Toward the Far Away Land

Wed Apr 22, 2020

I refuse to think without music. In my past life this was a function of working in open plan offices filled with distractions. The habit has stuck. I don’t want to reduce music to existing only as a functional aid to work, but it is a basic fact that if I’m working then I’m listening to music.

The album that has been looping for the past day or so while working is one of Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack albums to the 1984 Hayao Miyazaki film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Specifically it is the album “Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind: Soundtrack - Toward the Far Away Land” that has been looping.

This is a film which fits the current moment. It is an ecologically themed science fantasy about working with nature instead of against it. At forty minutes long this is a smol epic. (One that just about fits into the extreme end of my concentration.) There’s some nice early eighties synthesiser moments happening near the start before it all becomes a bit more traditionally orchestral. But this is a Joe Hisaishi soundtrack to a Hayao Miyazaki film, so it never gets too loud for too long. It remains comfortable and evocative of the world outside which I am longing to spend more time in.

I hesitate to provide direct links to streaming services, but it is available on them. At some point I intend to track down a physical copy to properly add to the collection.

EDITS:

• 29th May 2020 to shorten title and include album title in body.

Previous Post: Training in Isolation
Next Post: Tidier Desk