So far the vol.12 lives have been spectacular for me. Day 3's lives were no different. I have never been to any of her soundtrack lives. I tried to get tickets for Day 2 and 3 for vol.9 but failed. So vol.12's Japanese Sealed and Soundtrack lives are new for me and they are all gold!!
I got back late after dinner and I am so tired so I have no intention of being detailed at all. I will just write a general impression thing which is likely to have spelling errors and grammar errors because I am tired. So please forgive those. (Actually, I ended up falling asleep while writing this post LOL. I won't write a lot I think because I don't think I have that much time.)
Seriously, for me, a Yuki Kajiura live is simply spellbinding. Once again I was enthralled. Today was the day for the musicians to shine and shine they did. They played with so much vigour and passion that unless you are an ardent fan of FictionJunction, you wouldn't miss the vocalists at all.
I love watching Akagi Rie at the lives. She is always jiving to the music. On Japanese Sealed day, I dare say she danced more than Keiko and Kaori too. LOL. Actually, all the musicians are really cool in their own way and I spend a lot of time changing my focus from one musician to another. I live observing them play their instruments. You can see just how much they love it too.
My seat was pretty good yesterday. I was six rows from the front, favouring Kajiura Yuki. It wasn't as central as I would have liked it to be but it was good enough. I could see everyone's face and I could even see their expressions. Sometimes the musicians on the right were a little obscured but I could still see them occasionally.
After several lives and so many years, I finally get a good and proper view of Kajiura Yuki. Her hair was a little long on one side and kept covering her face when she played the keyboard but you could still see her expressions every now and then when she played. I learnt last night that Kajiura sensei really loves music and I mean really, really, really loves music. Many times while playing, she would smile with joy. This smile isn't just a simple smile, it carried with it an expression of pure unadulterated joy. I love watching her play. If I wasn't seated where I was, I could never have seen her smile like that. Photos and videos could never capture that.
She's amazing. I have always known how much respect she gives the Front Band Members. She explained several times previously that she doesn't consider them as simply supporting musicians but as comrades who work with her to create music. But yesterday being soundtrack day, Kajiura sensei talked a lot more about them and their instruments. You can really tell how much passion she has for music and instruments and sound. She asked each musician what they liked the most about their instrument and they went on to talk at length about each instrument. With some of the instruments like the accordion and the uilleann pipes, she also talked at length about her first encounter with them. She is very animated and uses a lot of sounds to try and illustrate what she is trying to explain about each instruments strengths. She is like that too when she talks about her own music. It was really interesting for me. You can read all the interviews on paper out there, maybe even watch the video interviews but nothing beats watching her talk about music live. She seems to disappear into her own world for a while. I felt it was so inspiring and at one point when she was playing and smiling, I got a little teary thinking about how wonderful it was for her that she has found a calling and such happiness in life. :)
Of course, once again I didn't understand at least half of what she said. Some I made educated guesses, some were a little too fast for me to comprehend. The one I understood and remembered was what Junior-san said about what he thinks is the best thing about being the bass player. He said that the bass is like a cover. You may not notice it but it is always there. It is like the floor or tatami mat, it covers all the way. I can't remember the details but it should be something like that. I thought that that was a pretty good description of the importance of the bass. :) (Kind of made me think of Keiko's role in FJ and Kalafina, when she isn't singing her solo bits. :P)
Itou Eri was the special unannounced guest star yesterday. And she was quite awesome. She opened spectacularly with a Tsubasa song if I remember correctly. I don't think those who are familiar with the soundtrack day were particularly surprised. This isn't the first unannounced special guest vocalist on soundtrack day. Kajiura sensei even explained why she called it soundtrack day and not instrumental day because of the presence of the guest vocalist. I didn't mind of course. A lot of Kajiura sensei's music has choral elements and I actually think that she is one of the master's at using the human voice like an instrument in a song.
When she got all the musicians on stage with Itou Eri and they played Red Rose, it was so awesome, no words can describe the awesomeness for me. Itou Eri danced in a middle eastern kind of way...it was kinda cool. Everyone in that hall was really moving with the music. I liked Red Rose but this live version will forever be etched in my mind as the best version of Red Rose that I have ever heard.
I think that the vol.12 lives, so far, is a strong contender for the most memorable live I have ever been to. I may even manage to surpass the vol.8 live that I said in the questionnaire was my most memorable live previously. The vol.12 lives have been that good. Too bad there were no video cameras in sight. So far, we have no hope of getting a DVD/BD release. Let's hope that one day Kajiura sensei will release another best live CD collection that will include significant portions of the vol.12 lives. Hopefully, if she does, we could get the See-Saw song covers, the Pandora Hearts medley with just FictionJunction alone and more instrumental moments from soundtrack day, including the Itou Eri songs. That would be epic!
OK....I have run out of time but then I am not good at talking about instruments and music etc. I don't know the techie stuff. I just go by my feelings and I keep rambling. :P So it is time to stop. I need to get some stuff done. :)
I will end with this. I specially went to Tower Records when I was in Shinjuku to see if they had set up a display for Kajiura Yuki's newly released album. And they had. :)
But if you can afford it and if you live her music. Support good music so that we can get more in the future. :) I would love a vol.3 that's for sure. :)
FictionJunction 2010-2013 The BEST of Yuki Kajiura LIVE 2
Feel free to use the above link or whatever other links you prefer. :)
That's it for now. Cheers! :)
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