Takemitsu downloads

Psst. If you follow this link, you arrive at a blog called Classical Connection that specializes in making out-of-print classical music available. And even more interestingly, you end up on a page that links to a rare Japanese 6-volume compilation of Toru Takemitsu’s film music.

Takemitsu, who died in 1996, of course composed the music for Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and Dodesukaden. He was known for his exploration of both the Western and the Japanese traditions in classical music, with some works treating the two styles separately, while others fusing them together. Although an established classical musician in his own right, Takemitsu also wrote scores to close to a hundred films, most notably the aforementioned Kurosawa titles, as well as for Shohei Imamura’s Black Rain and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s adaptation of Kobo Abe’s Woman in the Dunes.