Today marks the release of the third in-house God Collection song, Yomi no Izanami! Haven't yet heard the song? There's a sampling over at the Taiko blog. Link's at the bottom of this page!
This song introduction post is a really long one, with interviews of its composer, two vocalists (yes, two) and two lyricists, making for a total of five people who worked on the song. A lot are names you've heard before from past Namco Originals too!
The composer is Hisui (SORA-VI Hinotori, Houjou Yayoi) who has a penchant for making songs with complex, skippy rhythm (the above two songs listed are evidence enough!). He's become so famous for it that there's a disclaimer in his intro to the song that Yomi no Izanami is a pretty standard 4/4! That aside, the main theme behind the song was to make it very Japanesque with an element of progressive rock. The twin vocals would make for nice contrasts, between soft and soothing, tense and breathtaking.
Speaking of twin vocalists, the first is a new name in Taiko: Shinno Aya (真野綾), a doujin (indie) singer, and she's very happy to be joining the team's repertoire of hired artists (she auditioned for the part and got in)! The story behind Yomi no Izanami is of the grandchild of Himiko and her friend. Aya takes the first role, and to that end she had to practice giving a heavy feel to her voice, which wasn't easy for her.
The second vocalist, Yabuki Takane (矢吹高音) is also a doujin singer, but has already done one song for Taiko before; the lovely Takara no Oka, which debuted on Taiko 3DS1. She lends her sweet voice to the friend in the story of Yomi no Izanami, and this would be her first time contributing to a song for the arcade Taiko!
And now, lyricists! First up, Giu (祇羽), who's also made lyrics for Takara no Oka and tons of other new Namco Originals (a lot for Taiko V Version). For Yomi no Izanami, there were two parts to it. For Himiko's grandchild, she had magical powers, and her lines sounds dark and ominous like a vengeful spirit. The other part, her friend, leans more towards using celebratory language from old Japan, leaning towards royalty.
Hatsuki Yura (葉月ゆら), another newer Namco Original contributor (Sweet Sweet Magic, Sacred Ruin) joins in to help with lyrics arrangement, making sure the song sounds fantasy-like, ancient and full of celestial wonder.
The interviews are followed by lyrics for the song, complete with kanji pronunciations! We'll cover that in a later post!
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