Interview of YOKO KANNO - Japan Vibes (Sep-Oct 2003)
——Japan Vibes对菅野洋子的一次访谈
Interview by Bertrand Rougier 翻译：Cherrypony （转自Ykfans fansite：ykfan.cn/bbs）
Born in 1964, Yoko Kanno has a bright personality, eternally enthusiastic. Without inhibitions or social taboos, she marvels of everything, and never leaves her camera behind. She takes pictures of boxes of pencils as well as cathedrals. Is this the source of her inspiration? Not completely. However, the composer confesses she would quit writing sheet music to become a photographer. Her main hobby is going to zoos to take pictures of small animals. Fortunately, for music lovers, this hobby takes sufficient little time so Yoko Kanno can continue to make our eardrums vibrate.
生于1964年的菅野洋子性格活泼，热情无限。她不顾教条和社会的禁忌，在各方面创造着奇迹。她随时随地都携带着相机，拍摄铅笔盒甚至大教堂。这是她灵感的来源吗？并不全是吧。然而，这位作曲家承认，为了成为摄影师她可以放弃作曲。她的主要爱好是到动物园里拍摄小动物。幸运的是，对于音乐爱好者来说，菅野洋子的这个爱好占用她的时间如此之少，以至于她仍可以满足我们的听觉之娱。On the professional level, Yoko Kanno has already composed most styles of music. She started her career composing music for ads and video games (she hates them). Then she was logically noticed by anime producers (Please Save My Earth, Macross Plus, Memories, Turn A Gundam, Brain Powerd, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Arjuna, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex...). Now, she periodically composes for live-action movies (two titles to her discography), bands and ads, of which the last dated advertisement was for the Coca Cola brand.
Eclectic and dazzling! These are two words which best describe the personality and the music of Yoko Kanno.
在职业的层面上，菅野洋子已经几乎涉猎了大部分的音乐类型。她最初为广告及电子游戏作曲（她讨厌它们）。然后她理所当然的被动画制片人所关注（Please Save My Earth, Macross Plus, Memories, Turn A Gundam, Brain Powerd, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Arjuna, Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex...）。现在她间或为真人电影（她的唱片目录中有两部）、乐队和广告作曲，她最早的广告配乐是为可口可乐品牌所做的。
兼容并蓄和耀眼夺目！这是最能概括菅野洋子性格和音乐的两个词语。J.V.: There are very few self-educated pianists.
Y.K.: That's true, I learned to play the piano thanks to an "assimil" [1] type of self-taught method. In fact, at my university, there weren't any music courses. It was a literary university. At that time, I wanted to be a novelist, but I quit the program after a week.
J.V.：自学成才的钢琴家是很少的。Y.K.：是这样的。我通过一种叫“assimil”的自学方法学会了弹钢琴。实际上，在我的大学里没有任何的音乐课程。我大学里学的是文学。在那时，我想成为一个小说家。但我在一周之后就退出课程计划了。
J.V.: Before composing for anime, you composed for small budget advertisements and video games.
Y.K.: Exactly, but I hated composing for video games. There are too many constraints, because of the limited space on the game cartridge. In addition, the music is rarely enhanced with that type of support. In fact, I don't like video games because their stories are too violent and too simple to inspire me. I don't like advertisements either. But I must admit that ads taught me something very fundamental: composing songs that appeal to a large audience, from a young girl to an old salaryman.
J.V.：在为动画作曲之前，你为小预算的广告及电子游戏配乐。 Y.K.：是的，但我讨厌为电子游戏作曲。因为游戏容量的限制，约束实在太多了。而且在这种支持下音乐是得不到提高的。事实上，我不喜欢电子游戏，因为它们的故事都太暴力或者太简单了，不足以激发我的灵感。我也不喜欢广告。但我必须承认广告教会了我一些基本的东西：做一些大家喜闻乐见的，从小女孩到老职员都会喜欢的曲子。
J.V.: If you ended up composing for anime, it's mainly due to the Victor Music record company.
Y.K.: There was a casting to choose the composer for Please Save My Earth. I auditioned and they asked me what kind of music I was composing for the OVA. In fact, it was all new for me, because I had hardly watched anime. And because Victor Music knew my work for advertisements, they sent me the manga, then I composed several music themes, and one of them became the main theme. After, Victor Music continued to call me. And little by little, my reputation grew.
J.V.：你得以为动画配乐，那主要是由于Victor Music唱片公司。Y.K.：当时Please Save My Earth需要选拔一个作曲家。我做了试听，他们问我将为OVA配上什么样的音乐。实际上，那对我是全新的，因为我几乎不看动画。因为Victor Music知道我为广告所做的配乐，他们就给我寄来了漫画，接着我做了几首主旋律，其中的一首成为了主题音乐。自那以后，Victor Music便继续与我联系。渐渐的，我开始出名了。
J.V.: Your style is extremely eclectic. Have you a favourite music style, like "baroque" for example?
