Kalafina's "to the beginning" 2:25min Sample

(take a listen while you can... the sample's not mine and maybe taken down anytime)

It's 4am and I can't quite sleep now.  I woke up a little while ago after crashing out on the couch.  To try and while away some of the time I went surfing and I found this!!! A sample recorded from the Kalafina Club radio program. So now, I don't have to try and jump through hoops to catch it on Tuesday night. I've been trying to do it for two weeks but have been stuck at work till 1030pm to 11pm a lot lately... :(

Anyway... happily enough... here we have it, a really decent size sample of the song. :) The full version won't be out for sometime yet.

On first listen... I can't say it's instant love for me. It's kind of not Kalafina-ish. Seems like Kalafina is moving from the dark side to the light? It seems faster paced and brighter... maybe a bit more j-pop-ish then their previous songs which perhaps makes it some what unusual for Kalafina to be singing it, although it is not entirely inconceivable for Kajiura Yuki to have written a song like that.

While perhaps not ground breaking or experimental in anyway for a Kajiura Yuki song, it's still a pretty nice song and quite radio friendly. So while it may not be instant love like "magnolia" was for me, this song is still a very listenable Kajiura Yuki composition because of the layering and the harmony which is usually the signature portion of most Kajiura songs written for and performed by Kalafina and FictionJunction.  And since this is a big part of why I like Kajiura's music, I will probably always be partial to Kajiura's songs which have a nice amount of layering and harmony.

I like what I've heard of it so far. It probably will not end up as one of my favourites but it's still a likeable song. It's not hard to digest at all, unlike some of the songs on the "After Eden" album. I'm really looking forward to listening to the whole song when it's released in April.

Alrighty... time for me to try and go back to sleep again even if it means tossing and turning on the bed for a bit... it's been really crazy at work and I'm really tired... and I intent to go to work later today so I will need more serious shut eye asap.... good night y'all. :)

Kalafina After Eden Tour - Goods & stuff

An awesome surprise was waiting for me when I got home today.  When Itsuko told me that she was going to go to Kalafina's After Eden Tour Live in Shibuya, I asked if she would pick up some Live goods for me.  I asked if she would buy me the pamphlet, the poster and the T-shirt.  So I shouldn't have been surprised at the contents of today's package except that it contained more than that. :)

I knew that Itsuko wasn't going to send the poster because she's afraid that it may get crushed but she did say she would send me the Tour pamphlet and the T-shirt.  What she added was two One Piece phone straps (cool... I am a fan :) ), yet another streamer (cool too... this time gold, instead of silver)... BUT  more importantly... *drum roll* ... she also sent me the Kalafina Making Booklet ~ After Eden" Special" LIVE 2011 ~ booklet and it's way cool!!!!  :)  This booklet is only available for sale for FJ Club members and I didn't even know that it existed since I haven't been following the news that carefully.  This was an awesome surprise and I'm glad Itsuko got it for me even though I had not asked her to. :)

Anywayz, here you go... a short write-up of some of the items.  Enjoy... :)

Kalafina Making Booklet ~ After Eden" Special" LIVE 2011 ~

This is a full colour 17 page booklet printed on nice quality paper.  It is also a photos only booklet except for titles, headings, a short handwritten message from each of the vocalists and credits.  This retailed at the After Eden Tour Lives  for a 1000 yen and is only available to FictionJunction Club members who must produce their club membership in order to purchase them.

I shot a few photos of the booklet.  The pages mostly consist of the trio and the band members in rehearsals and one page right at the end of the trio right before the Live began on the 25th Nov 2011.  Each of the girls also gets a two page spread of photos which concentrate on them only.  The first photo below, after the photo of the cover, is the Keiko centric spread. :)



Kalafina After Eden Tour 2012  T-shirt

Here are the photos of the t-shirt.  The first photo is of the front of the shirt, the second is the back of the shirt and the last photo is a CU of the design on the front of the shirt.  This shirt is nice, it's thicker then all the previous Kalafina concert t-shirts I own and I really like that. (edit: 13th March 2012 - the shirt is now available on CDJapan, here is the link)




Kalafina After Eden Tour pamphlet

Although they called this the pamphlet (パンフレット), there is certainly nothing pamphlet-like about this item at all.  This is pretty much a photo book and a very nice one too.  This seems like the standard hardcover book binding.  The cover of the of the book has a very, very slight embossed texture which you can barely feel but the texture looks more pronounce because of the choice of the printed pattern on the cover.

