| Jazz |
Summary: Owen Chen’s Eternal Wind reimagines Studio Ghibli classics with modern jazz, blending guitar mastery, cinematic storytelling, and Asian-American artistry.
The Ghibli Collection by Owen Chen: Expressive Jazz Meets Timeless Animation
Owen Chen is one of those quietly understated artists whose work carries a profound poetry that is immediately accessible yet remarkably intricate. A composer and guitarist, Chen’s music mirrors his personality: introspective, precise, and deeply expressive. While traces of Asian influence appear throughout his compositions, they never dominate, unlike the work of fellow musician Nguyen Le, who places his cultural heritage front and center. Chen instead weaves together threads of jazz, classical music, and world music, demonstrating mastery over multiple instruments and delivering surprises at every turn. His guitar work, in particular, is meticulously crafted, expressive, and strikingly refined.
His latest album, Eternal Wind, is a duo project featuring two guitars that reimagines the timeless stories of Studio Ghibli through the expressive lens of modern jazz. The album emerged from a year of performances at Brooklyn’s Red Pavilion and was honed through Chen’s long-standing collaboration with guitarist Andrew Cheng. Together, they channel the emotional gravitas, tenderness, and wonder of Joe Hisaishi’s iconic scores into a deeply personal improvisational language.
Chen’s artistic sensibility is closely tied to his instrumental choices. Comfortable on both guitar and violin, he imbues his compositions with a distinctive texture, allowing for subtle dialogues between the instruments. Supporting him is a cohort of promising young New York jazz musicians whose contributions shift fluidly between lyricism and audacity. The arrangements honor the original works while leaving room for spontaneity and discovery, creating an album that feels both reverent and adventurous. For Chen, Eternal Wind reflects the experience of an Asian-American artist synthesizing formative influences to craft a voice uniquely his own.
Perhaps the album’s most striking feature is its compositional architecture. The pieces pull listeners immediately into a contemporary jazz landscape, revealing Chen’s talent as a composer for whom music is a storytelling medium. There is a cinematic quality to his work, as he paints landscapes and characters with his melodies, offering listeners not just music, but immersive worlds. It is deeply expressive music, one that invites listeners to explore its textures, or perhaps to accept that its power lies not in mystery but in evocative imagery and nostalgia. Tracks like A Town With an Ocean View (From Kiki’s Delivery Service) reveal subtle European influences, while others sparkle with playful improvisation, keeping the listener continually engaged.
Albums of this caliber inevitably set high expectations for what comes next. Following a romantic and enigmatic project such as The Ghibli Collection, listeners will naturally anticipate more, a challenge that Chen seems more than ready to meet.
Owen Chen is, without question, an artist worthy of urgent discovery. His originality ensures that audiences will want to share his work, both for its poetic subtlety and its technical mastery. While European listeners may not find the album surprising, in the United States it carries a distinctly exotic and refreshing charm, a testament to Chen’s ability to bridge cultures while creating a sound entirely his own.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, March 11th 2026
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ETERNAL WIND is:
Owen Chen – electric guitar
Andrew Cheng – electric guitar, acoustic nylon string guitar (7), acoustic steel string guitar (8)
Cy Leo – harmonica (3,4,7)
Cole Palensky – tenor saxophone (2,3,8)
Carlin Lee – piano
Sean Hannon – upright bass
Anton Kot – drums
Track Listing:
1 One Summer’s Day 6:12
2 The Dragon Boy 4:51
3 Carrying You 5:39
4 Mononoke Hime 1:47
5 Ashitaka and San 4:02
6 The Legend of Ashitaka 3:10
7 A Town With an Ocean View 4:46
8 My Neighbor Totoro 4:04
9 Path of the Wind 5:02
(1, 2) from Spirited Away
(3) from Castle in the Sky
(4-6) from Princess Mononoke
(7) from Kiki’s Delivery Service
(8, 9) from My Neighbor Totoro
All compositions by Joe Hisaishi for Studio Ghibli Productions, except (3, 9) by Hisaishi & Hayao Miyazaki
Arranged by Owen Chen
Production Info:
Produced by Owen Chen & Andrew Cheng
Recorded & mixed by Edwin Huet at Pinch Recording, New York, NY
Assistant Engineer: Chris Stefano Pace
Recorded on August 17th, 2025
Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering, Ridgewood, Queens, NYC
Band photo by Mikhail Lipyanskiy
Cover design & layout by John Bishop