The soundtrack to the Japanese film 《坂の上の云》 will be released on November 18, 2009. It’s produced by Japanese score master Joe Hisaishi, and the theme song Stand Alone will be sung by Sarah Brightman in Japanese.

I happened to preview this album, and it’s the xianxia style I fell for on the very first listen. Why did 《相思引》 sound so familiar? Turns out a friend who plays 诛仙 had played it for me before. That reminds me — some of Liu Fang’s covers of classics are great too, and they really hold up. For a while I even had her version of 《青花瓷》 as my phone ringtone.

The game soundtrack Echoes of War: 战争的回响, produced entirely by Australia’s Eminence Symphony Orchestra, collects the full orchestral renditions of music from Blizzard’s blockbusters Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, and Diablo III, and is now available for online order. The idea came from the World of Warcraft tracks previously sold on iTunes, which unexpectedly won the support and purchases of many players. Players said that music is an important form of leisure in many people’s lives, and that being able to buy it openly let them listen to World of Warcraft music on their commute to and from work — until they got home and couldn’t wait to turn on the computer, log into World of Warcraft, and set off on their own epic journey.

It’s been a few days since I finished Chinese Paladin 3, but it still has a hold on me, and I don’t want to let it go. Those moving love stories have ended. All that’s left are scene after scene of vivid memories, image after image of bittersweet beauty. Those stirring background melodies keep lingering in my ears.

Sharing these two albums, SongBook 1 and Songbook 2. Even though they are French albums, most of the tracks are traditional Celtic folk songs from northern France.

Claire Kuo, the new-generation Taiwanese singer, follows up I Don’t Want to Forget You and The Next Dawn with another pure-love album, Singing in the Trees. The “The Next Dawn” creative team — lyricist Yao Ruo-long and composer Chen Xiao-xia — joined forces again to write her 2009 pure-love title track “Singing in the Trees,” and paired with her fresh new look (a short, sassy haircut), she kicks off yet another wave of ballad fever.

After the release of her second album Dear… I Still Don’t Know, Deserts Chang brought in her bandmates Algae, and the four of them buried themselves in the studio and the recording room for eight straight months. After grinding through that long production period, Deserts Chang’s third all-original album, City, finally hit shelves everywhere on May 22.

Sharing 棉花糖 – 《小飞行》 　　After more than 700 days of busking on the streets, witnessed up close by 150,000 people — if you’ve ever tried to fly for a dream, how else would you know you’ve lived like crazy? 　　Come aboard our flight, and you’ll find that your tears and your courage are far more precious and far bigger than you thought. 　　Welcome to the grand century of dreaming — no winning, no losing.

Two exciting things today, and here’s the second: Joanna Wang’s new album is out!