Vinyl Record
Eiko Ishibashi - Evil Does Not Exist
Eiko Ishibashi - Evil Does Not Exist on LP vinyl. A 2024 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 2024
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2024 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Evil Does Not Exist is an unusual soundtrack because the music is not merely attached to the film; it is part of the film's origin story. Eiko Ishibashi's collaboration with director Ryusuke Hamaguchi followed Drive My Car, but this project moved in a more reciprocal direction, with music and images shaping one another until two related works emerged: the narrative feature Evil Does Not Exist and the silent performance film Gift. Heard on its own, Ishibashi's score keeps that generative tension intact. It feels like music that knows it has already altered the image, not just accompanied it. The album is concise but deeply atmospheric. Evil Does Not Exist V.2 and Hana V.2 establish a world of suspended strings, patient movement and unease. Fether, Smoke and Deer Blood bring smaller gestures into focus, while Missing V.2 stretches the emotional field until the listener is left inside a long, unresolved question. The instrumentation includes violin, cello, guitar, drums and keyboards, with Jim O'Rourke contributing guitar and handling the final sonic shaping. Nothing is pushed toward melodrama. Ishibashi works through pressure, repetition and negative space, letting beauty and threat occupy the same breath. That restraint is why the album holds beyond its film context. The score mirrors the film's rural setting and ecological anxiety without turning into simple pastoral music. It carries water, trees, human intrusion and moral ambiguity as textures rather than slogans. For listeners who came to Ishibashi through Drive My Car, this record deepens the case for her as one of the most quietly radical contemporary film composers: precise, patient and willing to let silence do serious narrative work.
Evil Does Not Exist matters because it blurs the boundary between soundtrack and originating artwork. Ishibashi's music helped shape the project rather than arriving after the fact, and the album preserves that unusual exchange. It also confirms her film work as a continuation of her experimental practice, not a separate commercial lane.
This is a strong Eiko Ishibashi piece for collectors who want contemporary soundtrack albums that stand on their own. It pairs naturally with Drive My Car, The Dream My Bones Dream and other modern scores where restraint matters more than spectacle. Its appeal is in atmosphere, tension and the feeling that something remains deliberately unresolved.
Minimal, tense and pastoral-modern soundtrack music with strings, guitar, keyboards, drums and long-breathed silences that balance natural beauty with quiet dread.
Recommended for: Fans of Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film work; Collectors of modern minimalist and art-cinema soundtracks; Eiko Ishibashi listeners drawn to her most restrained writing.
What year was Evil Does Not Exist released as an album? The soundtrack album was released in 2024. How is it connected to the film? Ishibashi's music was central to the project's development with Ryusuke Hamaguchi, leading to both the narrative film and the related silent performance work Gift. Can the soundtrack be enjoyed without seeing the film? Yes. The album works as a standalone listen because its tension, pacing and instrumental detail create a complete atmosphere on their own.