Live Tour 2009 WE ARE KAZEYOMI Notes

Well! Here's a big one! Maaya's official site updated this week with a new mini site to commemorate the release of her first live DVD, the recording of the Tokyo show of her hall tour WE ARE KAZEYOMI which took place in January. On the site it has the usual information but there was a rather large section which contained notes on the live written by Shinya Ueno. Very interesting which of course means they were difficult to translate (haha). Well, enjoy! It's a nice insight for people who are getting the DVD:

Maaya Sakamoto 2009 Live Tour "WE ARE KAZEYOMI" Notes
Original text: Ueno Shinya
Taken from here

This January Maaya Sakamoto’s 6th album was released. When the album was finished、she said that she experienced “A happiness that was out of this world”. It wasn’t that the creation of the record had taken months, it wasn’t because it had taken 3 years and 3 months since her last work ‘Yuunagi LOOP’, it was the sense that everything since she began singing, the path she had walked and everything up to this point in time had all been connected into one. It seems to have been a moment of where she looked back from a place with a fine view on her journey up to now and found in her hand a new energy to grab a new dream which reflected her and continue forwards. It was then that the words that fell from her lips were “I want to do a concert”.

And it was this that after the release of the album “Kazeyomi” her first hall tour ‘Sakamoto Maaya LIVE TOUR 2009 “WE ARE KAZEYOMI”’ was decided upon. January 21st in Nagoya, January 22nd in Osaka, January 24th in Tokyo, the tour held in these three venues was the first tour in 5 years that hasn’t been limited mini lives for her fan club. At the venues, the heat of fans with high hopes for seeing her perform for the first time in a long time was felt even before the performance started.

A vivid opening with Maaya coming out in a red mini dress! Made up of Kouno Shin (p,key&g), Sano Yasuo (ds)、Tomohiko Ohkanda (b)、Ishinari Masato (g)、Misawa Izumi (per) and the Oki Shouko Quartet (strings) the sound from the band members echoed out with a brilliant strength and instantly the hall was wrapped in excitement. In the carefully carried out rehearsals not one uncertain element was left to chance for this one day and the motivation of the main person herself was certainly not half-baked. In the songs as well, numbers from the album ‘Kazeyomi’ were certainly there “Get No Satisfaction!”, “Remedy”, “Kazamidori”, her debut song “Yakusoku wa iranai” and “Kiseki no umi”, “Purachina” the representative songs were all there and the line up she chose with the thought of “What I want to sing now” is sure to please both fans who have been with her from her debut and people who are seeing her for the first time. Both powerful and cute enough to make you think there had never been a 5 year gap, her performance on stage communicated the transition between each song’s world view through a delicate singing voice and a bold power of expression. A voice which upon hearing in person, unconstrained and entrancing with clearly overflowing without her voice with the power to spellbind you and make you comfortable without you even realising it, and an appearance which with its small movements holds your eyes and won’t let you look away – surely this is enough to nod and realise: “this is natural talent”.

However, when the live was heading towards its end Maaya began a long MC beginning with the words “I’m doing this tour because I think I felt like I had to explain why it’s been 5 years since I’ve done a concert”. This honest confession about the motivations for this tour was an important moment that deepened the bonds between the audience and Maaya Sakamoto. The weak self that surely most people have in their hearts was standing to face an invisible wall and about to overcome it. Through this tour we were all able to share the moment where Maaya was pushed forward by the album “Kazeyomi” to advance. The dazzling moment when she raised her arms up to the sky passionately singing “Hikari Are” after this MC was a scene so moving as to be permanently burned into one’s heart.

The red mini dress from the first half which so suited happy numbers like “Get No Satisfaction!” and “Praline” was in the second half replaced with a costume change to a black dress for the more calm numbers like “Yakusoku wa iranai” and “Yubiwa” and the contrast was quite dramatic. Through this personal expression in a ‘song’, the things she has thought about and felt during her long career rather were communicated and that Maaya Sakamoto the artist was both serious and real towards the field of music, always being truthful in communicating the feelings of a living person, flesh and blood.

