Saint Seiya: a new album pays tribute to the sublime orchestrations of the work

Considered by fans of Japanese animation as the most beautiful scores offered to a work, the music of Saint Seiya (alias Knights of the Zodiac) was imagined by Seiji Yokoyama. A project, led by the French, intends to pay homage to him by adapting his most beautiful soundtracks.

Launched as part of a crowdfunding on Kickstarter (which has already raised more than 15,000 euros out of the expected 13,000), the World of Seiji Yokoyama: Serenade project has brought in the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro François Rousselot. Its goal ? Offer a sublime album dominated by the symphonic rock influence of the Japanese composer, who died in 2017 at the age of 82.

Choirs allied to powerful melodies, a harp that gives off a sweet intoxicating melody, a few desperate chords that escape from a melancholy guitar … Rarely has the soundtrack of an animated series carried so well the dramaturgy of a story and marked as much viewers as that offered on Saint Seiya.

Timeless music

“To keep his music timeless, Seiji Yokoyama first composed the melodies before re-orchestrating them. He had a sense of theme that made his listeners retain his compositions. At the time, he was able in particular to benefit from very large orchestras while elsewhere we were closer to small groups ”, explains for CNEWS Gérald Ory, producer of this album, director of Inory Music and great admirer of the Saint series. Seiya, whom he discovered in 1988.

Like many French people bottle-fed at Club Dorothée, Gérald Ory had a great admiration for Japanese culture before being able to live off his passion and leave for the land of the rising sun.

“I met Seiji Yokoyama in 2003. At the time I had found contacts at the beginning of the Internet. I was working on publishing books and wanted to meet him. I then landed an interview for Animeland magazine. During our meeting, we sympathized and I had to collaborate with him on numerous occasions. I had planned to see Seiji again in September 2017, but he passed away before that. I couldn’t say goodbye to him. I wanted to pay tribute to him. He has given me so much. Doing a tribute concert and an album is the best. We started with singles at first, all already available on streaming platforms (Apple Music, Spotify …), while videos have already been published. on Youtube. We would have liked to bring this project out earlier, but the health crisis has passed through there, ”emphasizes Gérald Ory.

An unprecedented collaboration

An unprecedented collaboration will follow for the French-speaking Japanese composer (fan of croissants) who will compose the album Ragen Blue from 2008, before participating in the development of the Saint Seiya: Pegasus Symphony concerts which were held in Paris between 2014 and 2016.

But to speak of Seiji Yokoyama for his only inspirations related to Saint Seiya would be reductive. The man has many strings on his harp and Japanese animation only represents 10% of his compositions. In addition to the soundtrack of Albator 78, this tireless composer graduated in 1957 from the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, where another great star was formed, Joe Hisaishi (composer of most of the Ghibli films in particular). Seiji Yokoyama thus distinguished himself in the soundtracks of more than a hundred films, series, TV films but also radio dramas. A work that this tribute album does not intend to forget, since fans will find more than 15 compositions drawn from this rich musical universe.

And to delight Saint Seiya and Seiji Yokoyama fans, this CD and vinyl album project will be accompanied by a host of collaborations. Contributors will thus be entitled to signed drawings by several stars, such as singer Yumi Matsuzawa (Saint Seiya chapter Hades), who will sign albums, or drawings by Michi Himeno, a talented designer who worked with Shingo Araki (1938-2011 ) to the character design of the animated series. So many treasures that should delight the eyes and ears of fans of the manga created by Masami Kurumada, and whose animated series adaptation will celebrate its 35th anniversary on October 11.