New Maaya Sakamoto CD: Kazeyomi (update 3)
UPDATE: CD cover from Victor Website added. Thanks to Kai for the lead!
Regular Edition:
Title: Kazeyomi (trans: Wind Reading)
Catalog No.: VTCL-60085
Release Date: January 14, 2009
Price: 2900yen (3045yen Tax incl.) (approx. US$ 28.78)
Description: Sixth original album release from Maaya Sakamoto. The album includes songs involving Yoko Kanno, Shoko Suzuki, Kaori Kano, ACO, Koichi Tabo (former Superfly,) and more.
Purchase through CDJapan.
Track List:
1. Vento
2. Triangler (Macross F)
3. Kazemachi Jet ~ kazeyomi edition (Tsubasa Chronicle)
4. Remedy (Kurogane no Linebarrel)
5. Ame ga Furu (Kurogane no Linebarrel)
6. Get No Satisfaction!
7. Ao no Ether (Macross F)
8. Shitsuren Cafe
9. Sonic Boom (Tsubasa Shunraiki)
10. Peanuts
11. Saigo no Kajitsu (Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations)
12. Colors (Konica Minolta Image Song)
13. Kazamidori
14.Guitar Hiki ni naritai na
Limited Edition (With DVD):
Title: Kazeyomi (trans: Wind Reading)
Catalog No.: VTZL-8
Release Date: January 14, 2009
Price: 3400yen (3570yen Tax incl.) (approx. US$ 33.74)
Description: Sixth original album release from Maaya Sakamoto. The album includes songs involving Yoko Kanno, Shoko Suzuki, Kaori Kano, ACO, Koichi Tabo (former Superfly,) and more. Limited version includes bonus DVD featuring three music videos. *Unless otherwise indicated, DVDs are region-2 encoded (Japan, Europe, and Middle East), and carry no subtitles.
Purchase through CDJapan.
DVD contents:
Saigo no Kajitsu PV
Triangler PV
Ame ga Furu PV
Source: Maaya’s Official Website
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November 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Finally, a CD with just some Kanno!
November 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I’m hoping it’s not just Triangler and/or Aimo, but hopefully some new songs between the two.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
ditto@mai o.รณ
November 5th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
BTW, and sorry for the flood, do you know why do they “split”? ;___; Yunagi-loop is nothing compared to the god ol’ ones u.u
November 5th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
@Kirby – I never really thought about it that much (though I admit I was also surprised when it was announced)… but I don’t think it couldn’t have been anything bad, since they’re still working together. My guess was that their contract expired, and Maaya thought that it would be good to try different waters. I believe, as long as Maaya is tied up with Kanno, we wouldn’t know how she would handle herself without her, and now we know how she does. She now has worked with other pop stars and producers, and the experience must have expanded her fan base and experience, which is good for her as an artist
November 5th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I have the feeling Kanno’s contribution will be Triangler. If it is a new collaboration they are keeping it pretty quiet. And I haven’t really been missing the Kanno effect on Maaya recently. 2 of my 3 favourite Maaya songs are post Kanno, and ironically I think Triangler is the weakest of Maaya’s recent singles. Ame ga furu is a real winner too. I got it on saturday and I seriously haven’t listened to anything else since.
So what happens when Kanno’s song becomes the weak link on a Maaya album. Has my beautiful songbird flown from the nest?
November 5th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
@Kai – I bet they’ll be putting Triangler in only because it’s been successful in terms of sales. I don’t like this as it’s been in enough CDs already, and it’ll be the fourth if it is included in this release, which it most likely will be. I really think Triangler will be the weakest link in this album, it’s never really been a strong song and only fits the animation where it has been used. As a stand-alone, it’s not much of a gem.
November 5th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
“Produced by” is just an iffy translation by CDJapan. What they mean is the CD includes songs by those artists.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
@roxfan – I think I get it, they used the word “produced” not because they were the technical producers of the album, but rather because they were the ones who made (produce does mean “create” somehow) the song. I clarified for the rest of the readers. Honestly, I only made it only more vague to fit every kind of involvement possible.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Well Triangler did blind side us, all we got prior to its announcement was “Oh I’ve been recording a new song” then BOOM Yoko Kanno produced anime theme songs omgdiajksnasnasnaslas excitement.
