源氏物語幻想交響絵巻 - Isao Tomita's Tale of Genji

日曜の午後、源氏物語幻想交響絵巻を富田勲自身が解説する私的な試聴会に参加した。猛暑の中、出掛けたのは中野新橋にある音響スタジオ設計の会社、ソナのスタジオで、うちのリスニングルームもここにお願いした。集合したのはサウンドエンジニアなど、音声業務に携わる面々で旧知の顔もちらほら、冨田氏にお会いするのは久しぶり。

この作品が興味深いのは、京言葉で語る源氏物語というその距離感の近さと、シンセだけでなくオーケストラと融合させたトミタ・ワールドという音絵巻で、もちろん360度サラウンドに仕上げられている。

冨田氏はデモの合間にいろんな逸話を披露してくれたが、ナレーションは音楽パートのひとつと考えていたとの話が印象に残る。最近リリースの惑星リミックス版が96kHz、こちらが48kHzとなったが、オーケストラ収録が絡むのだから本来逆だったなあとの感想も吐露された。サラウンドと言うだけで日本の音楽レーベルは尻込みするので、今回の企画をまとめる苦労は大きかったようだ。


I attended a small, private listening session of “the Tale of Genji, Symphonic Fantasy” with the guidance of Isao Tomita himself in Sunday afternoon. The venue was the listening room of Sona in Nakano-Shinbashi, and the air was boilingly hot on the way. Sona is a company specialized in studio designs and actually my listening room was designed and built by them. Over a dozen people gathered were those who were involved in sound production, mostly sound engineers and some composers. I have not met Mr. Tomita for many years myself.

The most interesting part of this production is the intimacy of the Tale spoken in contemporary Kyoto language that is wrapped around by the spectacular surround sound, namely “Tomita World” through the blend of synthesizer and real orchestral sound.

Mr. Tomita showed us a few episodes between the tracks to demo as well as Q & A’s, and one of interesting comments was that he treated the narration exactly as a part of music instruments. Also mentioned was that the recent release of Planets remixed version was in 96k while this Tale of Genji was 48k but they should have been opposite considering the latter contained the orchestral recording. When he expressed his plan producing the new release in Surround, most Japanese labels showed their immediate reluctance, and it was really tough for him to have his project go through.