Keiko Kumagai - Ars Nova (rock symphonique)

je ne sais pas comment positionner ce topic dans Kagen no tsuki, je le pose ici en attendant.

ce matin, en faisant un peu le tour de mes liens, j'ai trouvé un petit article intéressant sur un groupe de filles, dans un domaine musical où je ne m'attendais pas à trouver des japonaises. il s'agit du groupe Ars Nova, rock symphonique ou progressif suivant la terminologie des spécialistes.

pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas, vaut mlieux ne pas se fixer sur cette image des trois mignonettes en kimono, leur musique est complétement à l'opposée de cette image. Keiko Kumagai (au milieu) est leader, virtuose aux claviers. Mika Nakajima est second clavier (à droite). à gauche, l'autre petite ange est batteuse et percussioniste c'est Akiko Takahashi.

Keiko Kumagai et Shinko "Panky" Shibata qui est la nouvelle bassiste.

sur scène en 2003

je vais rassembler des éléments bientôt, sans être actrice ni chanteuse, Keiko Kumagai entre parfaitement dans l'esprit de Kagen no tsuki. ça serait dommage de passer à coté de ce phénomène.

Site officiel Ars Nova (japanse/english)

Une autre ressource intéressante (english)

petit extrait du précédent lien :
And there they were: our three Japanese girls, so tiny they'd easily fit in the glove compartment of your car. Although they look like they've just left Legoland, they play the most outrageous, adult, and complex music...

sweetdream

C'est du classique gothique !!! J'ai ecouté quelques extraits et j'accroche vraiment pas aux mélodies... trop de fouillis , trop brouillon pour moi...
Mais c'est quand meme pas mal de découvrir des nouveautés.
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when the sun comes up, i miss the moon

j'ai regardé le clip sur YOUTube je sais pas si c'est youtuBE ou le clip mais j'aime pas tellement cette musik Suspect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5vCoyZGCRw <--- celui là

queen

Ca fait limite musique amateur.... ca sonne faux.... ca fait mal a mes petites oreilles.... de plus t'as l impression qu'elles passent d 'une mélodie a une autre y'a pas de transitions...
Si elles ont beaucoup de succès au pays de soleil levant alors moi aussi je peux me lancer rock star demain mdr !!!
ARF que je suis méchante ....
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when the sun comes up, i miss the moon

dark, la chanson que songe a postée n'est pas terrible, c'est vrai. en plus dans cette vidéo qui date de 2003, la percussioniste est un percussioniste, ce qui enlève beaucoup au charme de la musique. depuis hier je n'ai pas trouvé d'autre vidéo que celle postée sur Youtube. d'ailleurs je l'ai convertie en fichier avi ce matin, on ne sais jamais.

Ars Nova n'est pas très connu en fait, mais fonctionne bien dans les pays qui ont un peu la culture rock progressif, c'est tellement loin des productions Hello ! Project ou autres artistes japonaises dont on parle dans le forum. personnellement je ne suis pas très fan de cette musique mais j'ai un petit faible pour les morceaux symphoniques au synthé (culturel sans doute) mais surtout que c'est un noyau féminin asiatique qui donne vie à cette formation (là c'est de la pure vanité sans doute héritée de mes racines)

I have God Of Darkness, Book of the deat and Biogenesis Project albums. Let me know if you re interested.

Powerful rock, amazing it was done by so little girls!

not my cup of tea~! this music hurts my ears~!

Hello

It must listen with better quality of track and most tracks, personaly, I found it's an original music like "symphonic rock"...special but I like this : singing :
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The love is our reason to exist...tenderness is our tool!

tendresse, c'est vrai qu'il faut se laisser un peu de souplesse quand on découvre un nouveau groupe, spécialement si c'est instrumental. en ce moment je me concentre sur leur troisième album, Goddess of darkness qui compte quelques compositions d'une densité inouïe.

petit rectificatif au premier post de présentation, voici une photo des trois membres du groupe à l'origine. de gauche à droite : Kyoko Kanazawa (basse), Keiko Kumagai (claviers) et Yumiko Saito (percussions)

voici une photo qui correspond a ma première photo postée, c'est la formation en 2003. de gauche à droite : Keiko Kumagai (claviers), Akiko Takahashi (percussions) et Mika Nakajima (claviers).

more pictures from this amazing girl band.

