Stamped: May 23rd, 2007 | Related Posts
Tagged: Akino Arai, anime soundtrack, noir, yuki kajiura, Yuri Kasahara, yuriko kaida.

As promised, here are my favortie excerpts from Master Kajiura’s Noir soundtracks.
“Noir” marks the beginning of success for Yuki Kajiura in 2001, this acclaimed OST is a breakthrough in the Japanese animation as for the first time we can hear in an anime soundtrack a successful but daring combination of electro beats and operatic chants mixed with a French sounds atmosphere (As the scene takes place in Paris and one of the main character, Mireille Bouquet as Corsican origins).

There are 3 “Noir” soundtracks. OST1, 2 and an extra one named “Noir sur Blanc” (Black on white). As you can hear in all the soundtracks, there are a lot of sung tracks, which is also very distinctive of Yuki Kajiura. She is the one who introduced more singing in the usually instrumental anime soundtracks.

I put the soundtracks in order, beginning with number 1 and finishing with nuimber 3. As always it has been a bit of a problem to organize the tracks within the playlist but basically I tried to gather all the sung tracks together, but I kind of failed of course, so you will have some instrumental interludes from time to time.

OST 1

1. Les soldats: Modern and traditional at the same time, just like the anime that takes place in modern Paris but also in a remote and secluded from modernity place in southern France. Gregorian chants mixed with modern arrangements, beats, electric guitars… You name it, Yuki does it for it.

2. Zero Hour: I just love that song, it just so calming, relaxing but also sad. It’s so tender, it’s like a caress, a soft whisper to my ears that tells me that everything is gonna be alright.

3. Canta per me: One of the most famous track of this soundtrack, very present in throughout the anime. There are several version of “Canta per me” in the soundtracks. This version is the anime one, sung by Youriko Kaida. There is a Japanese version sung by the main character ’s seiyuu Houko Kuwashima (Kirika). There is one beautiful one (my fave one actually) in Yuki Kajiura’s solo album “Fiction” sung by Deb Lyons.

4. Salva Nos: The most famous track of “Noir” with the infamous operactic chant mixed with the techno beats. Absolutely gorgeous, and one of my fave Kajiura songs, this original version is sung by Youriko Kaida. There are several remix of this track in the soundtracks. I did put one from the “Noir sur Blanc” soundtrack.
But my favorite one is of course the one sung byYuri Kasahara in the “Fiction” album, it is absolutely blissful!
You can hear it in a previous post about Yuki here: Salva Nos

5. Kireina na Kanjou: “Beautiful Emotions” This is the anime’s ending song, it’s composed and sung by Akino Arai and arranged by Hisaaki Hogari. So it’s NOT a Kajiura artwork, but I love it so I decided to put it in the playlist.

OST 2

6. A Farewell Song: Well it starts like an ordinary song, it feels like you’re in Paris, walking along the Seine river… but wait until you hear Yuri Kasahara’s delighting angel operatic voice, it’s a blessing.

7. Killing: Background vocals are beautiful, I presume it is Yuri Kasahara’s performance again. All of that high-pitched singing mixed with distorted electric guitars, saxo and electro beats come along beautifully.

8. Secret Games: Yuri Kasahara’s singing performance in this very sad and slow song is mesmerizing. Very solemn.

OST 3, Noir sur Blanc

9. Prelude: A prelude to ease the passage from OST 2 to OST 3. Very short, but I love it, it’s like a ray of light.

10. Lullaby (Japanese Version): I already mentioned that song in a previous post where you could found different versions of that song. http://egocentric.free.fr/?p=85. So here it goes again, the beautiful lullaby sung by Tarako in Japanese.

11. Salva Nos (Dialogue remix version): Another salva Nos version.

12. Melody (Salva Nos version): One of the main theme of the anime remixed. I love it. Sung by Yuriko Kaida, it’s really a beautiful version.

13. Church: To end this tracklist by the same style that began it, “Church”, with Gregorian chants.