As previously reported, Mami Ayukawa performed a cover of Tsuki no Mayu originally performed by Aki Okui. This song has a multitude of versions within the Turn-A Gundam soundtrack, starting from “Moon” by Gabriela Robin, “Moon” Live by Origa, “Tsuki no Mayu” by Aki Okui, and “5′4 Moon” which is an instrumental. I think there is another instrumental version of this in the OST but I might just be imagining it.

For those who haven’t heard the cover, here is a short sample:

Tsuki no Mayu by Mami Ayukawa: [mp3]http://gabrielarobin.com/clips/tsukinomayumami.mp3[/mp3]

Of the versions I mentioned above, my personal choice as best is the one performed by Origa.

This particular rendition in my opinion is haphazardly done. First, Mami Ayukawa’s breathing is prominent throughout the track, which either means that it wasn’t cleaned up in post-processing, or it wasn’t recorded properly to begin with. Or I might be mistaken and they were looking for a more natural-sounding recording, so they did not mess with the breathing.

Second, the instruments sound like they were synthesized or toned down. The grandeur or mystique of the versions recorded with Kanno has been lost.

That being said, I probably won’t take this version to replace the ones Kanno supervised for Turn-A Gundam.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 11:55 am and is filed under Yoko Kanno Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.