Kalafina's 17th single "Ring your Bell"

I liked in the silence, I think I liked RyB actually better. ins is nice but it's really slow. I mean, I like dolce and prelude and those types, but this is weird for some reason. I know I stated that RyB may have been a slower song, but then she made it more upbeat, so I guess I am stating the wrong thing (sorry, forgot that word at the moment) but yeah... I am still looking forward to this single, I think it is better than most, even though I said I liked Believe better. Yuki still can compose great things like the Hanako soundtrack, so not sure why she can't for Kalafina and FJ. I mean, everyone has their own opinion of which songs are good, I still enjoy their newer ones, but yes have my opinions on certain ones too. I hope the B-Side is as great as Tsuioku, since I do really like that song. :dote:
 
I think the change in kalafina is undoubtedly a symptom of their newfound popularity. A new standard has been set and Kalafina/Kajiura is expected to meet it in order to keep the fans happy. I don't believe that kajiura has lost her ability to make new, interesting music as her latest soundtrack, HtA, is one of the best she's ever done. I do believe that she is disillusioned with anime and has given up on it.
 
@ritardando I never said they were bad, just weak in comparison to their counterparts in almost every occasion. I've enjoyed all of their a-sides up until the crapfest that was Heavenly Blue appeared, possibly with the exception of Hikari Furu initially, although I like it a lot more than I used to.

Looking back on the 'rate Kalafina's songs in order' thread, I only ranked Sprinter/ARIA and Hikari no Senritsu out of all their a-sides above rank 20, everything else is album songs or b-sides. I do like their a-sides (there's really only 5 or so songs I don't care for after all, and the only ones of those I actually hate are Believe and Heavenly Blue) but thinking more on it, Lacrimosa, Magia, Alleluia and Hikari Furu are the only four I'd class as being better than their respective b-sides, and the three of those that are on albums are all outclassed by album tracks. Hell, Hikari Furu is probably my least favourite track on Consolation with the exception of Mirai, so that barely even counts. Even with Sprinter, ARIA and Hikari no Senritsu which I mentioned above, the former two are outclassed by Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku and Serenato, whilst the latter is outclassed by Red Moon and nearly matched by Kyrie.

This is why I'm still hopeful for RYB's b-side even though I like RYB itself, I'm practically certain it's going to be better. The only real worry I have for their next album is by the time it finally lands it'll be full of mediocre a-sides. Hopefully they won't bother including Heavenly Blue as it's already been on the Best and seemed to be intended as a selling point for those who already owned Kala's discography, if so then I'll just have to deal with Believe. Whilst I don't think RYB or Misterioso are anywhere as good as a lot of their other works, I do still like them, so I wouldn't mind them being there although I'd prefer if Misterioso was skipped for something new.
 
I had a bit of a 'moment' when I listened to Believe the other day - I actually thought I was listening to Heavenly Blue! I couldn't work out which of the two songs I was listening to at the time (not being overly familiar with either tune didn't help...), which is something that's never happened to me before. I'm pretty used to artists with 'identities' of their own, as well as sounding harsher than I mean to because it's comparing them with their own standards (e.g. I thought Mono's For My Parents' album was weak. As in, their latest album is better to my ears, but it's still a great record when I compare it to similar bands). If their older songs are like walking around your home town with a lot of familiar sights and some unfamiliar ones, their recent singles are like walking down a street where all the buildings look the same. That's the best analogy I can come up with I'm afraid.

Since Consolation was released, I've had a bit of Kala Single Burnout and came to the conclusion that the singles are for the benefit of Kajiura's employers while the album tracks and b-sides are for the benefit of the fanbase itself. The only problem I see with that is that their highest-profile songs aren't their strongest and most varied, so new fans and casual listeners aren't necessarily hearing them at their best (or hearing a representative 'cross section' of their sound).

I'd be interested to hear though whether Yuki's feeling like she's writing herself into a corner, or has any other doubts or concerns. Those are the very things that she wouldn't want to speak openly about though! During rough patches, you only hear about them afterwards. It's usually a "yeah, *that* time was a bit tough and we had a rethink..." when they've already got over the hump and solved the problem. By which I mean, if we learn that she's getting writer's block or excessive interference from other people, we won't hear about it until it's sorted out and things are okay again.

I'm just going on my experiences with other artists - this sort of situation (no new album, formulaic output) is almost always followed by a 'reset' where they try something new and different.
 
This is a phenomenon that seems to happen with most bands, though. Often there'll be issues at some point, be it a patch where things don't work out as planned, they'll release a crappy album, change their style completely etc.

Really it depends on how it goes. Some artists tend to collapse after such a stage, be it that they disband or continue releasing mediocre music in vain hope that someone will still pay attention to them. Sometimes this can work for them as a new fanbase emerges for them and happens to prefer them for changing, whilst older fans will disappear. I've noticed such occurrences a lot with metal bands actually, it seems really common in that style of music. Others on the other hand tend to flounder around a bit, maybe release a bad album or two, then return to form later on with something truly amazing. Luckily in quite a few such occasions, even when they're in the 'bad' period, the releases are still pretty good, just not quite up to scratch.

