Rising Sun - Expanded

For Rising Sun, one of the smartest decisions director Philip Kaufman made was hiring the incredible Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu. It was a bold choice and a choice that really paid off.

Takemitsu wrote a very long score for the film, but in the end several incredible cues went unused and the music that was used was occasionally truncated and moved around. A CD release of the score did not present it in the best light, with a short running time and several pieces not by Takemitsu. The general impression was that Takemitsu's score just wasn't that interesting.

We're hoping that this first-ever complete CD release will change that view because hearing the score as Takemitsu wrote it is an entirely different experience—an addictive, mesmerizing neo-noir tone poem of exquisite orchestral color and sounds (including wonderful use of the Ondes Martinot), with a great main theme that weaves itself in and out of the score like wisps of smoke.

It is a major rediscovery and one that would hopefully put the music's reputation firmly where it belongs—as one of the best and most interesting scores of the 1990s. The previous CD release had only about twenty-six minutes of Takemitsu's score. This release adds over forty minutes of score cues and the score is presented as it was meant to be heard in the film.

This release is is limited to 1,000 copies only.