#ambivalent symphony

[thenmanor]

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Freedom is a sweet, vague thing like an illusion, an unrestricted, impossible thing that I’m falling deeply in love with

[igutranslations]

RESONANCE

words & music: miko

Japanese:

勝ち取ってもまだ満たされず　また走り出した 幕は切って落とされた　戸惑いもなく鐘を鳴らせ

どれだけ奪えば満たされる　予想もつかない 不安げなキミの背中に　この理教えよう

自由は甘く曖昧な存在　幻想の様で 拘束なくして有り得ない存在　恋焦がれてく

閉ざされたこの世に完全なものなど無い 選ばれた必要な抵抗を受け入れて

Liberty in restrain… Liberty is not here

勝ち取ってそれは二つの顔を持ち笑う 綺麗で醜い罠を張り　潜み続けている

自由は甘く曖昧な存在　幻想の様で 拘束なくして有り得ない存在　恋焦がれてく

閉ざされたこの世に完全なものなど無い 選ばれた必要な抵抗を受け入れて 鉄格子の中に見つけた僅かな可能性 捕われた様で包まれた安らぎに

English:

Even though I earned victory I’m still not satisfied, I started running again The curtains were cut and fell away, Don’t be confused, ring the bell

How much do I need to take before I’m satisfied? It doesn’t even meet my expectations I’ll teach you this truth even as you turn uneasily away

Freedom is a sweet, vague existence, It’s just like an illusion Existence without restriction is impossible, But I’ll keep yearning for it

There’s nothing complete in this closed-up world Accept the resistance that’s been deemed necessary

Liberty in restrain… Liberty is not here

My victory is keeping a smile on both our faces Caught in this lovely, hideous trap, I remain dormant

Freedom is a sweet, vague existence, It’s just like an illusion Existence without restriction is impossible, But I’ll keep yearning for it

There’s nothing complete in this closed-up world Accept the resistance that’s been deemed necessary The tiny possibility I found within these iron bars Wrapped up as if captured in tranquility

[igutranslations]

exist†trace : With honest feelings (FOOL’S MATE, December 2009)

Interview: Yuki Sugie

exist†trace has just released their latest work, “Ambivalent Symphony”, about half a year after their previous album “VANGUARD -of the muses-”. The strength to give people a push forward, the conflicts within yourself, and the expression of affection through music — while facing new challenges like these, they created this latest 7-track album, with a concept of “freedom and restriction”, on which they sing about themselves with the honesty of rethinking their original intentions. Additionally, with the announcement of their 2nd oneman live at Meguro Rockmaykan “Ambivalent Symphony ~piece of the answer~ on November 22nd, I was able to hear commentary on all of the tracks on their new album along with enthusiasm for the oneman.

- I heard that your current mini album, “Ambivalent Symphony”, was written with a motif of contradictions, in accordance with the title.

miko: I thought of stillness and motion, light and dark, life and death, and such, but there are a lot of conflicting things in the world. In this album, we show the “Ambivalent” world in several songs. And, from one part of that basis, we arrived at the theme “freedom and restriction”.

Mally: Before we started making the album, we were all chatting in the car and somehow the topic spread out into something related to our current album’s concept. Even during the beginning stages of the songs we realized quickly that each one became clearer when we took it in another direction. So after that I just put all my energy into playing the way the songs demanded.

- What was the instrument section paying the most attention to with your play style?

Mally: There were songs like the first track, “RESONANCE”, that had an “I’m gonna beat the crap out of it!” feeling, but since there were also very quiet songs where painting the scene was necessary like “Umi no Shizuku”, having a playing style that varied a lot from song to song was more important than it was before now.

Naoto: When we recorded this time, I wanted to use what I’d learned last time effectively, so on parts where I wondered, “did I end up using a phrase I always use?” I made myself think about it from the point of view of what would be best for the song.