The quality of the paper inside is really very, very nice.  Most of the photos are printed on heavier paper than most nice quality photo books.  The binding of this photo book combined with the thickness of the paper made it hard to open the book and lay it flat which means that in order for me not to ruin the binding, I had to shoot the photos of the insides of the book with the book not fully opened.

The book consist of 40 pages, if I counted them correctly.  The pages are not numbered.  Most of it consists of photos from two or maybe three photos shoots which may or may not have been done in the same day.  Two of them are at outdoor locations with the third quite possibly in the studio.  All these photos have been treated to try and give it a more vintage look and all have been heavily tinted with either a greenish / bluish or sepia tone.

There are also 6 photo pages in the book which are not part of the stylized shoot that was done for this photo book.  They consist of photos from what I think is the After Eden Special Live on the 25th Nov 2011.  There is also a short foreword by Kajiura Yuki and a page of text each for each of the girls, a page of credits and one more page of text, accompanied by photos, of the musicians that played at the Lives.
Overall, it's a pretty nice photo book that should please most fans of Kalafina, although some may find the 3500yen price tag a little on the high side. (edit: 13th March - the pamphlet is now available on sale at CDJapan, here is the link)



Also, for those who want to try and purchase the t-shirts, the pamphlet and Kalafina Paper etc.  The FictionJunction Club website has announced that they will be available on HMV Japan online.  HMV Japan does ship worldwide.  I have never used them but here is the link if you are hoping to make a purchase.  Click me. (btw... the goods are all sold out at HMV Japan, you can try CD Japan, they may still have stuff)

Also, don't forget that the Blu-ray and DVD of the After Eden Special Live will be released in March and their new single "to the beginning", the opening theme for Season 2 of the Fate/Zero anime will be released in April.

For your convenience, here are the CD Japan  links again.  If you wish, you are welcomed to use them.  If you can afford it and you're a fan, please purchase their products in support of them and Kajiura Yuki.

"to the beginning" - direct links to the product pages:
Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips DVD)
Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips Blu-ray)
Music Anime Limited edition (with different? video clips DVD)
Regular Edition

After Eden Special Live - direct links to the product pages:
blu-ray
dvd

Alrighty... that's it from me for now... off to bed. :)  Good night. :)

JRock Showcase- a-sketch special - Weaver / Applicat Spectra

http://www.jlive.asia/
- Sgd48 VIP, Sgd18 general standing

What my positive experiences at Kalafina lives and at the anisong event at AFA11 last year has given me is a real taste for live music events. In general, I am quite crowd adverse and never really liked paying the crazy expensive prices many of the concert tickets in Singapore can sometimes go for.

But for some strange reason, after seeing the poster of the Kalafina "Red Moon" Live in Hong Kong and knowing that they were so close yet so far away, I was filled with this obsession to see them live.  And so it was, in 2010, I somehow managed to plan my second visit to Japan and my first Kalafina live experience at the "Kagayaku ...." live.  That positive experience led me to brave the crowds at the Anime Festival Asia, an event I avoided previously because I don't like crowds, and it was there that i really fell further in love with watching Kalafina live. And it was also then that I fell in love with watching Angela live and perhaps it was at the final night of the anisong events at AFA11 that I really grew to appreciate the live event.

Hence, admittedly, I have a secondary agenda for getting tickets to watch Weaver and Applicat Spectra live.  Yes, it is on a Tuesday which is very inconvenient for working folks like me and I suspect that even the VIP seating is free sitting which I hate, but still, I am going.

