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YOKO KANNO The thing I liked best about Macross Plus was the music. I had heard the name Yoko Kanno before, but not her music. I downloaded a few songs from the soundtrack and listened to them occasionally. Then I got this show called Cowboy Bebop (currently showing on Cartoon Network) on DVD. I liked the bluesy/jazzy music for that, so naturally I looked at who wrote the music during the credits. I was surpised to see Yoko Kanno listed, as the music was completely different from that of Macross Plus, which had more of a techno/pop sound. It was the soundtrack that convinced me to watch Escaflowne, which had a classical theme to most of the songs. |
| It was not only the diversity and quality, it was also the quantity that got me. There were at least four CDs of soundtrack for each of these shows. While most of her songs are less than incredible (remember, these are generally for anime soundtracks), she writes a vast amount of songs in a short period of time. She also produces and composes for other artists (ie Maaya Sakamoto), and has done work for video games, tv commercials, and documentaries. She even released a solo album, titled "Song To Fly". She dabbles in almost every genre, and pulls most of them off quite well. Her musical scores range from mediocre to amazing, and are vastly numerous. The woman's a creative factory. The producers of anime series have to reject some of her work for their anime because there's more than they can possibly use. Even then, you're hard-pressed to find an episode that doesn't have a new piece of music in it. It's not uncommon for an amazing musical piece to have only the first five seconds of it used. It is, however, a rarity to have all of her music. She has done so much work in so many areas, she probably doesn't even have it all herself. It's difficult to even find complete information as to what she'd one (believe me, I've looked, although I can't read Japanese). Yoko Kanno is my favorite single musical artist. While her musical styles are often unconventional, convention is highly overrated (unless it's an Anime Convention). For more info: Yoko Kanno on Wikipedia The Yoko Kanno Project Non-english Yoko Kanno page  back to info
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