Omi: While thinking about organizing and arranging with everyone, we constantly ended up talking about how we wanted to develop it a little bit differently than before.

- Did you perhaps reconstruct exist†trace’s method of playing into twin guitars on this current album?

miko: Of course up until now Omi has played the guitar solos in our recordings, but this is a first for exist†trace. From the beginning I stood at the right side of the stage and Omi stood at the left, and until now I hadn’t thought about it that much, like, Omi will absolutely play this part like a lead guitarist (laugh) for us.

 Omi: There were also parts of those solos that we didn’t have until now, but we did more phrases with intertwining twin guitar and all of that, so it became more important on this album.

- Because your sound evolved to that extent, didn’t the level that Jyou has to express also increase even more as well?

Jyou: It really did increase. The more we progressed in recording, the more I saw how much everyone’s level had gone up, so at the beginning I had this really enthusiastic feeling of “I’m not gonna lose either!” But I also understood that putting too much force into it would not be good either, so this time I relaxed as much as possible to face the recording.

- The result of that is shown freely within the first track, “RESONANCE”.

Jyou: It’s in the content of the lyrics as well, but this song really represents the symbolism of “freedom and restriction” the most.

miko: The things I wanted to express with this song were extremely clear to me before I even started writing it. Therefore the feeling that I wanted to proceed with this song as the axis of the album was really strong. And it’s a song where the intentions of our current selves are easily understood the most openly with the PV as well. So that’s how “RESONANCE” came to be.

- An attitude that, “although there’s nothing perfect in this world, I want to dare to search for perfection nevertheless”, peeks through the sound and lyrics.

Jyou: Yes. I sing this song with a feeling that, the conflicts and regrets of being unable to be satisfied by the way things are, are the reason that I want to face forward and keep moving ahead.

Omi: With the meaning that comes from the lyrics and sound working together, I included sound to try to make you feel the light of hope into the guitar at the end of the song.

- By the way, you put references to this into the PV for this song (contained on the included DVD) as well, so the video is a must-see.

Mally: Aah, and also because there’s a pretty stimulating scene in it. (laugh)

Naoto: We may have ended up “overdoing” it, in various senses of the word. (bitter smile)

- Anyway. You recorded the song “Umi no Shizuku (A Droplet of the Sea)”, which was mentioned a little while ago, for this album as well. It’s a really impressive song composed with a calm and clear image to the sound, the exact opposite of your usual violent band sound.

Jyou: When I first heard it, I thought, this song is very Omi.

- What was the basis of your concept when writing this song?

Omi: The protagonist is a girl who meets a sad fate time and time again. I wrote the music and lyrics to tell a story of how she is never able to break from that cycle, until an end where she no longer even understands the meaning of her own tears. Along with the title “Umi no Shizuku”, I chose to call her Rosemary, because rosemary represents memories and recollections in the language of flowers.

- Fleeting, heartbreaking, and delicate. It’s a song with a gentle atmosphere that only female artists could make.

Jyou: Not only the song itself, but I’ve never used a gentle, feminine falsetto to this extent before, so I feel like I was able to cultivate a new side of myself with this song.

- Another aspect of strong storytelling is “Wrath”, in which a world unique to exist†trace is born from the creation of its deep lyrics and atmospheric sound.

miko: You could say this is a continuation of the song “Hana Sakanai Machi (The Town Where Flowers Don’t Bloom)” from our previous album “VANGUARD -of the muses-”, because something like the subject matter of this song occurred before the story of that song.

Jyou: Singing this song was hard on me. When I sing while completely empathizing with the characters, it’s really sad (bitter smile). To that extent, it became a song with deep subject matter.

- Now, as for the song which seems connected to the album title, “Ambivalence”. What kind of motifs were used to make it?

miko: As one type of contradictory things, I tried to write this song to express the kind of love and hate of when you love someone too much and end up hurting them. Along with that, I was looking for eroticism in the lyrics and sound as well. Even for the guitar, Omi and I were doing completely different things, and yet it honestly intertwines together perfectly. I completed the song with that feeling.