If I am not wrong, the organizers of this event are the same people or some of the same people that organized AFA and they have promised that their first J-Live event is only a taste of things to come. While I was less than satisfied with the scope and scale of the festival itself last year, I did think that the anisong events were really pretty good and the stage events were good too. My reasons for going to this event are less for Applicat Spectra, which I actually rather like, and more to support anisong, Japanese music, anime and Japanese entertainment in Singapore.

Japanese music has had a following in Singapore for as long as I can remember. The size of this following changes in size depending on what's in and what's not in Singapore. I do feel though that in the last 5 years, or maybe even more, Japanese music hasn't fared as well in Singapore as several other types of music. Singapore and South East Asia were just not major concert destinations for Japanese bands, musicians and singers. Japanese CDs, dvds etc were also quite expensive compared to music and media from virtually everywhere else.

Perhaps J-Live can change that. The times, they are a-changing, and Singapore and the region has become more prosperous and quite able and willing to pay for events like these. If my and my four other friends' Sgd48 can in some way encourage more acts to come down, then I am happy to spend that money.

Perhaps... just maybe.... if they could somehow bring down Kalafina, FictionJunction and Kajiura Yuki for a live that includes no other artists.... I know I and quite a few other friends would be over the moon with joy. So yeah... my agenda for going for this event is as a show of support, not just for Applicat Spectra but also for future events which I hope will include not just my favourite vocal units but also Angela and other bands and singers I have yet to discover and experience.

So here's hoping this live will also be a wonderful experience and a nice appetizer before my trip to Tokyo and my first FictionJunction live. :)

Kalafina covers "Nowhere" from Madlax

Got this off youtube... thanks for posting it up. :) (note: am not sure how long this clip will last on youtube but if it's gone... sorry.)

Last year, before Kalafina's After Eden Special Live at the Tokyo Dome City Hall, they also performed live at the Animax Musix Fall 2011 at the Yokohama Arena.  If I had known that earlier I would have made plans to go to this event.  But unfortunately, I had already purchased my plane tickets and too many things were already in place that it made extending my leave and changing all the travel plans somewhat daunting and I wasn't prepared, nor did I have the time, to change things around.  To this day, and after watching the above video in particular, I still sort of regret not trying to go for it.

I've always wanted to attend one of the big anisong events in Japan because their concert venues are huge and it looks like so much fun.  The Yokohama Arena, which hosted last year's Animax Musix Fall, can take a maximum capacity of 17,000 people and is one of the larger concert venues in the Kanto region.  The stage design for the Animax Musix Fall 2011 was also really quite cool as it brings the performers quite up close and personal to the audience.  Just look at all that energy in the above clip and how close Hikaru and Wakana get to the audience at one point in the video clip.

"Nowhere" was originally sung by Nanri Yuuka during her FictionJunction Yuuka days, or at least during the days when she was known as FJ Yuuka.  Since it was originally sung by an FJ member, any fan of Kajiura Yuki would know that the song was written by Kajiura and once again Kalafina covers a song written by their very own music producer.

Their cover of See-Saw's "Anna ni Issho Datta no ni" was one year ago at the Animax Music Fall 2010 and it was, in my opinion, a very successful cover version as I liked it as much as and, depending on my mood, sometimes even more than I liked the original version sung by Ishikawa Chiaki from See-Saw.  I liked it so much, I still hope to this day that by some miracle, Kalafina will do a studio version of their cover of this song.

"Nowhere" is perhaps, musically speaking, a less successful cover than "Anna ni Issho Datta no ni".  Musically speaking, I can't say that I like the Kalafina version  more than FJ Yuuka's version.  That's not to say that Kalafina sang it poorly.  I actually think they acquitted themselves very well given their punishing schedule since the release of their 3rd album.  The trio have been so busy with events that they can't possibly have had a great deal of time perfecting songs that aren't their own, especially with all those "After Eden" lives looming in the horizon.

