Overall Impressions of Vocalists Solo Work (Hikaru, Kaori, Keiko, Wakana, etc)

https://youtu.be/YmzU_cdtHvg?si=hbOt1FN41DxiYRNH

Opening Up About My Vocal Injury and Why I Left the Classical Music Industry​


...from the perspective of a lady on YouTube who had a vocal injury and had to leave her classical performance career in a high pressure music industry.

I thought of sharing this because of our ladies, Hikaru and Wakana (she being interested in classical/opera), and the thoughts they must have gone through with the loss/changes in aspects of their voices, and having to wade through and eventually attempt tp reinvent themselves and accept what remained of their former natural voices.

In line with this, I have to say that I noticed Emiko struggled a bit with doing the top note in "black rose", probably being under more pressure to do it well than she would have had doing it in the studio (multiple takes, rest, ability to punch in/splice multiple takes).

She likes to sing with a lot of impact and do very high belts, so I just hope she regularly works with good vocal coaches and practices using her voice with lots of care so it serves her as long as possible.

I am also curious if the other ladies have had challenges with their voices over the years that they had to work through away from the public view.

Anyway, I felt a bit more conscious about their possible feelings and hopefully I can be more considerate when analyzing their future performances (especially the Kalafina live), while still stating my actual opinions and experience, whether I am delighted or not so pleased.
 
タ闇のうた (Yuuyami no uta)

Listening to the song again, it wasn't a bad song. It followed a dynamic/orchestration arc from beginning to end, as Kajiura's songs tend to do, and had some of the key changes she usually includes.

Keiko's actual vocal performance was part of the package of how the song was finalized. I think I can attest to how different FJ or Kalafina songs sound with a different lead vocalist or changes in the chorus singers for a YKL self-cover (just look at the YKL#21).

The "Ye, ye, ye, ye" part didn't pan out to my hearing. I feel it was an creative decision to incorporate Keiko's vocal styling on Chiaki's Demon Slayer theme vocalizations into another song but, as in the earlier song, she didn't have that required sharpness/edge and dissonant harmonics, so it sounded more nasal than intended. I believe those vocalizations should not go into head voice range at any point, which often happened to Keiko while traversing the melody. In my opinion, a Chiaki or KOKIA doing that part would give it that desired eerie effect and edge it was probably meant to have.

Alternatively, having a fuller FJ-style vocal stack (Yuriko on very high as well) would have elevated that part. Having a strong 4-part of counter-melodies would have extended the harmonics, especially with Yuriko's unique inflections and cutting edge. Keiko's voice doesn't have sufficient variance in style to thicken the distortion of the vocal stacking. I even think Kajiura's heavier voice added to that "ye ye ye" would have enhanced it, but again it's a Keiko-only-vocal song.

I believe if Yuuyami no Uta was an FJ song, it could have had a separate kajiurago section (some of Kajiura's most interesting divergences in a song's melody come from kajiurago) but, again, Kajiura was also writing it to be a Keiko-only track so she could perform independently of FJ, so Keiko sang all the parts in the studio track.

This is the audio of the instrumental so we can hear what the song actually sounded like without vocals added in. https://youtu.be/BGHRDljeoGI?si=EV8BO_AAeH4BhVtT. Listening to just this, I feel the song structure and arrangement sounds pretty good/stranded, and just needed some vocal elements to elevate it to be a better end-product.

I would personally like to hear a prime Hikaru cover of it, for that rockier vibe/edge. I think overall Keiko was too smooth/legato for the song.
 
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