Kishi Bashi – Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari (2023)  


Review:
In 2019, Kishi Bashi (Kaoru Ishibashi) released an album of poignant orchestral folk songs called Omoiyari, a Japanese word related to the concept of compassion and empathy through active practice. The songs came advertised as having been written for and/or inspired by a documentary he was working on about his own journey of self-discovery as the child of Japanese immigrants while learning about the U.S.'s WWII-era Japanese American internment camps, and cautioning against contemporary anti-immigrant political rhetoric. That film, Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, finally had its world premiere in 2022, with a broader release and accompanying soundtrack album following in late 2023. With over 70 minutes of original recordings, Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari contains different versions of many of the songs from the 2019 album alongside new ones, an acoustic version of tour favorite "Manchester," and score material composed by Ishibashi. The new songs include the plaintive "Red, White, and Blue," an acoustic lament featuring guitar, piano, cello, violin, and a brittle-voiced Ishibashi, and standout track "For Every Voice That Never Sang" featuring cellist Emily Hope Price, a more fully produced track with Kishi Bashi's trademark violin loops, multi-layered vocals, and keen bittersweetness. While most of the music here is expectedly heavyhearted or at least pensive, a few lighter moments include a third original song, "A Safe Place for Animals," a children's tune featuring his daughter, Sola Ishibashi; and a section of jazz manouche, including score track "1853: Commodore Perry and His Black Ships" and a brief swing sample of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. Also included are several so-titled improvisational clips and appearances by the Nu Deco Ensemble, who seamlessly flesh out the composer's affecting chamber compositions on a dozen of the soundtrack album's 33 music cues. As the child of Japanese immigrants, and with a decade’s worth of sensitive songs to his credit in addition to a background in production music and arranging, Ishibashi seems the ideal candidate here for the tasks at hand. — by Marcy Donelson at allmusic


   


Track List:
Disc 1
01 - Intro at the Piano
02 - Red, White, and Blue
03 - Improvisation at Heart Mountain
04 - Summer of ’42
05 - Improvisation in the Root Cellar
06 - Iga Ueno Castle
07 - Improvisation at Jerome, AR
08 - Theme for Jerome
09 - Nada Sou Sou
10 - Ue O Muite Arukou
11 - A Safe Place for Animals
12 - Manchester
13 - Removal (with Kara Kondo)
14 - Violin Tsunami for the Victims of Tacoma Detention
15 - Epilogue from Improvisations on EO9066
16 - For Every Voice That Never Sang

Disc 2
01 - War
02 - Removal
03 - Arrival at Heart Mountain
04 - Coldest of the Camps
05 - Know Your Enemy; Japan
06 - Improvisation for the Tokyo Firebombing
07 - Intro to 1853
08 - 1853; Commodore Perry and His Black Ships
09 - Bach's Double Violin Concerto in The Key of Gypsy Swing
10 - Keiko Ishibashi
11 - My Name is Kishi Bashi
12 - Proud American
13 - The 442nd - Go For Broke
14 - Chicago Meditation
15 - A New Life
16 - The Pilgrimage
17 - Omoiyari and the Model Minority Myth


Media Report:
Genre: chamber pop
Country: Athens, Georgia, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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