Akira’s incredible soundtrack is to be credited to the Geinoh Yamashirogumi music collective. The collective consists of more than 50 people but is most recognized by their composer, Tsutomu Ōhashi, also known as Shoji Yamashiro. Yamashiro was asked by Katsuhiro Otomo to score for the movie. Surprisingly, the music was actually created before the movie began its animation production. In other words, instead of adding music to a scene in post, animators used the music to influence the scene. In Otomo’s request of Yamashiro, he only asked to center the score around two ideas: “requiem” and “festival,” one of these songs went on later to even be titled Requiem.
Otomo originally found and sought out Yamashiro after listening to an album of his called Ecophony Rinne (released in 1986) which utilizes a combination of world music with digital mastering. This influence is definitely apparent when listening to the two albums together, as the Akira soundtrack uses multiple different non-electronic instruments and sounds to make a dystopian yet electronic feeling to Neo-Tokyo.
In a 1988 interview with Yamashiro, he described his work as “totally self-complacent music that I wanted to hear, other people be damned” and his work has inspired people up through the present day.
for more information be sure to check this Japan Times article.
Exploring Akira 