The latter to me seems more like the stage Kalafina are at right now. They had a slight hitch when After Eden came out, but I wouldn't really call that a collapse as whilst it was flawed, it was still really quite good. As for now, this seems more of a slump. I'm hoping Believe was the bottom of this said slump and they'll come back out of it when the new album lands and the b-sides of Believe, the heavy positive opinions of the 2014 tour and Best lives and Yuki's HtA soundtrack are all signs that there is still something in the back working away like usual. The fact that the next album is taking so long is an interesting one and if it is indeed because Yuki's had artist block, that would explain a lot actually. It would explain the mediocrity of the SAO soundtracks, the recent Kalafina singles and the new tracks on Elemental. Hopefully HtA is a sign that she's starting to get over it, although such things can take time.

I still think some of this is down to the projects she's working on. I think she said at one point that she feels more compelled to write interesting pieces when she's writing for something she's interested in or enjoys? Rebellion was ambitious and had a lot of unique elements and the soundtrack is fantastic, as is KnGnN. SAO is generic as hell, so that would explain that. Aldnoah had some interesting ideas but ultimately it's a goddamn mess, whilst being asked to write songs for Fate probably isn't helping as it's not exactly what I would call innovative or unique. I've thought a lot that Kalafina would probably be better off if they stopped being related to projects and this recent string of insert songs really isn't doing much to change my mind on that.
 
Martin: I find myself humming Believe more than HB (since I don't like Hikaru's part in that song at all and I think my opinion is flipped with season's about the two songs) so I think it is different. While it is similarities yes, Believe is a lot slower than HB is. I think you maybe heard the two Wakana parts as similar? That's just me though.
 
At first, I thought I liked believe more than heavenly blue, but somehow these days it's the other way around. As for the similarity between them, I think it is totally apparent especially in melody of the first line of the chorus. When I first heard believe, the first thought that crossed my mind was "Oh no, this is a complete heavenly blue ripoff :desksweat:". @Liana_Ilia the Wakana lines that were very similar for me were 巡り来る時の中で出会った of believe and 憧れの住まう蒼い星のひかり of heavenly blue. At first I even had trouble remembering the melody and ended up mixing them up when I try to sing from memory. :glower:

Anyway, I finally got to listen to ring your bell (in the silence), but while I really liked the song, I didn't feel emotionally connected to it >_< Maybe it's because the episode ending was too abrupt. OTL And it sounds more overture than prelude imo.
 
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Twits of Yuki while watching FSN, about ring your bell ~ in the silence ~

梶浦由記 Yuki Kajiura ‏@Fion0806 Apr 18
なんだかねむれない……、(-_＼)(／_-)(-_-)゜゜゜

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
間違えた……イリヤさんでした。

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
まあ、この特別EDを書いている時点で当然脚本はとっくの昔に拝読して本編を見ている訳で、しらじらしい！と思われるかもしれませんが！でも実際動いてBGMついて声優様たちの迫真の演技でお届けされるとやっぱり見ててぜんぜん違うんだよ〜・ﾟﾟ・（/□＼*）・ﾟﾟ。イリアさ〜ん！

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
本日のEDは、Kalafinaのring your bell 特別ver.でお届け致しました………(ﾉ_-｡)。。。

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
。・゜゜・(>_<;)・゜゜・。

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
呆れた漢よ……………。

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
ばーさーかーーーー(>o<)。。。

urakaji ‏@FJukatsu Apr 18
いあうううぅぅぅぅ今回とてもこわい(ﾉ_･｡)。。。。。そしてイリアさん可哀想……。
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Seasonreaper said:
I still think some of this is down to the projects she's working on. I think she said at one point that she feels more compelled to write interesting pieces when she's writing for something she's interested in or enjoys? Rebellion was ambitious and had a lot of unique elements and the soundtrack is fantastic, as is KnGnN. SAO is generic as hell, so that would explain that. Aldnoah had some interesting ideas but ultimately it's a goddamn mess, whilst being asked to write songs for Fate probably isn't helping as it's not exactly what I would call innovative or unique. I've thought a lot that Kalafina would probably be better off if they stopped being related to projects and this recent string of insert songs really isn't doing much to change my mind on that.
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I've always assumed this.

I've sort of joked about it before, but it almost seems like a necessity. If Kajiura did her typical quirky weirdo music for some of these anime, it would just feel out of place and, even if the music would be enjoyable on a standalone basis, she wouldn't be doing her job right. I think there are people who can make pretty good soundtracks for these normal types of anime, but it's really not her strong suit. Her music needs an atmosphere, and there ain't no atmosphere to fit.

Unfortunately, it seems like anime is trending so heavily towards generic shallow stuff that I don't know if we're going to have many good opportunities in the future...

