One of the most significant film makers of the 20th Century, Akira Kurosawa first attracted attention in 1951 with the film Rashomon, a mystery/crime piece and his first collaboration with composer Fumio Hayasaka. Their work together continued with the likes of Ikiru (1952; the story of a dying petty bureaucrat), Seven Samurai (1954; the classic which inspired the later Magnificent Seven) and Record Of A Living Being (1955; an industrialist becomes obsessed with the possibility of imminent nuclear war).
Acting as Haysaka’s junior colleague, Masaru Sato stepped up to the plate when Hayasaka died in 1955, creating the scores for both Throne Of Blood (1957; Shakespeare’s Macbeth reconfigured) and The Hidden Fortress (1958; a reported influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars, in which a princess and a general sneak treasure out of the country, supported by two bumbling peasants).
Each of these film’s soundtracks are included in this magnificent box set spanning four LPs, the inner sleeves of which are adorned with replicas of the original film posters and designed as a page in a spine-fixed book. All individually unique, Rashomon’s score is both epic, almost Ravel-like in its presentation, while Seven Samurai is largely unhurried, determined and strident. They contrast with Record Of A Living Being, which turns to the West and a rhumba-esque rhythm that infuses the music, or Hidden Fortress’ almost architectural arrangement of steady, foundation-like beats and found-sound arrangements.