Yumiko Saito (drums percussions), Keiko Kumagai (keyboards) and Kyoko Kanazawa (bass guitar)

scan from the back cover of Fear and anxiety japanese edition

sweetdream

I too have the three albums mentioned by Dr. Wang. I see huge ELP influence from the 1970's time period. They are bombastic in their appoach and aggressive with their repetition of a great riff, misically dynamic, and not at all sublte...and I like them alot! I wish I could play drums like Akiko Takahashi Shocked

. Very complex stuff going that's for sure. But I must admit...if you don't like Progressive Rock, these girls might be kind of hard to like...they are a tad over the top!
cherry

And I am looking hard for their other albums but have yet to locate them Crying or Very sad

Hello Prisoner,

If the Ars Nova band's music is fresh in my mind, the music style was not. I've heard many things like that when I was a child. my parents used to listen a lot of music, among Depeche mode, Pink floyd, Gary Newman, Kitaro, Isao Tomita and other there was some bands like Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rick Wakeman (as soloist), other german synthy bands like Tangerine dream and an other german synthy soloist I've simply forgot is unpronounceable name "Klaus something".

that's true, first time I've listened Ars Nova, was an obvious link toward ELP's work. smashing girls, they have not choose the most simple partitions available!

I'm curently focusing on the Goddess of darkness album, with specially mention for the piece named Kali. I think I have all their albums and I've extended my researches on one other album released in association with another Progressive rock band : Gerard. this album is named Keyboards triangle. And guess what ? Ars Nova is playing one of the most unplayable piece of ELP's repertory, Tarkus! it's astounding result. sure, they can't replicate the piece and none of the girls was able to sing the lyric part they just done some "lalala" instead of it. awesome. as a fan you should listen that.

these last days I've also done some investigations on Ars Nova's fansites. the official fansite admin seems to be a girl very close to the band, but unfortunately she don't support anymore the guestbook. we came on this band too late in my opinion, but I think it's always possible to take a contact with Keiko Kumagai. we have plenty of time.

Hello best chemistry...

thank you for that very informative reply...
I wonder how you managed to get all Ars Nova's material? bounce

I love the music you were rhyming off, and the name you had trouble with was Klause Schultz. I have much of his material. sunny

I am at work now...so I will come back to this topic soon.

Have a great day

Hmmmph! Okay I am back from work and I must say that I have some very good MP3 download sites that I rely on and I cannot find anything but the 3 albums I already have Exclamation

I am likely giving my age away when I say this, but I have seen ELP 3 times. Ars Nova is the only band that has been able to re-create their spitit. Many bands in the 70's tried (Triumvirat probably being the closest)...but what they could not do was recreate the 3 part complexities that ELP gave...and the drumming parts always failed. Ars Nova can to that! It is amazing really. They take the absolute best that ELP can give and they carry it out...all the time.

I saw a documentary many years ago with ELP and some dimwit was asking what gave them their sound. Kieth Emerson replied simply, saying that was strictly due to the ability of Carl Palmer to play on drums what he was playing on keyboards. Simple eh? ...Exept that it is not! The drummer almost always follows the bass player, not the keyboard player. Anyway, that was the secret behind ELP, and Ars Nova are the only band I have heard who have picked up on this...and can carry it off!

Of course when you have a whole array of drums in front of you...it's not just how you play, but what you play. Akiko Takahashi impressed me by how she played and what she played. She had Carl Palmer down pat...and that is exceptional praise.

The staccatto riffs the jagged accents, the complex meodies and the amazing interweaving of melodic nuances...sigh. Only ELP and Ars Nova have been able to do this...Best Chemisty, if these girls could duplicate Tarkus, they are something special indeed ( and I think I already knew that). If you are at all interested in this music and have not heard of Triumvirat...I can give you the links. Camel are pretty impressive too. Anyway, that's enough of this non-Asian stuff.

But Ars Nova are something else! AND...best chemistry, if you are able to make contact with Keiko Kumagai, tell her that some Canadian honkey wouldn't mind playing drums for her...I can do guitar too!

Adding to your already great collection of pictures...this is a pdf file I made up via Indesign...

Hello Prisoner,

A picture festival dedicated to this beautiful girl, who could complaint ?