Y.K.: No! I don't sort music by styles. Before composing, I never wonder about the style (pop, rock, jazz, techno or classical) I will use. My only goal is to obtain the most appropriate sounds for the subject I have to illustrate. That's the reason why I don't forbid myself to pass from a style to another within the same film or the same series. I'm aware that my way of working can be strange, but nevertheless, I take care to keep a unity when it is required. There is a lot of ways to do it and staying in the same music style is not an obligation.
J.V.： 你的风格极其兼容并蓄。你有没有最喜欢的音乐类型呢？比如巴洛克音乐？Y.K.： 不！ 我并不将音乐分类。在作曲前我从不考虑我将使用何种风格（流行，摇滚，爵士，电子或古典）。我唯一的目标就是找到最适合于我将阐释的主题的声响。这就是为什么对于同一部电影或电视剧，我允许自己在不同的音乐类型间转换。我意识到我的这种工作方式会显得奇怪，不过在必要时我会注意保持音乐的整体性。做音乐可以有很多方式，不必视风格统一为圭臬。
J.V.: I wonder where your inspirations come from, because you almost never listen to music?
Y.K.: At home, I have no CD player nor minidisc player. I only listen to music at the studio, it's true. Regarding my inspiration, indeed, I avoid asking myself the same question (laughs). But I think that, paradoxically, it is more the pictures that influence me, that guide me. The problem is that I'm often asked to write the music one or two years before the movie is released. So I asked for them to send me "production drawings". My imagination does the rest. I tell myself my own stories, invent my own pictures, let myself be influenced by the things I saw and I think appropriate to the subject. For me, music is exactly like an illustration.
J.V.：既然你几乎不听音乐，我想知道你的灵感是从哪来的呢？Y.K.：在家里，我没有CD机或者MD机。我只在工作室里听音乐。至于我的灵感，我尽量避免问自己同样的问题（笑）。但我认为矛盾的是，画面对我影响的更大，是它指引着我。问题是他们经常要求我在电影放映前一到两年前作曲。所以我让他们给我寄来“作品素描”。我用想象将它补完。我为自己讲故事，构造画面，让自己受所见事物的感染，然后我酝酿适合主题的音乐。对我来说，音乐就像一种阐释。
J.V.: The colour of language also seems to be important in your work. You don't hesitate to use French (Macross Plus) or Russian (GITS SAC), and even to invent new languages (Macross plus, Escaflowne) to illustrate your music.
Y.K.: It's a very personal question. All I can say is that I don't speak any languages except English that I learned working in studios. If I like music, it's because it can express as many emotions as words, and perhaps more... So, when I lack words in Japanese to express a feeling, I look for another language. And if I don't find one with the correct colour, then I create a new one.
J.V.： 语言的丰富多彩在你的作品中似乎也很重要。你毫不犹豫地使用法语（Macross Plus）或俄语(GITS SAC)，你甚至发明新的语言来阐释你的音乐。Y.K.：这是一个很私人的问题。我只能说，除了在工作室里学到的英语我不会说其他语言。如果说我喜欢音乐，那是因为它像文字那样可以表达许多情感，也许能表达的更多…所以，当我无法用日语表达一种情感时，就会在其他语言中寻找。如果找不到合适的传情达义的语言时，我就自己造一种。
J.V.: You told us about the influence that pictures have on you. But for the Cowboy Bebop movie, it's especially your music that influences the pictures.
Y.K.: You know, Shinichiro Watanabe granted a large importance to music. He's a huge music lover. But our relation is a little special. For Macross Plus, we didn't really work very closely together. But for Escaflowne, he gave me a lot of recommendations to match the setting of the scenes. However... I didn't follow any [of these recommendations]. We didn't stop bickering (laughs). So for Cowboy Bebop, he didn't ask anything special from me. He said to me, "Do as you want, but finish the main themes quickly". After all the scores were finished, it was I who gave him the recommendations about what kind of ambiance each song can illustrate. And... he didn't listen to me at all (laugh). When I saw the line tests of the movie, I was very surprised by the manner and the moments of where my songs were used. But it didn't disturb me, because Shinichiro succeeded to enhance his pictures and my sounds in a surprising mix, but in the end, very logical.
J.V.： 你告诉我们了画面对你的影响。但对于Cowboy Bebop电影来说，你的音乐却给画面以很大的影响。Y.K.：你知道，渡边信一郎对音乐很重视，他是一个铁杆乐迷。但我们的关系有一点特别。我们在Macross Plus中有很紧密的合作。但是到Escaflowne，他给了我很多与画面相配合的建议。不过…我没有听从任何（这些建议）。我们一直争论不休（笑）。所以到了Cowboy Bebop，他对我没有任何特别的要求了。他告诉我，“按你喜欢的做吧，但尽快完成主题音乐。”最后乐谱都完成了，是我给了他建议，告诉他每首曲子可以表现什么样的氛围。然后…他根本不听我的（笑）。当我看到电影的试映时，我对于我做的这些曲子出现的方式和时机感到非常惊讶。但那并没有让我不安，因为信一郎将他的画面和我的音乐不可思议的融合在了一起，不过归根结底，却是非常合理的。
J.V.: For Cowboy Bebop, the choice of jazz is rather astonishing. With the exception of Rintaro, before the series was released, there almost weren't any jazz fans in Japan.
