Ushio composed the music for A Silent Voice, a film about a deaf student and the boy who bullied her. The score is built from the inside of the premise: muffled textures, processed piano and sounds recorded from unusual positions, so the music approximates a hearing experience rather than commenting on one.
He is a Japanese musician who works in electronic music under another name alongside his scoring, and he approaches each project by finding a physical or conceptual constraint to compose within. He records unusual sources directly, including instruments played incorrectly on purpose and rooms recorded for their noise, and processes the results heavily.
Recurring subjects: perception, scores built from a concept rather than from a melody, and electronic texture used emotionally. His work is minimal and often uncomfortable, sitting close to sound design, and he is willing to let a score be barely audible where a film would tolerate far more.
His scores for animation about adolescence, sport and transformation are among the most distinctive in the medium, and his work on a violent horror series brought his approach to a much larger audience. He is regularly cited as evidence that animation scoring can be genuinely experimental.
For listeners who want scores built on an idea rather than on a tune. Suited to anyone who watched the deafness drama, and to those interested in electronic composition applied to narrative.
