ALTAIR

COVER SONG

http://youtu.be/Q3j2GOqNBOo

Music, lyrics, images used in this clip, and all other credits are copyright properties of their respective owners. I do not own any part of them except for my own vocals of course :)

SONG INFORMATIONS

Original Artist: Motohiro Hata meets Sakamichi no Apollon
Music: Yoko Kanno
Lyrics: Motohiro Hata
Available on: Motohiro Hata - Altair (Single)
Taken From: Sakamichi no Apollon (Ending Theme)
Copyright Property: Avex
Cover Recording Date: 2012-06-26 14:13
MORE INFO ABOUT THIS SONG

LYRICS

Ano sakamichi de kimi wo matteita
Houkago no yakusoku ni tooku nijimu sayonara

 As I waited for you on the slope
 From the promise we made after school, a “goodbye” spreads far into the distance

Furimuku kage namae wo yobu koe ga shite
Natsu no owari ni kizuki mo shinai de
Boku wa kimi dake mitsumeta

 A silhouette turning back, a voice calling my name
 I didn’t even notice the end of summer
  Because I was gazing at you the whole time

Yowakute ibitsu de sugu ni kowaresou na ano koro no boku ni ne
Chiisana tsubasa wo kimi ga kureta nda
Yuuyami kashii da sora ni kasuka na hikari sagashiteiru
Kimi ga suki dato suki dato ieta nara

 Weak, twisted, easily broken apart, that was me back then
  But you gave someone like me a small pair of wings
  Looking for a slight trace of light on the sky setting toward dusk
  If only I had told you, if only I had told you that I love you

Kyoukasho no sumi ni kaita tegami wa
Itsumademo todokazu ni ano hi no mama

 The letter I wrote at the corner of the textbook
 Will never be sent, always remaining the way it was on that day

Kokoro de wa mada kimi wo matteita
Sewashinaku sugite yuku hibi no dokoka de kitto

 In my heart, I’m still waiting for you
  Somewhere among the days that pass by in a flurry, surely

Kawatta no wa boku no hou nano kana
Utsuru subete ga tanin no kao shite
Shirajirashiku shizunda

 Am I the one who has changed?
 All I can see around me are strangers with pale, sinking faces 

“Zurusa mo tsukuroi sae mo shikatanai sa”
 Tsubuyaita kotoba wa
 Ikiba wo nakushite futto tokete kieta
 Yuuyami ukanda hoshi wa
 Maru de ano hi no kimi no you ni
 Tayorinai ima wo yasashiku terashiteru

 “Being cunning or keeping up appearances, they can’t be helped”
  Those words that I whispered have lost their place
  Melting suddenly and vanishing into thin air
  Like you on that day, the stars that appear at dusk
  Are kindly lighting up this unreliable moment

 Wasurenai yo

 I will never forget you

 Utsurou kaze ni itsuka no yume ga kasunde mo kizutsuite mo
 Sore demo kawaranai taisetsu na mono idaite
 Bokura wa kyou wo ikiru

 Amidst the changing winds, even if the dreams we had become fogged or bruised
  We will still hold on to those unchanging, precious things
  As we continue to live our lives today

 GARASU wa kudakete mune ni sasatta mama
 Nibuku itamu keredo
 Kira kira mabayui hikari ranhansha suru
 Yuuyami magireta machi e
 Nagai sakamichi aruite yuku
 Kimi no kakera wa itsumo koko ni aru kara

 The broken glass pieces are still stuck on my chest
  Slowly giving out pain, but at the same time
  They are reflecting glittery, dazzling light in all directions
  At dusk, I walk on the long slope among the crowd on the street
  Because pieces of you will always remain here 

 Bokura no te to te ga musunda seiza wa
 Hanarete mo hanarete mo kagayaiteru

 The constellation that joined our hands together
  Even if we’re apart, even if we’re apart, it will keep on shining

 

 

NOTE: Lyrics from Twilight Paradise with a few adjustments from other site, and translation from JPOP Time...

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

I'm back from the dead haha....

Well, long story short, I sent my laptop to the service center at the start of June, it got repaired (thankfully it didn't cost too much as I predicted) about several days, but it went into monitoring / evaluation mode for 2 weeks, to check if any of the bad sympthoms were returning or not. After that, I thought I could finally be able to do regular stuffs with it, but then an unexpected attack came towards my personal health (again), hitting me with a possible dengue-fever-thingy. I was down for more than a week and had to take medicine (which eventually cost more than the repair T_T). I'm still feeling not completely in full prime at the moment I'm publishing this post, but I managed to record this song sometime last week. A problem after another kept on coming though, during the time I did the recording, my laptop started giving me danger alerts again with the previous symptoms. I guess it has become really volatile for excessive processing after all, thus, it took me 4 days to finish the recording for this song (due to the occasional long rests in between) and around 3 days to be able to do the video, because apparently the processor seemed to be reacting more negatively to video processing. At least now I've kinda got a clearer hint to the 'crook' behind the damage to my laptop.

I had to record this song, because it's an awesome song. This is the ending theme of probably, my most favorite yet hated series of the Spring 2012 season. Oh, special thanks to a certain someone who has been kind enough to provide the episodes due to my inability to download them personally during my off days. What series is that? For any of you who've been following my tumblr, you would notice a frequent post of the show (yes, once in a while I 'forced' my laptop to make a quick post / queue for them haha, luckily I always managed to get it done before being shut down uncomfortably by my laptop T_T).