Jyou: And at the same time, we had been talking about how this song doesn’t only apply to romantic relationships, but doesn’t it also surprisingly apply to the connection between fans and a band?  Especially in the last two lines, there are parts where I sang the words directly to the listener.

miko: And for us, this song also includes the feeling that we don’t want to forget our original intentions. The title of the very first CD exist†trace released is also “Ambivalence”. And so I used that word again, because I wanted to re-examine my feelings from back then again.

- That kind of proactive, positive attitude also comes across strongly in “forward”.

Omi: This is the first time we’ve done a song this fast, so for me it was a challenge (laugh).

Naoto: Our band uses synthesizers in a similar proportion to other bands of our time, but for this song we thought we would restrict ourselves to “wanting to make a song that can swell in excitement when unedited live”, so I think the parts where you can hear how we bravely simplified our band sound are a major feature.

- It ended up being a powerful track.

Jyou: It became a track that could give everyone a forceful push ahead when they listen to it. I’ve also had a time, a while back, when I was saying “I want to become free” but just passively waiting for something to happen. But your story can’t advance like that. Because this is also within freedom and restriction, we put into this song the message that, if you stand yourself up and continue forward then definitely you’ll see something.

- Does that message also have a sense of looking inward at yourself?

Jyou: That’s exactly right (laugh). There are a lot of parts about facing yourself and telling yourself to do something.

- Now then. The song called “ “Owari no nai Sekai” (“A World without End”)” brings in the ending of this album. What kind of mission did you place upon this song?

miko: To begin with, I was aiming for a song with bright jar chords that broke free from surface perfection. I wanted to put one tear in exist†trace’s shell here.

Naoto: We’ve never done a song like this before, so as you would expect we would lose our bearings at the beginning, but as we continued we gradually became capable of making a feel-good song, thankfully (laugh).  

- However, the contents of the lyrics aren’t just fun and bright.

miko: That’s most likely because there are contradictory parts within myself. But the option of staying cheerful at the end isn’t something I have in me. Truthfully, the title also contains a sarcastic nuance.

- The fact that “ “Owari no nai Sekai” “ is written in quotation marks also hints at that.

miko: I think that something like “A world without end” probably doesn’t exist anywhere. But, if I could just hold onto the hope of wanting to see a world like that…… It’s a song where we sing of that wish.

- I hope you’ll construct “a world like that” for us at your upcoming oneman live “Ambivalent Symphony ~piece of the answer~” on November 22nd at Meguro Rockmaykan.

Mally: Of course we’ll attack with that attitude, because I want to make it even more sweltering than last time.

Naoto: While basing it upon all of our experiences up until now, I want to make use of all the things about us that have grown from making this album at the live.

Omi: I want to create a place where, together with all of you, we can feel in our bodies the even deeper worldview we were able to complete on this album.

miko: I hope that I can make a place where both us and all of you can be our most authentic selves.

Jyou: Now that we’ve passed the last oneman, and recording, I’ve got a strong prediction that this live will be our best live yet, for certain. At this oneman, while facing “freedom and restriction” together with you, I want to search for an answer, if only a little. Or maybe I should say, come look for the answer with us!

[thenmanor]

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Now I can start walking Heading someplace far away Hit the tightly closed door Advance, following the long road Beneath the sky

[faerthingpen]

RESONANCE OF THE EXISTENCE exist†trace retrospective headshots

[drkreviews]

