Kanno Yoko is a prolific Japanese songwriter and music producer under flying DOG. She also known for her composition for CM songs and popular Japanese pop artists, especially her collaboration with Sakamoto Maaya. She is currently the leader of Japanese jazz band The Seatbelts. Kanno writes lyrics under the name Gabriela Robin.
Who knows what Dave Edmunds was thinking when he agreed to produce and assemble the soundtrack to 1985's Porky's Revenge! It's easier to see the motives of the movie's producers – they were flush with cash after two successful teen-sex comedies set in the '50s, and who would be better to create a new soundtrack of old-time rock & roll than Edmunds, who was not only well-known for his retro-rock, but was riding a wave of popularity after a pair of MTV-friendly Jeff Lynne-produced albums in the mid-'80s. That makes sense. What boggles the mind is that Edmunds, after accepting the job, decided to treat this soundtrack – which, let's remember, is the second sequel to a film best known for a scene of horny teenage boys spying on the girls in a gym shower and for a female character called "Lassie" who howls like a dog during orgasm – as a prestige project, recruiting such superstars as George Harrison, Carl Perkins, Jeff Beck, Willie Nelson, and Robert Plant (performing under the Crawling King Snakes moniker with Phil Collins on drums!), along with the up-and-coming Fabulous Thunderbirds, to record new material for this exploitation film!
Forrest Gump (1994) is one of the most successful films ever made, winning Tom Hanks his second successive Best Actor Oscar (he won the previous year for Philadelphia) as well as claiming the Best Picture Oscar and many other awards and nominations, including several for music. A unique fable of American life from the 1950s to the 80s, the film blends comedy, drama, war, romance and groundbreaking special effects into a social and political portrait of the passing years, all seen through the eyes of the intellectually challenged but immensely likeable Forrest Gump. The soundtrack is a double album featuring 31 classic pop tunes plus a suite from Alan Silvestri's rich orchestral music, represented more completely on the companion score album.
From a novel by author Elizabeth Taylor comes the inspiration for Angel, the second English-language film by French director Francois Ozon. In many ways a throwback to the grand romances of Hollywood's Golden Age, Angel also features a wider range of sensibilities that would seem to attract attention from modern arthouse crowds. The story follows the life of young author Angel Deverell, whose force of will leads the audience on a journey from the imaginative aspirations of her youth all the way through her eventual death. A fierce personality for Angel and the story's willingness to toss in a tart now and then provide the film with spicy interest. Angel marks the fifth collaboration (since 2003) between Ozon and young French composer Philippe Rombi, who has shown the talent and promise of an international career that is yet unrealized. Without a doubt, Angel is the biggest spectacle to come out of Rombi's career as of yet, contributing to a belief that he very well could be an extension of (or replacement for) the late master of French romanticism, Georges Delerue. In many ways, Angel will be an absolute delight for fans of Delerue, mostly due to Rombi's unashamed, lyrical devotion to his three themes for the film.