(also it sounds like I'm in the minority by not liking the B sides very much, huh)
 
She's defintely interested in FSN since she watches every episode and comments on twitter :P

if you dont like ring your bell doesnt mean she didnt make it with interest :)

and tsubasa was pretty generic too until Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations, the only "unique" part was that they were visiting multiple worlds. Yet, the soundtrack is perfect. So maybe the trouble lies more to the director than the plot ?
 
I agree there's probably a lot of truth in that. Cossette is an extreme example - there's a little note from her in the CD booklet stating that the story meant something to her on a persona level, which I figured was the reason why the music she wrote for it was so damned good (even if I seem to be the only other person who actually enjoyed the show itself...:hide:)
 
Cossette soundtrack is one of the best from Kajiura. I enjoyed the show as well.
 
I'll just leave some quotes here ;)
When composing theme songs, OPs and EDs, do you deliberately adopt those dramatic styles?
About this... An OP can be considered a show's overture. OP is the entrance to the work Moreover, most worldviews of animation works contain numerous differences from the real world. For example stories of other worlds. And I consider OPs an entrance to these worlds. OPs are signposts of thought, sending the audience from the real world into those of the works. This is the expectation I have for OPs. Having to stuff in various elements within so short a time... Yes, to give the audience a feeling of anticipation, a feeling of expectation about this upcoming world. This is precisely the aim for OPs.
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Then I guess bad OP=bad show? lol

How do you create instrumentals and other soundtracks?
Objectively speaking, soundtracks do not come from characters, but mostly from the background at that time. Therefore when writing soundtracks and other BGM, I will first ask the producers about the background.
The background of the images?
Yep. The story's background, also images in the animation right? That's right, the background of the images. For example, how vast a grassland in the animation is, this point must be considered when writing BGM. If it were live filming, there would be environment factors such as sounds of wind, tiny outdoor noises, and the like recorded into the work, while animation is totally devoid of such things. These must be created according to the work. If outer space then outer space, if grassland then grassland. Whether a small field or a large grassland, the difference in vastness, these are very important considerations when creating music. One must first catch the feeling of the background size and only after that start creating music.
Are there many composers like you who rely on backgrounds that much?
This is a first for me.
The script would definitely be provided beforehand, right?
Correct, it'll be provided even if I do not ask. The melody has to be impressive to remain in the audience's ears after all.
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I haven't really watched much anime YK composed for (only Tsubasa, Madoka, Knk, Cosette and FSN) so I can't really tell how true those old answers of hers are...
 
Yup she could have changed opinions in the meantime, also dont forget that tgere are time where she write only Op or ED for a show, so as long as she doesnt have much connection to the project it would be easier for her to make something generic. About the soundtrack apart from wheere she takes inspiration we also know that directors can make requests on how they want the music to be, and that Koichi Mashimo and the guy over RHH are the only ones who let her write whatever she wants.

Btw Kajiura pre-knk was known for making good music for bad shows so... ;)

I defintely recommend u to watch mai hime, pandora hearts, noir, madlax and one of the .hack ones
 
george1234 said:
Yup she could have changed opinions in the meantime, also dont forget that tgere are time where she write only Op or ED for a show, so as long as she doesnt have much connection to the project it would be easier for her to make something generic. About the soundtrack apart from wheere she takes inspiration we also know that directors can make requests on how they want the music to be, and that Koichi Mashimo and the guy over RHH are the only ones who let her write whatever she wants.

Btw Kajiura pre-knk was known for making good music for bad shows so... ;)

I defintely recommend u to watch mai hime, pandora hearts, noir, madlax and one of the .hack ones
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Judging from SAO, she's still keeping up the tradition. Only this time, the music isn't even good.
 
But she didnt made OP or ED for it, and she is refering to those. Sao doesnt really have much background scenes (alot of closeups). Hmm
 
Judging by their latest singles, which have all been for anime, I'm guessing that Kajiura's going for a approach to these songs to aim for a bigger audience, songs that more people will like, which by coincidence, are not the songs that the people here like.

Anyway, I absolutely adore in the silence. The start sounds really creepy to me, I imagine those jewellery boxes with the twirling ballerina playing that tune, it just creeps me out but in a great way, it's probably my favourite bit. Wakana's voice calms me, unlike in the original, where (unlike my previous comments) sounds like I'm listening to a siren.

I'm gonna go listen to RYBITS on repeat now.
 
So I've now tried twice to put in an order for this single (along with Believe) over on CDJapan, and both times the site has crashed on me as soon as I tried to log in... You know I'm starting to wonder if the universe is actively trying to prevent me from buying this.[/totally serious theory]
 
Lord Starfish said:
So I've now tried twice to put in an order for this single (along with Believe) over on CDJapan, and both times the site has crashed on me as soon as I tried to log in... You know I'm starting to wonder if the universe is actively trying to prevent me from buying this.[/totally serious theory]
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OK ITS NOT JUST ME

once I got through to the almost final page but then when I was trying to redeem some points it went all error again ;___;
I've been trying for the past three or so days now. Seriously, CDJapan, what's up
 
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