The Last Samurai marked master screen composer Hans Zimmer’s 100th score, and it was and is perhaps his best. The 2003 film starred Tom Cruise as a Civil War soldier who travels to Japan and becomes embroiled in the clash between the Imperial Japanese Army and traditional Japanese samurai culture, lending Zimmer ample opportunity to display his unparalleled ability to fuse orchestral, Westernized elements with indigenous motifs (in this case, utilizing the traditional Japanese taiko drum for action sequences and the shakuhachi  flute and koto for more pastoral passages). Fans of his work in The Thin Red Line will particularly enjoy this soundtrack, which, for being a score for an action film, includes long stretches of beautifully contemplative soundscapes (Zimmer liked it too, as “The Last Samurai Suite” appears on his new live album). We at Real Gone Music are proud to bring this soundtrack to LP for the first time, in a double-album housed inside a gatefold jacket and pressed in gold vinyl limited to 1000 copies. Highly recommended!

A1. A Way of Life

A2. Spectres in the Fog

A3. Taken

B1. A Hard Teacher

B2. To Know My Enemy

B3. Idyll’s End

C1. Safe Passage

C2. Ronin

C3. Red Warrior

D1. The Way of the Sword

D2. A Small Measure of Peace