© 2002 Lawrence Tuczynski

Title:	Ikiru Record Of A Living Being The Lower Depths
CD Label:	Toho Music Corporation
CD Number:	AK-0002
Music by:	Fumio Hayasaka Masau Satoh (The Lower Depths)
Number of tracks:	35
Running time:	47:45
Number of discs:	1
Year of release/manufacture:	2001

REVIEW

April 05, 2002 This disc contains the soundtracks to three films: "Ikiru", "Record Of A Living Being" and "The Lower Depths". It's the only disc with more than one film on it and also has the shortest running time of any of the six discs in this set. Either there was very little music in these films or most of it has been lost over the years and this is all that's left. The first two movies were composed by Fumio Hayasaka and "The Lower Depths" was composed by Masaru Satoh (also spelled Sato). Masaru Satoh did many of Akira Kurosawa's film soundtracks after this one and was probably when they first developed their lasting relationship. The "Ikiru" pieces (tracks 1-19) starts off sounding almost like a Hollywood fanfare and slows down to a sweet slow piece in the middle and then picks up the pace like an old time Hollywood suspense film. Most of the tracks for this film are short and very similar. While there are a few tracks that stand out, most are slow and similar to what was done in the "Seven Samurai" soundtrack. In the tracks for "Record Of A Living Being" (tracks 20-31) we again get many dark, brooding pieces but also some style variations that are quite different including one (track 25) that sounds like a big band number from the 1930's & 40's. In fact this track 25 sounds more like the style of Masaru Satoh than the other tracks done by Fumio Hayasaka. The four tracks (32-35) devoted to "The Lower Depths" starts off with a track that is comprised of someone slowly banging a large gong. Track 33 is a vocal acapella track. Track 34 contains dialogue and is another acapella track very similar to track 33. The very last track is only about 5 seconds long and is comprised of a sound like someone taking one strike at a spike in the ground with a large hammer. These four tracks are not typical of Masaru Satoh's other works and I have to believe most of the music for this movie was lost long ago since all we have are four very short tracks with no instruments in them.

Ikiru, Record Of A Living Being, and The Lower Depths Track translations courtesy of Jolyon Yates! IKIRU IKIRU Titles Petition Gets The Runaround Waiting Room Foreboding Diagnosis Memory 1 Memory 2 Memory 3 Memory 4 Memory 5 Life's Ball Gondola Song café Strip Show Watanabe & Toyo Heading Home Outstanding Man's Impatience Vacancy at the seat of the Citizen's Section Chief Something Happened to Me Gondola Song IKIRU Ending [BONUS TRACKS] Waiting Room Foreboding ordinary sound Diagnosis ordinary sound Something Happened to Me (alternative version) RECORD OF A LIVING BEING RECORD OF A LIVING BEING Titles Late Night Guitar Slow Mambo Slow Rumba RECORD OF A LIVING BEING End Titles [BONUS TRACKS] RECORD OF A LIVING BEING Premonition Main Theme Star Music Mambo Melancholia Duck Mambo THE LOWER DEPTHS THE LOWER DEPTHS Titles Fool music 1 Fool music 2 THE LOWER DEPTHS End Titles