tiny desk concerts JAPAN

It was pretty enjoyable, and it was interesting to hear such rawness from everyone, even the musicians. No filters, no chorus effect, no cleaned up voices, nothing.
POOPINIONS
-Homura: pretty rough tbh hue. LiSA was all over the place. She kinda overdid it with the
-Akatsuki no Kuruma: bretty good. YUUKA´s voice is still intact lol. Tbh, I wasn´t very excited about her being the guest for vol 23, but hearing her again kindled my excitement hue. Hope she has some new songs/ covers tho. Or at least perform Silent Moon.
-Sokyuu: good good, nothing outstanding. KAORI had a couple of hiccups at the end of each refrain.
-Alleluia: EMIKO IST VERY GUT. Loved the new intro and her lil improvs. I miss the additional harmonies during the refrain. My only complaint is YURIKO sounded a bit harsh in some parts.
-Parade: all gut gut.

Kinda wish they had performed an OST/Fiction song instead of Sokyuu hue. Mebbe Open your Heart with the 5 ladies?
 
Lorde-Kowz said:
YUUKA´s voice is still intact lol
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Back in YKLxmas I was honestly surprised that her voice was in such good shape still! And this time it just added even more sparkles to my awe and appreciation. The traces of age and maturity are there but the character of her voice telling the stories of YK songs has been so neatly retained I kind of felt like listening to the wonderful-past and beautiful-present her at the same time, so delightful...!

I think my heart will explode if she sings Daremo Inai Basho in the upcoming YKLs that I'll be attending. This isn't the best FJY song to me but it's special enough that I've long been dreaming of hearing it live with only Kajiura on piano accompanying her... :sohappy:
 
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grunty said:
@george1234 No reason to go to bili, unless they have a proper 1080p and you have an account.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/3025273/
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This was fun to watch and to hear their actual voices to a great extent.

0:00 LiSA's voice has gone through a lot, but she's still a 110% bundle of emotion and expression. She was slightly off-centre at the start, and her pitch wavered, but as the song went on she improved. I loved Kajiura looking back at her after the performance and waiting a beat or two. 💞
6:28 "Aktsuki no Kuruma" Yuuka's performance was solid. When she went for the top note in the chorus the first time she sounded OK in head voice. Later on with more spread vowels and the intervals up/down it was a bit challenging to navigate. I think the top note is in her passaggio or something because she struggled a bit to hit it cleanly, repeatedly. Kaori harmonized beautifully. At 9:48 they both synchronized their head movement to the same side which was so CUTE! It felt like their instincts just synched for that second. Watch again to see this.
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12:26 "The Azure Fanfare" started and harmonized beautifully, by Emiko and Yuriko respectively. LINO LEIA took the lead strongly and everyone did very well. This was the chorus of voices that Kajiura loves to hear.
16:32 "Allelujah" was really cool by Emiko. Love the lean back from Emiko to end the last long-held note, and the others flowing with her (singing is a full-body sport as Tara Simon would say!). The little musical outro by the musicians was my favorite in the entire presentation.
"Parade" was emotional and powerful. I loved the MC from Kajiura and how she weaved the words together to express her heart. This is why her feelings are so precious to her fans (iwhen she expresses them, in word or in melody.
 
At 9:48 they both synchronized their head movement to the same side which was so CUTE! It felt like their instincts just synched for that second. Watch again to see this.
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I noticed this too and found it cute, but TBH it doesn't look good as a GIF. I still prefer Yuriko as backing vocal for Yuuka as she is the one who was there for most of the CD versions. (her or Kaori Nishina)
 
kawaii Kajiura promoting her tinydesk appearance lol https://x.com/nhk_domo_nhk/status/2038557189074538645 :shy:( how can she be so cute at that age ? haha :D)

i forgot to say that another benefit of this unplugged live is actual strings and not the playback strings or electronic violin we usually get during regular lives the recent years. I dislike electronic violin because to me sounds like more like wind instrument (some kind of trumpet) than a string instrument like the regular violin sounds.
 
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george1234 said:
kawaii Kajiura promoting her tinydesk appearance lol https://x.com/nhk_domo_nhk/status/2038557189074538645 :shy:( how can she be so cute at that age ? haha :D)

i forgot to say that another benefit of this unplugged live is actual strings and not the playback strings or electronic violin we usually get during regular lives the recent years. I dislike electronic violin because to me sounds like more like wind instrument (some kind of trumpet) than a string instrument like the regular violin sounds.
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That's true about the strings.

I have to say that I was bummed by the choice to go with brushes by Sato. In my view, it felt like he couldn't play soft enough throughout with lighter sticks - I mean he is a rock drummer so used to hitting the kit heavier.

I say this because I've seen a lot of Tiny Desks and the drummers often use sticks - not sure of the grade of stick, or if there are any hearing issues (not monitoring), but I had the thought.

Maybe he could have used different items for different songs. So brushes for softer songs (Yuuka’s) and sticks for SnF.
 
Yes i was also weirded by that but yes maybe regulsr drummer equipment would overpower the other instruments ? Idk. It didnt really fit for some of the songs (akatsuki)
 
I watched it again in full (on @His_Cifnes prompting 🙏) and enjoyed it even more, with less complaints all around from me, even on the drum choices.

A thought briefly crossed my mind, that it would have been nice to hear Keiko’s voice within this context. Though we’ve heard her briefly sing impromptu, a cappella (at anime shows, though miked) and with/ without monitors before, but that’s usually been with Kalafina at different times (during interviews especially, where there's no sound setup).

We (or at least, I) haven't really heard FictionJunction sing fully acoustic and un-amplified before, like they did for this Tiny Desk. They otherwise always have mics and are using in-ears when performing or during on-stage/dress rehearsals, or at least using floor monitors (wedges) during rehearsals for lives.

No reverb (often a big part of the heightened perception we have of their voices in live videos) no playback elements enhancing sections, just human-produced sounds, blending and clashing together, in different ways.

We really got a sense for their vocal blends (who blended better with whom), and how challenging it is to blend 5-6 different singers with different styles and voices, as against 2 or 3.

Who is more used to singing unamplified (projecting their voice) and who isn't, who is restrained and who isn't (cough, Kaori 😁), and how their mic techniques and awareness are put to the test when their not holding the mics, and can't hear how they sound through monitors. Notice how they often had to lean back or turn slightly (Emiko with her big voice) to hopefully avoid blowing out the mic in the recording.

I think if we had more songs with just 2 or 3 singers (including lead) we would have had an even better appreciation for the vocals (I would have really be curious to hear a Joelle singing "Vice Versa" (with LINO LEIA backing her) or Kaori singing "Fake Wings" (with Yuriko backing her), in this setting.

Oh, and like I said before, a KOKIA or Kasahara, backed by Yuriko and Joelle, singing any song (acoustic version), would have been delightful, because they have the chops for true projection and precision, without amplification.
 
Lorde-Kowz said:
Mebbe Open your Heart with the 5 ladies?
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This is a good song choice indeed, both because it's solemn especially in the "Kyrie Eleison" chorus section (no belting required) the vocal blend would be stronger (due to the tendency to go choral/ singing in a Western language) and Joelle's smooth lead (please no Kaori, she may decide to go all out 😅).

MushiMushi said:
The traces of age and maturity are there but the character of her voice telling the stories of YK songs has been so neatly retained I kind of felt like listening to the wonderful-past and beautiful-present her at the same time, so delightful...!
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You're right. She sings it like she is the narrator of the story, and the emotion just fits.
 
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