Spirited Away

1	One Summer's Day / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:09
2	A Road to Somewhere / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:07
3	The Empty Restaurant / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:15
4	Nighttime Coming / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:00
5	The Dragon Boy / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:12
6	Sootballs / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:33
7	Procession of the Spirits / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:00
8	Yubaba / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:30
9	Bathhouse Morning / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:02
10	Day of the River / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:13
11	It's Hard Work / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:26
12	The Stink Spirit / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 4:01
13	Sen's Courage / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 2:45
14	The Bottomless Pit / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 1:18
15	Kaonashi (No Face) / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:47
16	The Sixth Station / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:38
17	Yubaba's Panic / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 1:38
18	The House at Swamp Bottom / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 1:29
19	Reprise / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 4:53
20	The Return / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:20
21	Always With Me / New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra 3:35

Barnes & Noble

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke), this anime film -- which follows the adventures of a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro, who finds herself trapped in an "other world" of gods and monsters, ruled over by a witch -- tied for best film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival. Noted Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi worked with both electronic sounds and an orchestra to create the score for this compelling movie.

All Music Guide

Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi is best known for his Takeshi Kitano and Hazao Miyazaki scores -- and yet the two directors couldn't be more different. Kitano's films are mostly adult crime dramas, while Miyazaki's are mostly animated family features. But both are wildly adventurous and deeply (sometimes even secretly) romantic. Hisaishi has done excellent work for each, most notably Kitano's masterful Hana-Bi and Miyazaki's epic Princess Mononoke. If his soundtracks for Kitano tend to have a more elegant, elegiac tone (Kitano's taciturn protagonists often die at the end), his soundtracks for Miyazaki tend to be more sweeping and majestic (no matter what comes their way, Miyazaki's plucky young heroes and heroines always triumph at the end). Spirited Away fits the latter description to a T. As is the custom with a Miyazaki film, a vocal track plays during the closing credits. In this case, Youmi Kimura sings the lilting "Always With Me" in Japanese (the CD booklet includes an English translation). The rest of the score features instrumental pieces performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom Hisaishi has worked for several years. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy, All Music Guide