While it's not as polish a performance as "Anna ni Issho...", Kalafina makes up for that lost of smoothness with a great deal of raw energy, enthusiasm and perhaps what I sense is a pure joy of being on stage, living a dream and singing their lungs out.  They seem more intent on trying to convey their love for music and their delight at being able to sing at this event than trying to get everything musically correct. Of course they weren't throwing everything to the dogs either, since they sang in tune but they sometimes sounded a little more like excited, sometimes even slightly breathless, young singers at their first big gig than professional singers giving a flowing and sophisticated performance.  It is this rawness, this joyousness, this desire to reach out and express their passion for their craft that I think makes Kalafina's version of "Nowhere" a pretty damn good version of one of Kajiura Yuki's most popular compositions.

This is what I like the most about watching lives.  I love watching singers that really try and reach out, touch you and connect with you.  It's the same reason why I really like watching Angela live.  Seriously, Atsuko sounds way better in her studio versions.  She sacrifices some enunciation and doesn't always sound that accurate to her studio versions at the lives but Angela makes up for all that by being incredibly entertaining live.  They really seem to want you, the audience, to have a good time and if it means that they sound a little less good because they are too busy jumping around like energizer bunnies, then so be it.

I really do feel that Kalafina has come a very long way since their first stage appearance and even since 2010 when I first saw them live at the "Kagayaku..." live in Dec at the Lemon CC Hall in Shibuya.  Back then, I really did enjoy that live and it made me want to see them live again.  Even so, they seemed a little inhibited, a little bit too cautious perhaps.  However, by AFA11 and at the "After Eden" Special Live, I feel that all three of them seem to care less about getting everything perfect but seem to enjoy the experience much more and in letting go, they seem able to soar much further than before. Even till today, I still feel that Keiko seems to live for the Lives more than Hikaru and Wakana do but that said, the latter two aren't as far behind Keiko as they previously were.  Hikaru in particular has blossomed so much more on stage in the last year or so.  She's usually the shyest and the most inhibited of the three but you can see her enjoy herself so much more than she did before and this kind of happiness can be conveyed to the audience.

So after all that... do I like Kalafina's cover of "Nowhere"? :)  Yes... I do, I like it lots.  Musically speaking, FJ Yuuka's studio and live versions are superior to Kalafina's but it is Kalafina's youthful and joyful performance of "Nowhere" that gives me this feeling... the feeling that music "gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life and to everything" (Plato?))  Hence, why I am certain that sometimes, when in certain moods, similar to my feeling for Kalafina's "Anna ni Issho...",  I too will like their "Nowhere" more than FJ Yuuka's. :)

And it is really Kalafina's and Angela's fault that I am hooked on lives. :)  I've watched several concerts in the past, some by singers that I really liked too, but none have made me hunger for more.  So I blame them because now I will be going to watch FictionJunction live and will also try and watch L'arc en Ciel, Weaver and Applicat Spectra when they come to Singapore. :)

Gosh... look at the time... time to catch some shut eye.... tomorrow is likely to be a long long day at work... :(

Next up... I really hope to try and write up something about the Tan Dun concert I attended about 2 or so weeks ago... but for now... oyasumi. :)

Kalafina Fate/Zero S2 theme "to the beginning" short snippet

(note - embedded video is disabled by request on this video... but you can still view it on youtube through the link)

Another short post for now... am hoping to sleep early tonight... have been quite tired recently... think I am a bit sleep deprived right now. :(

BUT... I really wanted to write about this.  A short 2:45 minute clip was posted online yesterday.  This clip is from either the programme itself or a promo for the programme (?) called "New World Music".  Whatever the case, what is of interest to us Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina fans is the music. :)

Kalafina sings a capella at the opening and ending of the clip and it's SUGOI!!!!! They open with the first part of "storia" and they sound perfect to me and look so happy singing it, it makes me want to sing along.  They end with what I think is the "New World Music" theme song maybe?  It all sounds so good a capella.

