime can get. Felt it sounded like Shangri-la (the first OP) as some points!
“Long before Sword Art Online” LOL. Fancy that. Shouldn’t be too hard to catch the composer poke between the two for most folks hanging around these parts. Excellent pick, probably indicative of what was coming up in her early FictionJunction work too. Early Kajiura work stands the test of time, mostly.
UN-GO ED is unfair too. I still listen to this infrequently, and have the intro bit as a ringtone lol.
Cool arrange of the PP main theme! Though I still prefer the frenetic main theme.
Additions I would have added into the show if I were doing it:
Itsuka (Someday) from Maoyuu
Magokoro (True Feelings) from Asatte no Houkou