Night In The Galactic Railroad Train

Some reading this might remember this music from the Isao Tomita concert extract I posted a few weeks ago. It's from his Symphony Ihatov; and I do believe it might be he who makes a guest appearance in what follows, conducting this work.

This time the music is set in context, based on Kenji (sometimes written 'Kenzi') Miyazawa's Night On The Galactic Railroad, a full-length movie made in 1985, and the video here is very well done. A familiar performer also features in places, though the train and the landscape are perhaps the real stars here.

Stay with this: it's well worth it especially in full-screen and high definition – and it is a fitting video for Christmas Eve: we know that the Christmas Story was the first step on Planet Earth toward the Easter Story and the cross...

Isao Tomita and Miku

This sequence of excerpts is from a concert by the legendary Isao Tomita, and features Miku in all but the first piece, which I gather is from Symphony Ihatov. It is actually quite nice, and the items with Miku are reminiscent of a Parisienne or similar Bohemian place and time from a bygone age.

There is a full orchestra and choir, and it was clearly quite a significant event, from almost a year ago. The video uploader has incorrectly labelled this as being from THE END – the Miku opera – but it isn't, so just ignore that...