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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Rie Sugimoto -- Beyond The Maze (迷宮の彼方)


Sometimes I end up finding odd stuffs. The latest was Rie Sugimoto (杉本理恵), an aidoru who won a contest organized by Nihon Falcom Corporation (日本ファルコム株式会社), a video game company, and became the spokesgirl for the Ys series (Ys is an RPG video game series and, according to Wikipedia, second only to Final Fantasy as the largest Eastern role-playing game). She also won a record contract and released some albums with songs arranged after the Ys series soundtracks. It’s a complicated story that I don’t really know about. But what really matters for us, here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, is the music.

Released in August 1992, the album "Heal Ring" contains this melodic song called "Beyond The Maze". Although Rie was a very weak singer, this song is actually pretty nice. The arrangement is beautiful with all the "celtic flutes" (or are they just synths?) and the Latin rhythms in the background. As for Rie, she sings “Beyond The Maze” like what I imagine an elf would sound.

Apparently, “Beyond The Mazed” is the "vocal version" of this Ys song called "Subterraneal Canal". There are a lot of different versions of this song, and I'm almost certain that the one presented below is not the original as the original is probably full of synths as every other video game music from the late 80s/early 90s. On the other hand, the melody is the same, which makes the comparison with Rie's vocal version possible. The resemblances between them are very subtle, though. And I must admit that I quite liked this instrumental song too.


Lyrics were written by Matsui Goro (松井五郎), while music was composed by Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. As for the arrangement, Shoko Honma (本間昭光) was the responsible.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Marcos. This song was a pleasant surprise to me. The celtic flutes are a neat touch indeed. Never heard of Rie Sugimoto before so I sampled some of her other songs on Youtube. This song and a few other tracks from "Heal Ring" strike me as part of this trend that started in the late 80's and flourished in early 90's where a lot of songs used for anime and video games would have this mystical or fairy tale feel. It always sounded so nostalgic to me.

    Thanks very much for bringing this song to light. :)

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    1. Hi, nikala. It's my pleasure to share this nice song.

      I know how you feel. Rie is a very underground aidoru.

      Her "Heal Ring" album has quite a few gems. I plan to buy a copy if I come across it on ebay.

      And I know this mystical or fairy tale feel you mentioned. I can think of quite a few anime songs with that vibe, and I like it a lot. It's something different to look up.

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  2. Hey, Marcos. And thanks for bringing up this song. Although it's great talking about the usual big hits here, it's also nice when one of us digs up those odd nuggets, isn't it?

    Like nikala, I'd never heard of Rie Sugimoto either, and yes, admittedly, she doesn't have the strongest vocals, but I think for what she was singing and the music surrounding her, she made for a good fit for "Beyond The Maze". I've always thought it was interesting when the composer and arranger brought in instrumentation that was a little out of the ordinary. Kyoko Koizumi's "Kogarashi ni Dakarete" is a song that "Beyond The Maze" reminded me of.

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    1. Hi, J-Canuck.

      I agree with you. It's really nice to talk about a hiddem gem sometimes.

      It's very nice when they pull something out of the box and result in an interesting sounding song. I've been listening a lot to Kyon Kyon recently and "Kogarashi ni Dakarete" really stands out for me. It mixes the ethnic and mysterious instrumental with a rock feel. The result is very nice.

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