However, I’m also in the camp of “I bet it will just be Triangler”
November 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
All too true Mai. Triangler really is a Mac F song not a Maaya song. Although I’m not as critical of it as some people on other reviews. I read one critical review of Nyan Tora and the guy said Maaya didn’t deserve to be stuck with Triangler. Harsh. In that case I’m surprised Maaya is letting them shoehorn the song in, she’s always had a good record for not repeating songs.
But the album will be worth it for the new songs, I was really hoping for a live dvd with the ltd edition though, guess I’ll just have to fly over there and see her in person.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
…thinking positively, it may be an acoustic/orchestral arrangement of Triangler. No belting too high notes etc… They did pull a piano only version in the live performance, and we never got to hear any second of it :\
Or not. But I can hope.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Ahhh I’m so excited for her album! I don’t mind if it’s just Triangler, but it’d be an added bonus if Kanno made some new songs for her.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Great!.
Maaya Sakamoto has a wonderful voice, so unique and she can transform it for every song.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Three of these composers/producers/whatever are people who’ve worked with Maaya before. Aside from Kanno, Shoko Suzuki wrote Kazemachi Jet and Saigo no Kajitsu and Kaori Kano wrote Ame ga Furu – it would make sense if all her singles ended up on here, although I don’t really think Triangler needs to be on any more albums personally as much as I love the song!
ACO is signed to Sony Music, and is apparently into electronica – her last single, Machi, was in 2003 (and sounds awesome – I’d love to hear Maaya sing something like that). The Superfly stuff that Koichi Tabo worked on was very 70s/80s influenced (just a couple of singles) but sounds pretty good from what’s on Youtube – I love Manifest, for instance.
I wasn’t a fan of Yuunagi Loop at all (it felt quite “cheap”), but I think that Maaya’s recent non-Kanno singles have been pretty good – Ame ga Furu in particular is fantastic. If she’s working with classy producers (and she should be – I think it’s pretty clear she’s the flagship artist under the flying dog imprint) that can match that standard, I think the new album should be pretty awesome.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Personally I like Ame ga Furu (I *loved* Praline) and I’ve sort of “forgotten” all her other singles since the song were pretty forgetful (for me). Thanks for the info, BluWacky, I’d *love* to listen to Maaya singing electronica. Something different but something she could totally pull off.
November 8th, 2008 at 4:27 am
This will probably be her last album for a while. She’s going to do “Les Miserables” again next Spring, so I hope this is a good “hey fans this is my before-hiatus album.”
November 10th, 2008 at 9:18 am
@Kai!!! – I’m glad Triangler isn’t the only Kanno song in there, and Ao no Ether is definitely not going to be the weakest link, at least not with Maaya’s singing (or should I say, at least not with Triangler in the list)
I also want to hear Maaya sing Anata no Oto though 
November 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Ugh… I didn’t know she was singing for the worst fall anime (linebarrels)…
Just makes stronger my position when I say she MUST stay with Kanno…
November 10th, 2008 at 10:04 am
@Kirby – Well I think I don’t want her to stay the way they did before, I like Ame ga Furu regardless of the animation it was used on (conversely for Triangler)
November 10th, 2008 at 10:17 am
OH MY GOD AO NO ETHER!!!
Noooo I can’t wait for this any more!
November 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
@Kirby – Ame ga Furu is a great song, probably her strongest non-Kanno work. You don’t have to watch Kurogane no Linebarrel, it’s okay :p
For the tracks we’ve not heard before, Remedy is written and arranged by solaya, who did Mitsubachi to Kagakusha on the Saigo no Kajitsu single.
Sonic Boom has music/arrangement by Yuichi Ichikawa, the guy from The Indigo. And lastly, Colors has music by ACO (as mentioned previously) and arrangements by Shin Kouno, who apparently has done lots of work with Hello Project before but I have no idea of his previous work.
I am a total song credits whore sometimes. Just nice to know what kind of music to expect…
Also, Maaya has written the lyrics for all of these songs except Triangler. I have no idea whether she’s a particularly great lyricist or not – the translations of her songs seem nice, and the feel of the lyrics flows well with the music generally – but hurray for more royalty payments anyway!
November 10th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
@Mai, its looking good eh? Ao no ether is going to sound amazing, and you might be on to a winner, Maaya would sing a great Anata no oto. And I kinda wanted her to squeeze Aimo in there too so I won’t have to buy Nyan tama. The inclusion of a Jensen written song has me excited, its been a while since she sang a good english song.
