Joe Hisaishi’s Studio Ghibli scores for Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle are being pressed to vinyl for the first time.
Alongside the two releases, which are coming out officially via Studio Ghibli Records, image albums for both films will also be made available on vinyl for the first time. For Spirited Away, the image album features 10 tracks made by Joe Hisaishi alongside various artists, based on note of inspirations written by director Hayao Miyazaki during the film’s production. The image album for Howl’s Moving Castle, meanwhile, features another 10 pieces recorded by Hisaishi, this time alongside the orchestra of the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, again based on Miyazaki’s inspirations for the film.
Spirited Away was originally released in 2001, and follows the story of a 10-year-old girl who enters a world of spirits after a witch turns her parents into pigs. Hisaishi’s soundtrack for the film was recorded with the orchestra of the New Japan Philharmonic.
Howl’s Moving Castle came out in 2004 and tells the story of a young woman called Sophie, who has been cursed by a witch and goes on to befriend a wizard called Howl. Chieko Baisho, who voices Sophie, contributes vocals to Hisaishi’s main theme for the film, ‘The Promise Of The World’.
The release of the two Ghibli scores on vinyl follows on from the first-time pressing of Hisaishi’s score for Princess Mononoke last month. The scores for almost all of the Studio Ghibli films were added to streaming services earlier this year, while a number of the films themselves have also been gradually added to Netflix over the course of this year.
More details on all of the new vinyl releases can be found here.
Studio Ghibli Records will release Howl’s Moving Castle: Soundtrack, Howl’s Moving Castle: Image Symphonic Suite, Spirited Away: Soundtrack, and Spirited Away: Image Album on November 20, 2020.
