Hiroyuki Onogawa – August in the Water: Music for Film 1995-2005
Sublime, ethereal minimalism: the first drawing together of Hiroyuki Onogawa’s soundtrack compositions, plotting a decade of music for films by cult filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii. Sequenced into an album by Onogawa himself, this retrospective spans a fertile period of collaboration with Ishii, through soundtracks for three remarkable films — August in the Water (1995), Labyrinth of Dreams (1997), and Mirrored Mind (2005) — where the cinema is texturally and sensually imbued with the spiritual, ambient, dreamlike quality of Onogawa’s music. Highly recommended for fans of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Music Interior, Yoshio Ojima, Kankyō Ongaku, etc. Watch Ishii’s cult classic August in the Water, “a curious mix of Japanese animism, New Age spirituality, and science fiction,” on archive.
Recommended – Full Listen
A1 Sacrifice
A2 August in the Water
A3 Oiyama
A4 Ngare
A5 Melting Skin
A6 Dry Wind & The Memory of Stone
B1 Labyrinth of Dreams
B2 Endless
B3 Reverse
B4 Night Flying
B5 Kyoshin
B6 August in the Water (2005)
Artwork and design by 12:01
Vinyl mastered and lacquer cut by Kassian Troyer @ Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.