Every moment was something that both the staff and guests could not take their eyes from, the scene when Maaya introduced the final ending, singing “Universe” alone with a piano was moving enough to surprisingly bring forth tears. The DVD “Maaya Sakamoto LIVE TOUR 2009 ‘WE ARE KAZEYOMI’” is definitely filled with must-see items! The second disc includes all of the MC’s from the Tokyo performance are included, document footage of the rehearsal and songs that were only performed in Osaka and Nagoya. You can see all the expressions of Maaya Sakamoto, her nervous face from before the real show, her sigh of relief after finishing playing the piano and then her happy tears. And, more than anything, in this package is something that captures both her courage and the audience’s wonderful energy that filled the entire space with warmth. Even the people who couldn’t go to the concert, with one press of the play button everyone can become “Kazeyomi People” with this release. We can all share in the moment when, after reaching an arrival point, a new door opened. A thing that many people have in common that after a career of 14 years, a new door opening at that arrival point. And on the other side of that door, a wonderful song penetrating the soul with a light to fill you with courage

Text: Ueno Shinya

Shounen Alice Track Notes

Shounen Alice Track Notes
Translation by Miyuki

01. uchuuhikoushi no uta : I've come very far but I am still feeling you so close to me.

02. sora wo miro: No one will help you even if you plant yourself on one spot and cry. So get up! On your own!

03. sukurappu ~wakare no uta: We were young.

04. makiba arisu!: All right! Today, the world starts to shine! With the aura of you and me!

05. mahiru ga yuki: When all I want to do is assimilate it all quickly.

06. KINGFISHER GIRL: She continued to sing. Standing on the banks of the river of life, just for the sake of that person.

07. hiiroo: Go ahead and fawn on me.

08. yoru: A night when I am effortlessly dragged into some disorderly place which I never wished for.

9. CALL TO ME: Hallo, moshi moshi*, you're there, aren't you. *as if saying "Hello" on the phone

10. hikare are: A hope that makes you want to still try to believe.

11. chibikko fooku: Just you wait, so I want to tell them. Although someone may say that I will never make it there in time, I will head there. * as in "folk music"

12. park amsterdam (the whole story): The size of their bodies, species or words, the story of a little bird that fell in love with a human, overcoming all things.

13. 03: Very soon, you will open your eyes and return to the real morning. Even if you are unable to recall anything at that time, please don't be sad. While you dozed, I once again held your hand.

14. okitegami (Letter left on a table): And so the story ends. And again, it has started.

Lucy Track Notes

Lucy Album Track Notes
Translation: Roxfan

Lucy
I am me, you are you.
We're totally different, separate persons.
But even so, what if we have just one thing in common?

Mameshiba
If someone is calling my name,
if I can keep calling someone's name,
I feel like I can go to the ends of the earth.

Sutorobo no SOra
Light, an instant of continuity. Sound, a collection of vibrations.
Soon, it covers everything, resounding everywhere.
One day, I will help the Earth move.
[this one was kinda vague, so I took some liberties]

Alkaloid
I am falling for him.
A cup of tea
Back then, I thought tenderly of you.
Since then, I've known tenderness once more.
[not too sure about this one]

Kinobori to Akai Skirt
We are like carrot and beans, always together. When we grow up, let's still be carrot and beans.

Life is good
Baseless self-confidence. That alone is a weapon.

Honey bunny
There is love.
All that's left is money, time and power!

T-shirt
Am I able to love someone that much just because I am weak?

Kuuki to Hoshi
The place you go to, what is it like?
Can't we go together?

Rule~ iro Asenai Hibi
Looking back and looking up are similar things.

Watashi wa Okano Uekara Kabin wo Nageru
I want to feel this wind to the full, since I'll start walking very soon.

Nikopachi Track Notes

I figured since I was archiving translations here anyway, I'd upload the one's I had on my old Maaya Sakamoto website, the now defunct Guitar Chords & Grapefruits. I had a few interesting bits up so I'll start uploading them.

Nikopachi Track Notes
Translated by Boobear and Neoangel-1

Track 1: Yoake no Octave - I'll never forget the concert of that day in Osaka.

Track 2: Hemishpere - You too can burn off the fat (implying it's upper tempo).

Track 3: Daniel - No matter how much it hurts, it's better than not knowing love at all.

Track 4: Bike - Recorded at a London studio

Track 5: Shippo no Uta - A ha ha ha!

Track 6: Yubiwa ~23 carats - I just sang it again. I sing this song a lot during concerts. I really love it. But it's very painful.

Track 7: Ongaku - It's a tough song.

Track 8: Midori no hane - It's a mysterious feeling, like something big and warm mixed with something dark and cold.

Track 9: Shimashima - This one is pretty tricky to follow.

Track 10: Kimidori - To us, ten years from now.

Track 11: tune the rainbow - The need to protect someone has to do with the feeling you need to protect something big.

Track 12: Toto - Recorded on my 22nd Birthday

Track 13: Here - I too, often take a look at myself from far away.

Track 14: vector - Even when I know the answer, there's something I want to ask.

Track 15: The Garden of Everything - Steve emails me, like, all the time (I never reply, because I don't understand english!).

Track 16: gravity - Is there really anything ahead waiting for me, on the path I keep down? The only way to know is to keep moving.