# New album!



## JohnG

Just got a box of CDs of the second album for the show I'm on:


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## marclawsonmusic

Hey John, first off... congrats! Second, how can we listen? Is any of this online or is there a 'buy' link somewhere? Cheers


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## JohnG

Hi Marc,

It's on iTunes and Spotify, and other streaming platforms. It's a popular show in Japan. You can find it with my middle initial: John R Graham or "Kirin Ga Kuru"


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## Rory

Apple Music, released September 2nd:


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## Rory

There's also a Volume 1:


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## HarmonyCore

JohnG said:


> Just got a box of CDs of the second album for the show I'm on:



Congrats, John! I am very curious listening to what's inside


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## marclawsonmusic

JohnG said:


> Hi Marc,
> 
> It's on iTunes and Spotify, and other streaming platforms. It's a popular show in Japan. You can find it with my middle initial: John R Graham or "Kirin Ga Kuru"



Thank you, John. I'll check it out


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## Rory

Mr. Graham is a YouTube "topic" and Sony Music has all of the music on YouTube.

Volume 1 playlist:




Volume 2:


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## HarmonyCore

These are some amazing compositions. I will definitely buy the two volumes. John has helped me a lot in VI Control and I want to pay him back. 

A bit of a silly question, can I use your tracks as reference when I mix?


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## JohnG

I've been working nonstop on this stuff -- thanks everyone!

Have a few more sessions coming up for this and then maybe a sleep vacation. It's been a great job though. Magic.


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## JohnG

HarmonyCore said:


> A bit of a silly question, can I use your tracks as reference when I mix?



Well, the mix engineer is Daniel Kresco, and he mixes also for some pretty serious people, so I'm sure his mixes are a great model.


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## HarmonyCore

JohnG said:


> I've been working nonstop on this stuff -- thanks everyone!
> 
> Have a few more sessions coming up for this and then maybe a sleep vacation. It's been a great job though. Magic.



Yeahhh! you deserve a sleep vacation, Sir. 
Well Done!


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## JonS

JohnG said:


> Just got a box of CDs of the second album for the show I'm on:


Just listened to Warrior Past and Castle Assault 🍾👍


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## MariGea

Super nicely done <3 Congratulations!

Btw, I really love your site


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## N.Caffrey

Hi John,

That's amazing, I'm listening to it right now and it sounds wonderful. I actually tried once to listen to your *Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV* soundtrack on Spotify but they linked it to the wrong person, it's a different John Graham, so I'd check that if I was you.

Out of curiosity, as you work a lot with Japanese productions, do you communicate in Japanese with them or in English?

I've been studying Japanese for 5-6 months now as I'd like to work more there (for now I've done only a documentary for Yahoo! Japan and I'm working on a VR project) so I wonder if at a higher level it makes a difference to be fluent.

Thank you.


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## jonathanparham

Streaming it on Spotify now. So cool!


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## SergeD

Atmospheric and Zen, a terrific combination, bravo.


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## JohnG

N.Caffrey said:


> I've been studying Japanese for 5-6 months now as I'd like to work more there (for now I've done only a documentary for Yahoo! Japan and I'm working on a VR project) so I wonder if at a higher level it makes a difference to be fluent.
> 
> Thank you.



I will PM you -- thanks for writing


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## telecode101

..


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## mikeh-375

well done John, nice work. That's your xmas presents sorted too.....


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## Daniel

Congratulations John.


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## ka00

Congrats! Three songs in and it sounds great. I love this style. Is this all samples? It's very impressive. Did you record any live players at all?


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## artomatic

Awesome job, John. Huge congrats!!


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## JohnG

ka00 said:


> Congrats! Three songs in and it sounds great. I love this style. Is this all samples? It's very impressive. Did you record any live players at all?



It's a live recording, for the most part. We recorded in Tokyo, Sofia, Nashville, and Los Angeles.


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## José Herring

Rory said:


> Mr. Graham is a YouTube "topic" and Sony Music has all of the music on YouTube.
> 
> Volume 1 playlist:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Volume 2:



Love it. Top notch John!


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## JonS

JohnG said:


> It's a live recording, for the most part. We recorded in Tokyo, Sofia, Nashville, and Los Angeles.


How many musicians total, what was the orchestra break down? Sounds wonderful!!


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## Living Fossil

@JohnG : Congrats John! Great music, as everything i've heard so far from you!


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## Rory

JohnG said:


> It's a live recording, for the most part. We recorded in Tokyo, Sofia, Nashville, and Los Angeles.



I gather that the broadcaster, NHK, is Japan's national public broadcaster. If I'm reading the song credits right, NHK has its own symphony orchestra. Did you work with the NHK Symphony? Thoughts about it?


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## Gerbil

Excellent stuff. Congrats.


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## Henning

Sounds absolutely stunning. I hate to think how much time and effort you must have put into this. Top stuff!


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## angeruroth

Man I love both albums.
The last one feels a bit slower and textural, in a good way, but both are really good. Congrats!
May I ask which tracks you like best and why?

PS: Now I want to watch the show!  (at the very least to see how 'Hisahide Matsunaga' from the first album fits among the other tracks ).


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## Ashermusic

Congratulations John.


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## Bear Market

Sounds great! Hat's off to you John!


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## JohnG

Thanks guys. The job of a lifetime for me -- seven hours of music, a wide range of moods and styles, and the feeling of being part of a cohesive team. Just extraordinary. Artistic freedom as I've never experienced it as well.

To answer a couple of questions.

We recorded some tracks, including the main title, with the NHK orchestra at the NHK studios in Tokyo. Traditionally, the main title for this series is kept secret -- they clear the room of non-essential people while recording it so there can be a reveal when the show is announced. Because the show is quite popular and they record at the NHK studios, there are many people around, curious to see what is going on, which was fun too.