And the best part about this clip is that at approx 1:23, there is a little snippet of "to the beginning".  This recording is from the Shibuya concert on the 4th of this month  The audio is pretty low and you can't really hear the instruments especially with the VO overlay-ed on top of the music but it's still better than nothing. I can't really tell very much from the snippet but it sounds kind of epic and probably quite fitting for season 2 of the Fate/Zero anime.  This portion of the song seems to favour Wakana and I can hear Keiko quite clearly in the background but can't really hear Hikaru too well but both seem to be singing in support of Wakana at this portion of the song.

I really can't wait for the single to be released.  I've already pre-ordered the Limited Edition First Press version with the blu-ray disc as well as the Limited Edition Anime edition. :)

If any of you are interested, you are welcomed to used the following pre-order links to order from CD Japan if you wish.

Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips DVD)
Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips Blu-ray)
Music Anime Limited edition (with different? video clips DVD)
Regular Edition

K.... now... I am going to prepare for bed. :)  Good night.

Kalafina - new single in April :) AWESOME!!! :)

Woohoo... Kalafina will release a new single in April.  Itsuko attended today's Live in Shibuya and said that Kalafina announced that they will be releasing a new single in April.  They also performed that song at the Live tonight.  Lucky Itsuko, she got to hear it. :)

It's also been confirmed on their blog by a Kalafina staff member that this song, called "to the beginning", will be used as the theme song for the 2nd season of the Fate/Zero anime.

 The single will be released on 18 April while the  2nd season of the anime will begin airing on 2nd April. 
For this singles release there 4 different types of packaging, if I understand it correctly, the four versions will be:

Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips DVD)
Limited Edition, First Press Edition (with video clips Blu-ray)
Music Anime Limited edition (with different? video clips DVD)
Regular Edition

In addition, the usual postcard freebies will also be given out and the version one gets will depend on where the purchase was made.  There will also be additional postcards from the Fate/Zero anime available in limited quantities. 

Also, for those who make their purchases from certain EC sites (I think it's online stores), there is also a limited number of card size Kalafina and Fate/Zero calendars to be given out.  I think there are two different types for Kalafina and one for Fate/Zero.

Looks like Sony is making a pretty big push this time round.  I'm really hoping that video clips from AFA11 and from the just concluded tour will be included and not just the PV of the song.  It would be a huge waste of a blu-ray to just have the PV.

Also, as is their usual practice, there will be a special Kalafina Live titled "to the beginning" to celebrate the release of this single.  The Live will be at the NHK Hall on th 16th July.  :)  Yay... but I don't think I can go. :(

Oh joy joy joy. :)  I am completely looking forward to this release.  I'm most likely going to order the Limited First Press Edition with the Blu-ray and probably the Music Anime Limited Edition as well.
Since the single will be release in April, I think it's likely that they'll be singing this song and promoting Fate/Zero when they visit the Anime convention in Bonn in July.  Their visit to AniMagic was announced on their blog yesterday.  I'm not surprised, it seemed likely that they will visit Europe this year since they mentioned that their next target was Europe in the Animyu magazine interview.  I'm hoping that they will still have space in their schedule for a visit to Singapore this year though. :)  Germany is just too far and too expensive for me but I am happy for fans in Europe too... even while I feel envious. :)  I'm also hoping that they will throw another concert in Nov or Dec this year because I'm likely to make another trip to Japan then.  Sachiko may be returning to Japan for a long vacation and it's been 5 years since we last met and I would really like to meet her again... so am hoping to plan that trip and include a Kalafina concert too. :)

Too bad I won't be in Japan in April... I won't have any opportunity to participate in any of the special events related to the release of this single. :(  But ah well... I will have attended the FictionJunction concert by then... I shouldn't be greedy. :)

K.... I gotta go for now... I have been very busy at work and have neglected to do several personal things because I've just been crashing out immediately after dinner.

Maybe if I have time tomorrow night, I'll write up a little bit about a Tan Dun concert I attended last Saturday.

Good night. :)