As for Linebarrels, they really need to get someone, anyone, to do a new op song, that op is physically painful to listen to. Even 3 minutes of silence would be better. It would turn me off completely if I didn’t know Maaya was singing at the end. Show wise, I’m toughing it out for a few more eps, just a glutton for punishment I suppose.
@Kirby, I tend to disagree, Kanno doesn’t neccesarily guarantee a great Maaya song, case in point Triangler. Compared that with the Ame ga furu single and the utterly charming Purarine, not a whiff of Kanno and just lovely.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I don’t like Ao no Ether, but probably because I don’t like Megumi’s voice. So I’m waiting for it, I’m sure Maaya will make me like that song (and she wrote it, so that must fit her well ^^).
November 10th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
so it’s more a “hotchpotch” like than a complete new album ?
November 10th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
@Yy – I’m very sure Maaya will sing this better. The song, its solemnity and emotions are almost lost in Megumi’s voice. She sounded like she was singing any other song! I mean, you can listen to Diamond Crevasse and know it sounds completely tragic even without understanding the lyrics, but this you could only conjecture from the background music that it’s a sad song (pardon my patronizing, but I think some of the readers of this blog could sing the song better
) But I suppose it’s a double treat for me since I like the song already before I can hear Maaya sing it 
@dj – looks like it, but we have to see the rest to find out.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I’m as interested in the cover as I am in the tracklist. Maaya is long overdue to release a poster, something simple. Just look at the camera and smile.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:42 am
I think it’s premature to call the new album a singles collection. For one thing, only 8 tracks have been revealed. Secondly, not all 8 have been released on singles (I only count 4). My hunch is that the remaining 6 tracks are new songs. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but my guesses about the new album have been pretty good so far.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:10 am
She doesn’t have enough songs out to be a single collection XD I’m looking forward to this disc though. The creative team seems pretty solid, I hope it ends up a strong offering. Woo.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:11 am
‘Ao no Ether’ is perfect for Maaya’s style. I’m glad that we’ll hear her rendition of it (not that Megumi was bad to begin with).
November 11th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Colors is not a “CM” song but an image song for a planetarium program narrated by Maaya. It has lyrics by Tim Jensen so I guess it will be in English.
@BluWacky: I’d say Maaya is a very good lyricist, she’s been writing lyrics for her songs since Grapefruit, and now started writing lyrics for others. I think she also learned a a lot from working with Yuho Iwasato.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:03 am
^ Thanks for the info! Post corrected.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
If Maaya co-wrote Colors with Jensen it could be Japanese and English (like Heavenly Blue?). A full English or half/half like with arragement similar to The garden of everything (with Maaya singing both parts) would be really cool.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:05 am
a Maaya version of “Blue Ether”?!!! omg my dreams for 2008 have come truuuuuuue!!!!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
^ My heart sank when I read “Triangler”, but then I saw “Ao no Ether” and suddenly the world was safe
November 14th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
@Mai, track 11 should be Shitsuren Cafe. Lovelorn Cafe, I like it.
When I saw the title Get no Satisfaction I thought ‘Wait, she’s a Beatles fan not a Stones fan’.:)
November 14th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
@mai: I still think her strongest non-Kanno song was 30minutes night flight, I loved that song like whoa. (The rest of the album not so much.)
I was hoping for more Kanno tracks, but I guess with Ao no Ether and the tracks on Nyan Tama we should be grateful for it
November 14th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
@Kai – oops, corrected.
November 15th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Ao no Ether ftw.
can’t wait for the rest of the tracks to show
November 21st, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Looks like my hunch about the 6 other songs being completely new was right.
Now if only I had a time machine to jump ahead to January. XD
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 am
But the excitement is in the waiting *_* especially waiting for covers!
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 am
At least we have Nyan Tama which has Maaya in it for the meantime
And it’s coming out very soon!
November 24th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Interesting…..Ao no Ether Maaya Sakamoto version? That’s something to possibly look forward to. The one from Nyan Tra was Megumi Nakajima version right?
November 24th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Yep, the one in Nyan Tra was Nakajima’s
November 29th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Kazeyomi’s cover is up on Maaya’s site. The hill in the background looks cool.