I forget exactly how many players so I can't answer that question accurately. It's a full symphony orchestra with two additional horns and quite a bit of extra percussion. So maybe 70? 80? The other orchestra was about 40-50 on average. That said, the score covers a wide range of styles, so sometimes there are only a handful -- a few soloists and strings only, or just a frets player and singer.

Writing for an established orchestra, by contrast with a paid bunch of studio musicians, introduces quite a few issues. First off, they are incredibly good players and super professional; I think you can hear on their tracks a top-notch level of musicianship and tone.

But naturally they do not routinely experience the craziness of film music, with last-minute copying and sometimes transposition errors or other issues. I was slightly terrified that they would encounter some copying or other mistake and there would be issues; fortunately, not really, although the copyists did not like my film music convention of the score being a concert score (by contrast with transposed). Naturally, they don't normally play to click; the main title had already been timed out to picture, and I had already recorded soloists in Los Angeles for parts of it, so playing to click was necessary. For one cue, in fact, the conductor didn't like what was happening so he just told us to turn off the click completely, and he was right. It came off much better and is one of the loveliest melodic cues [track 5 on the first album].

After we recorded the orchestra, we recorded an amazing taiko drummer, Eitetsu Hayashi, who is justifiably famous. He played on the main title and a number of other tracks, including the second track of the new album, "To Eat or Be Eaten." He is absolutely one of the most intense, musical people I've ever met.

Bulgaria

Apart from Tokyo, we recorded with George Strezov's group for a couple of weeks in Sofia. If you have a chance to work with them they are superb -- we are recording there again in the next 10 days and I'm looking forward to it. They have probably 10 people there -- including the conductors, engineer, and business people -- who speak excellent English and they can really play. Plus they can orchestrate and copy if you need that too. Equipment is excellent (mics, board, room, lighting -- it's very good). Plus they have their own, home studio where they are accustomed to working, which has great advantages compared with some of the more peripatetic pickup orchestras one can encounter outside of major recording cities like London or Los Angeles. PM me if you are interested in hearing more about their setup and what works best.

@angeruroth The Hisahide cue is a departure, no doubt. The music supervisor and producer asked for something crazy for this character (who was by reputation quite a mercurial fellow), so that's what we did. My producer has a buddy who's a sax player in Tokyo; he played all the saxes and we recorded the brass in Nashville. They used the cue on the most recent episode I've seen and it was hilariously out of the historical time period, but suited what was going on perfectly.


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## Henrik B. Jensen

It sounds awesome, John!

Listening to track 2 in Vol. 1 right now.


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## Rory

The NHK Symphony Orchestra is apparently one of the best orchestras in the country. The Chief Conductor is Paavo Järvi.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK_Symphony_Orchestra

NHK Symphony web site: https://www.nhkso.or.jp/en/


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## marclawsonmusic

I've been listening to the Vol. 2 soundtrack for a couple of weeks now. I don't know anything about the show, but I really enjoy your writing, John. And, of course the production / playing is just top notch. 

'Imminent Fall' is one of my favorites with the melancholy string writing. And 'Not The Best Plan' was a blast - it's a total break from the character of the rest of the tracks, so there must have been an interesting story on screen during that moment!

Cheers and thanks again for sharing


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## JohnG

Hi Marc,

One of the best things about the show is its variety. They have used "Imminent Fall" many times, because the show is set during the Sengoku period, the medieval period of Japan in the 1500s ("Sengoku" is usually translated as "period of the warring states"). Like Europe in the same era, life could be very difficult, with near-constant wars or threats of war; bandits who made travel, trade or any economic progress challenging in some areas; changes of regime that could put anyone in or out abruptly; and the natural rudimentary state of communications and medicine that you would find anywhere in the world at that time.

Consequently, a melancholy, slowly evolving theme like that is appropriate to many conversations and situations.

By contrast, "Not the Best Plan" of course is when something goes wrong in a funny way, or there's a pompous character. The writer (a truly gifted man) and producers inject humour and domestic scenes all through the series. It's 40-50 lengthy episodes -- no commercials -- so they have to leaven the battles with other ideas and scenes or it would get monotonous.


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## marclawsonmusic

Thanks for sharing, John! It would be cool if they brought that show to the US. I have always been fascinated with medieval Japanese culture so it would be interesting to me.


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## JohnG

It is available in the US, actually, on JapanTV where I live (Los Angeles). You have to have access to that channel though, so it depends most likely on your cable / satellite subscription.

The English subtitles are unusually good.

I really enjoy history and part of my work for the show was to read multiple books about this period (and those preceding and following, for context). Also looked at art work, clothing, read poetry and fables -- anything I could get my hands on. I don't know if I can connect each and every part of that preparation to individual musical choices but there certainly are specific ones. The next album releases should feature some more esoteric ideas reflected in music.


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## IFM

Congrats!


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## angeruroth

Hmm, is there a way to watch Kirin ga Kuru, legally, outside Japan? I'm in Spain, and I've seen some online places where I could watch 21 episodes, but id ptefer a good way to do it...


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## JohnG

angeruroth said:


> Hmm, is there a way to watch Kirin ga Kuru, legally, outside Japan? I'm in Spain, and I've seen some online places where I could watch 21 episodes, but id ptefer a good way to do it...



I can try to find out. In the USA it's on the Japan Channel.


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## rhizomusicosmos

Hey @JohnG, I just saw this and wanted to add my congratulations. The yearly NHK taiga dramas are _huge _in Japan -- I watched a few when I lived there. Much respect!


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