One of the more fascinating aspects of listening to music in general has always been in wondering exactly what sort of thoughts and inspirations transpired as composers scribble down notes and, in doing so, conjure wondrous (or boring) melodies for us to savor and enjoy. These sorts of musings can usually be found in an album’s liner notes; the problem when looking through anime soundtracks (for me anyway) is the inability to read Japanese.

Until now…

Well, OK, not really. Much of the thanks for this goes to ottocycle who did the heavy lifting translating Hiroyuki Sawano’s thoughts when he composed Guilty Crown’s soundtrack. So without further ado, here’s Sawano on Guilty Crown after the jump!

Amongst all the music works I have been involved in so far, this production is the one which features the most vocal tracks. I have considered creating a work of this nature from time to time in the past as well. One reason I’d say that I got the offer was that the director happened to like the material from my original album “musica”, which happened to have quite a few vocal tracks featured…(haha) Back then I also remember the producer of the anime giving me free rein to do what I like with this, so voila! What a convenient explanation! As you can probably tell, some parts of the above were more in jest than anything else. Moving on, as this was a production whose concept and content translates into many different possible musical approaches which could be experimented with, I decided on converting thematic tunes into what I feel matches the sound of “song”, as one of my foci in this particular work. As a result, I can say that, this soundtrack feels like one which I have expressed the most naturally, and the feeling might’ve been similar to that when I was making my original album. I’ve also had the opportunity to make rearrangements of vocal tracks found on this album which can be found in the limited edition home video bundles. The production team had generously afforded the musicians and me to revisit the tunes again, and it felt so happy, yet extravagant to have been able to do so. While the OST CD versions of the respective (rearranged) songs were recorded before their alternate versions, it is up to the listener to decide which one is the main version, since both turned out convincingly satisfying. With all said and done, these are my thoughts right after working on either version, so hopefully you would not place either one on a pedestal before comparing them both (haha). By: Sawano Hiroyuki (originally in Japanese, in the Guilty Crown OST CD sleeve)

Brief thoughts: I haven’t listened to Guilty Crown’s OST all that closely, but I can say that the number of vocal tracks on this album was a surprise, but not unwelcome as most of the artists’ performances were solid and I look forward to hearing the arrangements of those tracks should copies of those ever come forth. The BGM is also enjoyable for those who’ve found themselves enthralled by Sawano’s previous scores; he doesn’t stray too far from the bombastic blend of orchestra and electronica that has become his signature for quite some time. All in all, the stellar work that comes forth from Guilty Crown’s soundtrack should be a treat (one that doesn’t deserve an anime as flawed as Guilty Crown) and if nothing else, effectively cements his status as the Japanese Hans Zimmer (AKA the guy who scored the music to the movies Inception and Gladiator, to name a few).

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