I have monitored the unofficial Yoko Kanno MySpace page even before it came to 1000 members, and now it’s breached 2000! Way to go to the manager of the page. The songs in the profile are shuffled every week, with songs ranging from her work in anime, movies, TV shows, CMs, pop albums and games. It definitely provides new Kanno fans an idea of the extent of her work outside anime.

Let’s see. As a benchmark, the Yoko Kanno forum (which I believe is the only English one), YKDB has more than 500 members. The largest Yoko Kanno forum from China, YKFan.cn, has 7,300+ members. Now if only all the Chinese fans would go and add her as a friend… (more…)

Finally, the CMYoko online album has been released. I never thought it was possible to make a release such as this, considering the differing companies that commissioned the music, distribution rights, and what not. I wonder how the royalties were distributed. Now we get to hear the CM samples in the Grand Funk Inc website in higher quality

Most of the CM songs are in lengths that have been previously presented in Grandfunk.net, but there are some that are longer. Notable among these is the Exaelitus Toyota Lexus CM sang by Origa. Nice!

Walk Travel Along sang by Gabriela for Tombow Pencil is presented here too. Pulseczar has previously submitted lyrics to this piece.

It is also notable that the songs that sound like they were sang by Gabriela are listed under Samply Red. Hmmm. There is just one female in Samply Red, am I not mistaken? Hmmm?

Some previously unreleased non-CM songs are also in this release. There’s Dear Blue from Suki da!, and the Mama Shinhatsubai! Opening theme.

Full tracklist here (thanks to Pulseczar!!!):

01 - Kare 100% Tres Bien
(Meiji Xylish CM) 1:47
Yoko Kanno

02 - Lion Man
(Toyota Harrier CM) 1:20
Yoko Kanno

03 - Densen ni Tako ga Karamacchattara dou suru no?
What if an octopus got entangled in an eletric line?
(Tepco CM) 0:37
Yoko Kanno

04 - Silent Star
(DoCoMo CM) 0:49
Yoko Kanno

05 - Seeds of Life
(Cosmo Oil CM) 2:09
Yoko Kanno

06 - walk Travel Along
(Tombow Pencil CM) 2:13
SAMPLY RED (more…)

If you have watched the Ghost in the Shell:SAC series, you would have known by now that the song “Torukia”, sometimes referred to by fans as “Turkey”, has stripped down versions played within the series. One of them is the strings only version played at the episode Sunset in the City - Annihilation from Season 1, 24th episode. The other one was very memorable for me, as it played in Second Gig, episode 14, entitled Beware the Left Eye - Poker Face at a very, very climactic scene. Don’t watch this if you don’t want any spoilers:

For your reference here are the three versions of Torukia: (more…)

Vocalist James Wendt, who has worked with Yoko Kanno in the Darker than Black OST1, and his Swedish band Staireo, yesterday released their album entitled Multi De La Tjossa. It contains two bonus tracks namely “Deadly Work” and “Blend In”, also from the Darker Than Black OST 1.

There is a music sampler in Neowing, but it doesn’t work for me. A poster in Wanna Be A Wind mentioned that it is a “self-cover”, meaning that it is different from the one recorded with Kanno. Now that, I would love to hear!

Details:

Release Date: September 19, 2007
Price: 2381yen (approx 20.66 USD)

Complete tracklist as follows:

1. LIVE IN A BOTTLE
2. GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD
3. KING OF GOLDEN DAYS
4. LAST MONDAY
5. STOP THE WORLD
6. OUT OF MY WAY
7. POISON
8. SCARLETT PEARMAIN
9. WON’T STOP
10. BEAUTY OR CRIME
11. MULTI MILLION BUZZ (more…)

Do not underestimate fans with time in their hands. Virgilius Sade told me she’d send me a recording of her, singing “She Is” from Ghost in the Shell: SAC SSS OST and she did!

Virgilius Sade tells me that she is from Australia, a first year 3D animation student who also writes short stories and novels and sings and loves sci-fi. And comics

Since I had a bit of time, I attempted to remove the vocals to the original version (and failed quite miserably), and then fitted her recording into it. I edited it a bit, timing, volume, a small echo effect, and noise reduction and it was good to go.

And while I was at it, I also recorded my “English” version of the lyrics, and added the same effects that I described above.

Warning: singing isn’t one of my strengths so tread with caution

Both of our lyrics versions are available at the She Is lyrics page.

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