Y.K.: After the war, Americans tried to import jazz to Japan. I think there was some kind of natural reject reaction. For me, what I liked about using jazz, was that I thought it tightly ties with the cowboy theme. Obviously, in a classic western and thus precisely historically dated, you can't use this kind of music. On the other hand, with Cowboy Bebop's universe, it was not a problem. The other reason is that there are a lot of different jazz styles: Old School, New School, Acid, Blues... I knew it allowed me to illustrate the diversity of Cowboy Bebop keeping coherence, a unity. But it is true, now in Japan, nearly no one listen to old school jazz. So I was very surprised that the Cowboy Bebop CDs had such a huge success.
J.V.： 在Cowboy Bebop中选择爵士风格是很令人惊讶的。在动画片未放映前，除了林太郎（译者注：[大都会]的监督，此动画大量使用了新奥尔良爵士乐的元素），在日本几乎就没有爵士乐迷。Y.K.：二战之后，美国试图向日本推广爵士乐。我认为日本人也许有种本能的抵触。对我来说，我喜欢使用爵士是因为它与牛仔的主题紧密相连。显然，一个传统西方的设定往往对应着明确的历史时期，这种情况下你便不能使用这种音乐。不过，在Cowboy Bebop的世界，这却是不成问题的。另一个原因是爵士有许多种风格：Old School，New School, Acid,blues…我知道它可以让我在保持风格一致和整体统一的前提下展现Cowboy Bebop的多样性。不过的确，现在在日本几乎没什么人听守旧派爵士乐了。所以我非常惊讶，Cowboy Bebop的CD竟能取得如此大的成功。
J.V.: You said that for you music is like a picture, an illustration. However, in animation, pictures and music illustrate themselves mutually. Can't one then bind the quality of animation and the way music is perceived, and vice versa?
Y.K.: I think we can. But it's the same for live-action movies. However, for animation, I think the link is stronger. We must consider that pictures and sounds are the colours of the same painting. If a colour is ugly, the whole will suffer from it. In animation, the link between the music and the pictures is stronger than for the movies. But it's for the best and for the worst, because it's sufficient that one of the two elements is bad and thus a disaster. On the other hand, in certain extreme cases of success, I think the transmitted feeling is matchless.
J.V.： 你说过对你来说，音乐就像一幅画面，一种阐释。然而在动画里，画面和音乐是互相阐明的。能不能将动画的特质与人们理解音乐的方式结合在一起呢？反之亦然。Y.K.：我认为我们可以。但这对于真人电影也是一样的。不过，对于动画来说，我认为这种联系更强些。我们必须考虑到，画面与声音是属于同一幅绘画的色彩。如果一种色彩是丑陋的，那么整幅画就毁了。在动画中，音乐与画面联系比电影更紧密。但这样就容易导致完美无瑕或全盘皆输，因为两个元素缺一不可，否则就足以造成彻底失败了。而另一方面，在某些成功的特例中，我认为两者所表达的情感是无与伦比的。”
J.V.: You often work with foreign philharmonic orchestras, whereas composers like Kawai or Hisaishi dread it. Why?
Y.K.: First of all, I think that if my male colleagues don't like to go and record with great foreign philharmonic orchestras, it's because they are too shy (laughs). They are easily impressed and prefer to send indications by mail rather than going themselves. Me, I like to meet people, to make friends. It's what I like the most about this job. Besides, because I'm always searching for new pictures and new sounds, to see a foreign country, to hear another language, to chat with great musicians is an opportunity that I will never pass for the world. Besides, my only regret about Cowboy Bebop, was not to have been able to record with Pat Metheny.
J.V.： 你经常与国外的爱乐乐团合作，而像川井宪次或久石让却很怕这样做。为什么？Y.K.：首先，我认为我的男性同事不喜欢与著名的国外爱乐乐团录音是因为他们太害羞了（笑）。他们很容易被打动，喜欢通过电子邮件发送指示而不是亲赴现场。我喜欢结识不同的人和交朋友。这是我最喜欢这个工作之所在。此外，因为我总是在搜索新的画面和声音，能了解不同的国家，听到不同的语言，与伟大的音乐家攀谈是我不会放过的好机会。对了，我关于Cowboy Bebop唯一的遗憾就是没能与Pat Metheny一起录音。
*1 An explanation of "assimil" is available here:
http://62.193.198.10/jspv3/uk/uk_h_methode.jsp--This interview can be found in Japan Vibes Issue 7, September-October 2003.
1．关于assimil的解释请看这里：
http://62.193.198.10/jspv3/uk/uk_h_methode.jsp--此访谈刊登于2003年9-10月份的Japan Vibes第七期上。
克服了懒惰的我，又用了一个晚上多一点的时间翻译了这篇访谈^^
Cherry会继续努力为YKfans们翻译访谈，请多多指教啊:)
原帖在这（也是我发的）：
http://ykfan.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=120&page=1&sid=tslu7d#pid1014