Sakamichi no Apollon is an awesome series, musically (it's about jazz) and dramatically (the winner of the 57th Shogakukan Manga Award). However, it's also an emotional slap for me personally, because the events on the series felt so real... probably because I've been through similar situations and it felt like seeing my own story being retold from different perspectives by the main characters. This is the reason why I had this strange love but hate feel for it. I was about to drop the series around the first episodes because to be honest I'd avoid drama-thingy if I could... but eventually, it kept me hanging on to the very final episode with all the twists and melancholic shocks. I'm not ashamed to say this: don't be shocked if you found me trembling holding back tears after watching some episodes, or covering my eyes with my t-shirt to wipe them. It's painful, but yet it's touching (sweet?) at the same time. It's addictive in its own way, forcing you to root and feel the emotional ups and downs between the 3 loveable main protagonists and even the sub charas.

I highly recommend this series though, especially for those who likes music (jazz...), so try and watch it if you can... if it can moved a cold guy like me in such a strong way, I'm sure it'll do the same to many other viewers. FYI, the series officially ended two days ago, on Thursday, but I decided to wait until I got my hand on (and watch) the conclusion before publishing this. Yeah, and obviously the editing was not even finished back then. A little warning, the final episode drenched me down to tears, but in the most satisfying way. I melted down with such warm smile yet very wet eyes, feeling so relieved that it ended not the way I feared it would be. That's a good thing!

A little warning for this song as well, eventhough it's VEERRYY beautifuly done (well, what more can you expect from a masterpiece collaboration of Yoko Kanno-sensei & Motohiro Hata?), the song truly has a melancholic bittersweet aftertaste. If you pay closer attention to the lyrics, it's indeed a SAD and DEPRESSING song, that speaks about goodbyes and being separated... and it's actually hinting so deep about the finale (a complete summary of the series in general). It's totally impossible for me (especially during such mellow moments I'm still struggling now) to finish singing this song without being broken down into tears. As I said, I've lived through most of the dramas of the story, and it goes the same with the song, as I ventured through each lyrics. I don't think I should explain more by saying that, singing the song feels like re-telling another one of my own story, and somehow brings back painful memories of the past (and the present). Thankfully, watching as well as reading the conclusion to the story, made me see this song in a whole new light (by the time I'm writing). I can finally understand what Kanno-sensei and Hata-kun meant in the final part of the song.       

Please pardon for the lack of quality in the result, due to some reasons.

1. Many things (or is it everything?) on my laptop felt... WRONG? Probably the word's too harsh, so I'll use DIFFERENT instead. Yup, after I got it back from the service center... things felt different for me. The oversensitive microphone, the overly loud sound result, the feedback, the unable-to-do-more-than-just-a-couple-of-hours CPU processing, extra noise (due to additional fans perhaps?). Well, the whole thing felt different. Somehow, I suspected that I need to re-configure everything from zero again before I do any more editing. It gave off weird result because the usual sound editing simply didn't work... at all... and I had to tweak the result differently.      
2. It's been a while since I could do any sound editing and eventhough I'm much better, my current health condition still distracted my so badly during this one. So I'm sure the editing didn't sound too perfect here or there. Meh, I couldn't even stand the pain on my arms and my head for more than several hours during the process. Luckily (even when it's actually bad) the occasional danger alert by the laptop forced me to definitely take a break.
3. I haven't sang properly (or at all hahaha) so my voice might sound a little weird. Heck, it sound weirdly different actually... perhaps because of the effect of the medicine I took, or the change to the food intake because I had to avoid this and that. Oh, and I must admit that final chorus is a bit too high for my range (totally forget that I CAN lower the key). So... pardon if it sounds off or pitchy here or there. This is a cover, so please don't EVER expect it to sound or go as near as Motohiro Hata's glass voice. Mine's probably much suited to be called a broken glass cover XD
4. I haven't been able to conclude singing this song without drenching myself in emotion, no matter how many times I did the re-take. So you might hear some obvious tremblings on my voice... can't help it Y_Y. God, I really need to work on my emotion control to avoid over-drowning myself in a song melancholically.
5. Eventhough I wanted to publish a better video, finishing this alone already took a toll on my laptop, that it almost lost it again during the rendering part. Plus I'm still using the shitty internet, so trying to upload a huge file will be a total trouble. Publishing this one even took 2 hours with constant dreadful alert that my laptop could snap out any minute T_T. Beside, I'm not online 24/7 anymore... so I'm quite in a limited resource right now.

So there you go. Probably not the very best result I can deliver, due to the many 'different' things I mentioned above... but definitely one of my personal favorite for sure simply because it feels personal. As I said, watching the ending gave a new meaning to the song, so I'm listening to it in a much better (hopeful) light. By the way, I'm SO glad that they didn't use this song during the finale scene, otherwise it would've knocked me down melancholically even worse hahaha. I hope you like it, and I hope you give a chance of the show as well (if you haven't done it). The manga/show might not work for every viewer, but it will surely be a charm for those who have a heart and appreciate true friendship (and bromance XD). It's a slice of life fiction, but one that feels so real and familiar. The same goes to the song, all credits for this amazing piece (that beautiful music, that spoilery touching lyric) goes to Kanno-sensei and Hata-san. I'm feeling so deeply honored to be able to sing this song, albeit only a fan-made cover.

See you again (hopefully SOON, and not after another long hiatus XD), and hope you have a nice weekend! Bye for now...

~Furede Riko

PS: Specially dedicated to those who are dear to me: to my "Sentaro", as well as my "Kaoru"s and "Ritsuko"s wherever you are...

"...Friendships are for life..." (Sentaro Kawabuchi) 

ORIGINAL SONG

Here's the original song, of course with the original glass voice of the actual singer ;)

Motohiro Hata meets Sakamichi no Apollon - ALTAIR

Enjoy!

-oOo-

What's Next?
- ...Well, still in hiatus mode with all the issues going on, so here's hoping for a proper comeback in a near future...