Kishi Bashi – Music From The Song Film Omoiyari

Blue and white swirl vinyl

 

Omoiyari means to have  empathy and consideration for others, and act on it.

 

The American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs — The Songs and The Score — the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or K, which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November.

 

Focusing on K’s own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment.

 

The album includes K’s live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood.

 

Written during and about the artist’s transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration—Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie’s most talented musicians.

 

Disc 1 (The Songs)

 

Intro at the Piano

Red, White, and Blue

Improvisation at Heart Mountain

Summer of ’42 (Orchestral Edition)

Improvisation in the Root Cellar

伊賀上野城 (Iga Ueno Castle)

Improvisation at Jerome, AR

Theme for Jerome (Orchestral Edition)

涙そうそう (Nada Sou Sou)

上を向いて歩こう (Ue O Muite Arukou)

A Safe Place for Animals

Manchester (Acoustic Edition)

Removal (with Kara Kondo)

Violin Tsunami for the Victims of Tacoma Detention

Epilogue from Improvisations on EO9066

For Every Voice That Never Sang

 

Disc 2 (The Score)

 

War

Removal

Arrival at Heart Mountain

Coldest of the Camps

Know Your Enemy: Japan

Improvisation for the Tokyo Firebombing

Intro to 1853

1853: Commodore Perry and His Black Ships

Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in The Key of Gypsy Swing

Keiko Ishibashi

My Name is Kishi Bashi

Proud American

The 442nd – Go For Broke

Chicago Meditation

A New Life

The Pilgrimage

Omoiyari and the Model Minority Myth