I love love love Hikaru's power,intensity and husky tone, Keiko's energy,stability,powerful lines,but Wakana's strong,clear,melodic and beautiful vocalisation (aaahhs parts) especially THAT AMAZING HIGH NOTE @2:06 steals the performance for me
Enjoy your expression of the differences in their vocalizations, and I agree with them. I know Wakana hit that high note but the section was also supported with backing track (I think of Yuriko Kaida's voice) to create that fuller (doubled) vocal effect and also harmonize. Notice as that section proceeded after Wakana stopped the backing track continued in the background giving maintaining that haunting / ethereal feel.
5:29 Hikaru is really and truly a talented vocalist. She can sing many kinds of vocalization. She sometimes sings like a rock vocalist or an Enka"演歌" singer. Amazing!
Versatile indeed. I think it shows a varied musical intake growing up as well. She sang with distortion at times and was often changing aspects of the vocals or just their delivery in different lives, experimenting with different ways of emotional expressiom.
Out of any part of this song, my always-and-forever *FAVORITE* part is 2 minutes into the song, with Keiko on main vocals. It's not favoritism -- blame Yuki Kajiura deciding to ask Miss Kaida (in the studio) to help accentuate that *chilling* mood-change!! And I really have been studying this song; I keep forgetting that Hikaru is the versatile girl. Like, with the (to-be-honest, tenor) vocals during Keiko's part, I thought that Hikaru would sing main while Keiko did her *thang* as the trademark alto of all of freaking Japan!! But Hikaru helped carry fabulously. Wakana? Fabulous. But when are they not *ALL* fabulous. (Rhetorical question; we all know the answer, love or "hate" them.)
I love your expressive description. This song is such an upbeat delight of a song. As a Japanese commenter said on another version of this song on RU-vid, Yuki Kajiura knows how to combine light and dark (and I would add fast and slow, high and low) and make it just work! I really love Hikaru in these songs and always enjoy hearing her harmonize low with Keiko, with her gentle, low-volume, warm sound. One of the best parts of Yuki is how she handles the handing off and switching of parts from harmony duets to the part to instrument breakdowns and all that!
Jehraldeen If you haven't known yet,that vocalisation/improvisation/adlib (or whatever people call it) which started around 1:42 was originally sung by Yuriko Kaida in the recorded version. The other Wakana's parts in this live version are all hers in the recorded version.That reminds me of FJ's Yuki Elemental Tour, in Gaika,Yuriko took Wakana's vocalisation parts,and didn't sound as powerful as Wakana's too.Interesting,I guess it's one of her strengths that really drew me into liking Wakana as a great and talented vocalist.
Despite the sound, Yuriko Kaida has been backstage before (in stage rehearsal videos), for Kalafina (and other projects such as Yuuka), and so I'm just thinking she's there. It sounds, to me, less processed than the studio version.
Keiko is a contralto. so yeah she has a really low range, which is usually shown in there slower songs, its not nearly as low in their songs like this one.
Now anybody tell me how should I describe Kalafina's music direction to people I'm trying to introduce it. Except "fucking amazing" is a legit style now :)
zulfana desnatya imama :) when I first time heard "hikari no senritsu" (something like 4 years ago too :) I literally dropped a tear. I wasn't prepared for the song to be THAT emotional :)) Have you find out "Alleluia" already? It's really good (obviously :)
Ivan Sherbinin of course :) I am trying to be always in the first row of knowledge when it comes to Kalafina, LOL. since they released "Alleluia" around summer last year, they have released another two singles, "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" and "Heavenly blue" (this one is still PO only). "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" single even has three tracks, which is pretty rare because usually Kalafina only has one (or mostly two) track when releasing a single. if you haven't listened to them, I'd suggest you to do so.. it's bliss for your ears :)
Wakana is great like any other sopranos but for keiko shes got a fucking awesome alto range! Most girl can sing high notes but rarely for low notes! If I were to ask who is the best among the group id go for keiko, trust me if you' re a singer appreciating her range this much is not confusing at all. I just love alto singers.
+Sonic Katana .. but then she can also do mezzo soprano, can't she? I'm thinking of the parts she sings in Everlasting Song with FJ for instance.. that would be mezzo, no?.. But it's really just a question of what each individual person's natural range is. To me Keiko's got all the easy parts!.. It's Wakana (and even more so Kaida from FJ) who loses me here and there.. 1:50-2:14, forget it. ;)
+HijaDelMar6 Even so, regardless of the listener's range, Hikaru and Keiko have a more extensive than Wakana. I dare to say that Hikaru MAY have the largest range of the three, but she tends to sound nasal on her mid/higher range when she's the lead, when she's harmonizing she does it VERY WELL (Hikari No Senritsu is the best example of what I'm trying to say). Wakana has a similar issue, as she tends to be the less stable. And Keiko may not sing higher notes often, but her control of her lower and mid ranges is just INCREDIBLE.
Alle Gretto Agreed, no doubt Hikaru and Keiko (and FJ' Kaori(!) and Kaida) have more extensive ranges than Wakana. I listened to a version of Hanamori no Oka, a FictionJunction song in which Kaori usually sings the lead, from an event where Kaori was missing and Wakana took on the lead. It was... strange. ;) Wakana, in my listening experience, just cannot sing in a ''normal'' pop-y voice. Conversedly, to me the Kajiura girl who has the most impressive range and control of her voice throughout that range is Kaori. I don't know. I guess the way I see it is that singing the lower ranges doesn't put nearly as much stress on the vocal chords. To me it's about as ''strenuous'' as speaking is. The soprano range, from my perspective, is what requires so much technique and control, and I therefore find much more impressive. Don't get me wrong, I adore Keiko and indeed cannot find anything to fault in her singing, but in my eye she gets all the easiest parts, whereas Wakana, despite her more limited range, has the hardest job in Kalafina and therefore gets more kudos from me. It's like if we asked both Keiko and Wakana to drink a glass of juice without making funny sour faces, but Keiko's glass was orange juice and Wakana's was lemon juice. Can you really say that Keiko demonstrated so much ''control'' by keeping a straight face? ;) Not really, she just had it easy. But I'll be very impressed if Wakana manages to do the same on her lemon juice.. Silly example, but just trying to show how, to me, we're just not comparing apples to apples when comparing Keiko's and Wakana's voices and tasks within Kalafina and FJ.. Again I love Keiko. I just don't see what the craze is about. So she sings low. So what. If anything, good for her that that's her natural/comfortable range. Her vocal chords are much safer than the rest of them Kajiura girls.. ;)
Technically Im an Tenor singer and an active member of university choir, for me who's been singing all those high notes which im destined to sing with, i can't help but adore the deep sound of bass and alto and in my perspective I've never heard a contra alto in person so Keiko is really one of Kind. And for me singing low notes is really disturbing as I can't hit them right so I can say that rather alto and basses complexities are really in different level in contrast with tenor and soprano
M. VL Kinda agreed,the only parts that I think better than the studio version are Wakana's parts.I wonder if the Budokan live version still sound like this.
Hikaru was very nice but music itself was horrible imo. Accordion was pretty good but not as awesome like in studio version (one of my favorite things about this song). Also drumming and those random solos in the middle just killed that song. Extended outro was ok though.
