Kenji Kawai
Soundtrack: Ghost in the Shell
The Making of Cyborg
Ghosthack
Puppetmaster
Virtual Crime
Ghost City
Access
Nightstalker
Floating Museum
Ghostdrive
Reincarnation
Bonus Track
Columbia House, 1985
One of the saddest things about appreciating anime' is that more times than not, the music is about as deep as an empty bowl of guacamole at a party at 2am. My experience has been that music accompanying anime is (for the most part), void of emotion or passion of any sort. It is a technical placeholder to tell the audience that something is going on in the movie, just in case their eyes weren't working.
The soundtrack to Ghost in the Shell is anything BUT that.
Kenji Kawai composes 10 very beautiful, ethereal and at times, haunting pieces here for the mind to float with. One of the more memorable moments of the movie is also probably the most memorable part of this CD as well; a chorus of Japanese girls whose voices float in a crescendo, then a vibrato then into the silence where traditional drums (taiko) pound out a slow but profound rhythm. These moments are fleeting and disappear altogether as Kenji Kawai explores deeper and less predictable sounds until the end of the CD, when some of the elements that were familiar at the beginning of the CD, resurface.
As i asked in my review of Passion, one of the questions to ask myself when considering a soundtrack is, "Does this hold its own without the movie as a guide?" And the answer is "Yes." However, i do believe the experience of the movie strengthens the experience of what this soundtrack has to offer.
Oh, notice there are 11 tracks and i mentioned, "10 very beautiful... pieces". The "Bonus Track" is an unwelcome, abrupt and frankly mediocre, typical J-Pop piece. It is a sad and very inappropriate ending to an otherwise beautiful CD.
Shellito says, "The movie rocks (get it on DVD), the soundtrack is beautiful. Go get some."