Joe Hisaishi has announced a new album, set for release 8 August, the release captures a special live performance from Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Conducting the Future Orchestra Classics and The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, the programme features his own vocal-orchestral suite The End of the World alongside the Japanese premiere of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music.
Recorded in July 2024, the album marks Hisaishi’s third full-length release on Deutsche Grammophon. Soprano Ella Taylor joins for The End of the World, a five-movement work originally inspired by Hisaishi’s visit to Ground Zero and later expanded to include new vocal material.
Described by Hisaishi as a fitting reflection for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the programme pairs his own work with Reich’s landmark 1980s composition — a powerful setting of poetry by William Carlos Williams exploring the shadows of the atomic age.
Joe Hisaishi Conducts is out 8 August. The first tracks, D.e.a.d from The End of the World and A. Slow from The Desert Music, will be released on 27 June and 18 July respectively.
