Naruto: Symphonic Experience (2LP/Opaque Red Vinyl)

Three years ago, Jérôme Leclercq and I from Mediatoon Licensing came up with the idea of creating a cinema concert to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Naruto. Why a cinema concert? The music is part of the success of the licence and fans have a particular attachment to the credits and the original soundtracks. The originality of the music by Toshio Masuda, the composer of Naruto, comes from the clever mix of traditional Japanese instruments, such as the Shakuhachi or the Shamisen, with guitar and other pop/rock instruments. So we came up with the idea of bringing this music to the stage with a 50-strong orchestra, accompanied by an original montage of the best moments from the anime. This orchestra is made up of three parts: symphonic instruments, pop/rock instruments and traditional instruments.

To do this, we approached the ODINO orchestra and its conductor Sylvain Audinovski. The ODINO orchestra is one of those capable of mixing musical styles while maintaining a very high level of performance. We have also chosen traditional Japanese instrumentalists to complete the orchestra's core, especially for the show.

The arrangements and musical direction are the fruit of a collaboration between Quentin Benayoun, Sébastien Caviggia and myself. My two accomplices, with whom I formed the group P.U.S.S. in 2007, have a great mastery of rock and orchestral music writing. This mix is essential to keep the promise made to the fans of the series and required several months' work to select the music and write the scores for the whole orchestra.

How do you tell the story of Naruto to fans, but also to those who don't know the anime? That's the real challenge of this unique film-concert. How do you select the best moments in the story of this young ninja apprentice from the vastness of the first 220 episodes? Six months of selection and research enabled me to choose the key images in the narrative, while preserving certain dialectics to match the anime's incredible music.

This original film-concert, lasting almost 2 hours, is a real Rock-Symphonic show paying tribute to the work of Masashi Kashimoto and the music of Toshio Masuda.

tracklist
A1. Nine Tailed Demon Fox
A2. ROCKS
A3. Sadness And Sorrow I
A4. Naruto Main Theme I
A5. Kakashi's Theme
A6. Need To Be Strong I
A7. Fighting Spirit
A8. Need To Be Strong II
A9. Sadness And Sorrow II
A10. Wind
A11. Predator and Predator
A12. Strong And Strike
A13. Orochimaru Fight I
A14. Beautiful Green Wild Beast I
A15. A Crisis After Another
B1. Haruka Kanata
B2. Afternoon Of Konoha
B3. Jiraya’s Theme
B4. Sexiness
B5. Nine Tailed Demon Fox II
B6. Heavy Violence I
B7. Victory I
B8. Beautiful Green Wild Beast II
B9. Heavy Violence II
B10. Orochimaru Fight II
B11. Orochimaru’s Theme I
B12. Avenger
C1. Naruto Main Theme II
C2. Hokage
C3. Grief And Sorrow
C4. Hokage’s Funeral
C5. Kanashimi O Yasashisa Ni
C6. Sasuke’s Theme
C7. Loneliness
C8. Predator
C9. Orochimaru’s Theme
C10. Raikiri
C11. Naruto Main Theme III
D1. The Fifth’s Fight
D2. Victory II
D3. Sarutobi I
D4. Sarutobi II
D5. Heavy Violence III
D6. Orochimaru Fight III
D7. Naruto Main Theme IV
D8. Seishun Kyosokyoku
D9. Go !!!