I'm sorry for all this wind music geekery (but not sorry enough to spare you)
I just downloaded Omoidama and holy moly ITS KANJANIS FORAY INTO SYMPHONIC WINDS "BRASS BANDS". A boy band releasing symphonic winds versions of their pop songs on their single! Epic.
What really gets me is the authenticity. They could have hired professionals for the recording and the PV shoot but they used a band of high school students (as I understand it, not an existing band but a temporary one with members from several schools).
To my ears the orchestra sounds foreign because Japanese symphonic winds have a different concept of the ideal sound. They're awesome with technique, intonation and so on but in my perception the tone is totally off. I'll need to listen a few more times until I'm used to it.
YOKAN is involved again! He was Kanjani's goto guy for all things wind instruments long before Yoko picked up the trumpet. He first (to my knowledge) worked with them on T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street, arranging the horn section and recording several wind instrument tracks (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, baritone sax, ...), and has done the job ever since. You might remember him as the crazy looking guy from Subaru's "A" making, and he was also next to Yoko on KovaxKora when Yoko first played the trumpet on TV.
Yoko is playing a flugelhorn this time. Looks and sounds slightly different compared to a trumpet (the sound is softer, less shrill) but is played exactly the same way. Clever idea, that switch; Yoko is a beginner and his tone shows it, but on a flugelhorn it's not as noticeable, especially in a slow, romantic opening as in Omoidama.
In the making, his reaction when the trumpets join him as he plays! I'M SO HAPPY.
Terminology:
>symphonic winds (aka concert band, wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, symphonic wind ensemble)
an orchestra consisting of wind instruments (woodwinds and brass) and percussion; think symphonic orchestra without strings
>brass band
in Western countries: an orchestra consisting of brass instruments and percussion (no woodwinds)
in Japan: symphonic winds, apparently. What they call "brass band version" on the single is definitely not just brass instruments, it's symphonic winds because it includes woodwinds (flute, clarinet, sax, bassoon); if I interpret wikipedia correctly, it's simply a case of an only half-correct adaption of the English term into the Japanese language. In the booklet credits they get it right though:
[Special Thanks!!] 高校生スペシャル管楽器隊のみんなさん
Special Thanks!! Everyone on the special high school wind corps
>horn section
the wind instruments featured in a rock band (or similar), in other words all the wind instruments you can hear in a pop/rock/... song
First 7-1 against Brazil and now this. Someone up there is smiling at me!
What really gets me is the authenticity. They could have hired professionals for the recording and the PV shoot but they used a band of high school students (as I understand it, not an existing band but a temporary one with members from several schools).
To my ears the orchestra sounds foreign because Japanese symphonic winds have a different concept of the ideal sound. They're awesome with technique, intonation and so on but in my perception the tone is totally off. I'll need to listen a few more times until I'm used to it.
YOKAN is involved again! He was Kanjani's goto guy for all things wind instruments long before Yoko picked up the trumpet. He first (to my knowledge) worked with them on T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street, arranging the horn section and recording several wind instrument tracks (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, baritone sax, ...), and has done the job ever since. You might remember him as the crazy looking guy from Subaru's "A" making, and he was also next to Yoko on KovaxKora when Yoko first played the trumpet on TV.
Yoko is playing a flugelhorn this time. Looks and sounds slightly different compared to a trumpet (the sound is softer, less shrill) but is played exactly the same way. Clever idea, that switch; Yoko is a beginner and his tone shows it, but on a flugelhorn it's not as noticeable, especially in a slow, romantic opening as in Omoidama.
In the making, his reaction when the trumpets join him as he plays! I'M SO HAPPY.
Terminology:
>symphonic winds (aka concert band, wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, symphonic wind ensemble)
an orchestra consisting of wind instruments (woodwinds and brass) and percussion; think symphonic orchestra without strings
>brass band
in Western countries: an orchestra consisting of brass instruments and percussion (no woodwinds)
in Japan: symphonic winds, apparently. What they call "brass band version" on the single is definitely not just brass instruments, it's symphonic winds because it includes woodwinds (flute, clarinet, sax, bassoon); if I interpret wikipedia correctly, it's simply a case of an only half-correct adaption of the English term into the Japanese language. In the booklet credits they get it right though:
[Special Thanks!!] 高校生スペシャル管楽器隊のみんなさん
Special Thanks!! Everyone on the special high school wind corps
>horn section
the wind instruments featured in a rock band (or similar), in other words all the wind instruments you can hear in a pop/rock/... song
First 7-1 against Brazil and now this. Someone up there is smiling at me!