Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6, 1950, in Nagano. He started his career as a composer of modern music when he was still a student at the Kunitachi Collage of Music. At that time, he was into minimalist music. He released his first album, "Information" in 1982.

In 1983, he was recommended by a record company to create the Image Album for "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind", which was being made into a movie. Miyazaki was so impressed with the Image Album that he often played it during the movie production. Although the soundtrack of "Nausicaa" was to be composed by a certain "famous" composer, Isao Takahata (the producer of "Nausicaa") and Miyazaki strongly recommended that Hisaishi should do the soundtrack as well. The rest is history.

Hisaishi also composed the beautiful and unforgettable music for "Laputa", "Kiki", "Porco Rosso", and "Mononoke Hime". His music played a very important role in these movies. He has also released many other albums, and he worked as the executive producer at and wrote the theme song for the 1998 Nagano Paralympics.

His name, "Hisaishi Joe" (family name first) came from "Quincy Jones". The kanji for "Hisaishi" could be read as "Kuishi", which is close to the Japanese pronunciation of "Quincy", and "Joe" of course came from "Jones". Hisaishi himself chose this name, when he needed a stage name.

• Comprehensive Discography
• Nausicaa CD Page
• Laputa CD Page
• Totoro CD Page
• Kiki CD Page
• Porco Rosso CD Page
• Mononoke Hime CD Page at Sampsa Virtanen's website

• Hisaishi's Official Home Page
• Hisaishi's Works in English.
• Concert Report by EX Magazine

Hisaishi is redoing the music for the English dub of "Laputa: Castle in the Sky". He is going to Seattle in early May to record new orchestral music for "Laputa" with the Seattle Symphony. For more information, see the Laputa Music page.

Hisaishi has done the music for "Kikujiro no Natsu (The Summer of Kikujiro)", a new movie by Takeshi Kitano. "Kikujiro" will be submitted to this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Hisaishi has done the music for "Jintai III (Human Body)", a science documentary series by NHK (Japanese public TV). The series will be aired on NHK (in Japan) from May 2-4, 1999, and August 8-10, 1999.

" HANA-BI", a Takeshi Kitano live-action movie for which Hisaishi wrote music, received the Best Movie Award at the Venice Film Festival.

His new album, "WORKS I" has been released. It contains the music from movies by three prominent directors: Nobuhiko Obayashi, Takeshi Kitano, and Hayao Miyazaki. Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the music has been rearranged for this album.

1.  Symphonic Poem "Nausicaa", from "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind"
2. "For You", from "Mizu no Tabibito - Samurai Kids" (a movie by Nobuhiko Obayashi)
3. "Sonatine", from "Sonatine" (a movie by Takeshi Kitano)
4. "Tango X.T.C.", from "Haruka Nostalgy" (a movie by Nobuhiko Obayashi)
5. "Two of Us", from "Futari" (a movie by Nobuhiko Obayashi)
6. "Madness", from "Porco Rosso"
7. "Silent Love". from "Ano Natsu, Ichiban Shizukana Umi" (a movie by Takeshi Kitano)

Comes with a booklet containing messages from Miyazaki, Obayashi, and Kitano.