Freedom vs Restrictions

“The mirage soaked in the turbulent rain Is a shadow of the two who hated each other. I can see my eyes shut slowly in the moonless night I can tell your voice never back again, the two who disappeared. The mirage which melted into sweet passion Is a shadow of the two who inorganically loved each other. I can see my eyes shut slowly, however far I run I can tell your voice never back again, I won't be hindered. My wounded heart becomes my reason for living You're by my side, I can still walk on just for that. The mirage which notices the inconsistent wind Is a shadow of the two who knew they were held by loneliness. I can see my eyes shut slowly, in the moonless night I can tell your voice never back again, the two who disappeared. My wounded heart becomes my reason for living Even the lie I believed countless times is still dazzling. I can see my eyes shut slowly, however far I run I can tell your voice never back again, I won't be hindered. My wounded heart becomes my reason for living You're by my side, I can still walk on just for that I won't be stopped by anyone anymore, I'll sleep deep in my decision I'll pledge my dreams countless times, for you.”

Here I am with another part of this month’s themed week in “Throwback Thursday”! The subject is the third mini-album by the female visual kei band Exist†Trace, entitled Ambivalent Symphony and released on 21st October 2009. The concept of this release is based on the contrast between freedom and restrictions, represented in a particular way by the lyrics which introduce this review, taken by the fourth track, and the band manage to carry on this image for showing off the various sides of their music. And now... let’s review!

-Resonance [freedom is an illusion]: One of the most important tracks by this band opens this mini-album, where a powerful guitar kicks off the theme, with Jyou’s metallic screams; then she proceeds on, with a piercing and aggressive tone, in a strong and relevant track, easy to remember. ---> 9/10

-Umi no shizuku (Drops of sea) [absence of the loved person]: a melodious piano, accompained by Jyou’s wonderful voice, introduces this song, featuring a dark and astonishing rock sound, where Jyou’s interpretation is what fuels it mostly, in an incredibly heavenly tone; one of the best songs of this mini-album so far. ---> 9.5/10

- -Overture-: a short SE track, featuring disquieting and creepy electronic effects, suiting pretty well the dark concept of this band.

-Ambivalence [duality of life ---> core of the release]: reprising the previous track, this one features an electronic and dark rock sound, in a adrenalinic rhythm, provided by Mally, helped by Jyou’s energetic voice; an energetic and headbanging track, with a wonderful breakdown as few in the scene. ---> 9.5/10

-Forward [always going forward]: an angry and energetic guitar playing opens this track, in a steady and aggressive rhythm; Jyou’s voice is strong and vibrant, in a catchy and enjoyable rock tune. ---> 9/10

-Wrath [leaving something/someone behind]: an ethereal melody, accompained by a slow drumming, opens up to an energetic and rapid rock theme, featuring a dynamic guitar and pretty good vocals, for another good song. ---> 9/10

-Owari no nai sekai (A world without end) [discovering the sense of our existence]: the mini-album ends up with a song which goes to the opposite spectrum of this band’s music; the guitar kicks off the theme, in a fast and rhythmical sound, where the vibe is definitely brighter and even Jyou appears clearer with her voice; a peculiar ending track for this release. ---> 9/10

Final Vote ---> 9/10

Preceded by the promising mini-album Vanguard -Of the muses-, Exist†Trace continue their good route, confirming their talent, without going too much out from their style. Even when there’s a track which goes in contrast with the rest, the band remained in balance with their style, improving it and underlining their energy and female fascination. The structure of this mini-album works indeed for creating a good impression of this band, especially thanks to the majestical ability of the members, especially Jyou, who showed that she is not able only to scream out her notes. So if you want to go on with them, Ambivalent Symphony is one release where you can start from. A mini-album for who wants to know the many faces of Exist†Trace.

That’s all folks! See you on Sunday for the final part of this themed week in “Focusing on...”

Thanks for the reading!

[faerthingale]

exist†trace 2009: Ambivalent Symphony RESONANCE OF THE WORD: MIKO

Part of my “Resonance of the….” Igu art set. | Jyou | Mally | Naoto | Omi |

[faerthingale]

exist†trace 2009: Ambivalent Symphony RESONANCE OF THE VOICE: JYOU

Part of my “Resonance of the....” Igu art set. | miko | Mally | Naoto | Omi |