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, (more…)

I recently searched for the keywords “Yoko Kanno” over at Google to see my blog would turn up, and it was negative. Too bad. But then I discovered a relatively new site, with the domain yokokanno.net - another English blog-styled website about Yoko Kanno. I thought I could retire from being a Kanno news publisher and focus on Gabriela, but the site didn’t have that much content.

I tried to look around if there is any information about the webmaster, and even used domain lookup tools to find the name, but none would come up. The site hasn’t been announced in any online Kanno communities I frequent.

I wonder if anyone knows who owns the site?

I believe some advertising companies purchase domains using popular search keywords as domain names. Then they would put dummy contents in it, and then load it with ads. But then again, is Yoko Kanno this popular to get this kind of treatment?

Anyone out there who owns the domain?

click the image to view the movie

I don’t understand this CM, probably because I don’t understand Japanese! Is it footage from a new movie, or is it trying to sell a toy? But we know one thing for sure: The Aquarion franchise is definitely selling in Japan.

By the way, that’s some pretty good CGI (more…)

I thought I’d add some sort of celebration for the date that Gabriela Robin was first heard in public. I know it’s almost impossible to find out the real birthday of our muse, since that’d have to be the date where the first Gabriela Robin song was recorded, and I find it rather unrealistic to search for that date.

So that given, I’d like to announce August 25, 1994 as the unofficial birthday of Gabby, unless anyone wants to contest it and has a more accurate date. August 25, 1994 is the date Macross Plus was released. That’d mean she’s about 13 years already

And we already missed that date, but I’d just like to point it out anyway

Aaaaaaw… Now onto the real post.

To start off, please visit the lyrics page for Yui’s fan-transcribed version of Celiane. I am preparing a list of songs from the Ragnarok OST that I would like people to transcribe, but for now, please hold your horses, my hands are full.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the readers of this blog for the support that it’s been getting for the time that it’s been around. I never thought a news page would be too tasking, nor that Yoko Kanno would get so many releases this year. Her inspiration really drives me to do these things.

So that being said, I have a short plea for patience because I have been having a hard time keeping up with my work, this, and myself. That’s why I had to make some guidelines and policies for lyrics submissions that aren’t too constrained. The main objective of this site in the first place was to gather fan-transcribed and original lyrics of songs by Gabriela Robin, so I don’t like posting anything that would discourage lyrics submission. But I had to put a cap on it too, if you guys understand.

They guidelines/policies are the following:

• For gibberish lyrics, please don’t submit if there are already two existing gibberish transcriptions.
• The webmaster has the right to discern if a submitted set of lyrics does not differ too much from what is already published. An email will be sent to the sender if this is so.
• The webmaster has the right to discern if the transcription deviates too much from what is really heard. An email will be sent to the sender if this is so.
• News take precedence in importance over lyrics. Please expect some delay in the publishing of any submitted lyrics especially if the song is not new.

These are also viewable in the Contact page where I presume readers go to if they want to submit lyrics to me.

There, thanks for reading and thank you for your continued support (more…)