 WIN THIS POSTER! Maru Music has donated a Kanon Wakeshima poster for me to give away in a contest. UPDATE: Contest has ended, congrats to the winner, Terrik! |
Kanon Wakeshima is a classically trained cellist turned pop singer. She’s a poster-girl for the gothic-lolita subculture which heavily influences both her music and fashion-sense. Featuring heavy orchestration, her debut album Shinshoku Dolce is very cinematic sounding – If one imagines a pop-music rendition of a Tim Burton film it might end up like this.
Shinshoku Dolce features a heavy dose of Wakeshima’s cello mixed with electronic pop production. The production is excellent, and helps to enhance Wakeshima’s unique sound with a mixture of synthesizers and classical instruments (including harpsichord, piano, glockenspiel and strings).
‘Shinku No Fatarythm’ is a standout track. The song combines all sorts of sounds and everything falls into place. Wakeshima’s cello playing and vocals are at their best here, and the rest of the instrumentation is a shifting web of textures that serve the song perfectly.
‘Ennui Kibun!’ brings Wakeshima’s vocals to the foreground. The instrumentation is fairly minimal and this song features some of the best harmonies of the album.
It’s followed by ‘Suna No Oshiro’, which is much more atmospheric. During the verses Wakeshima sings in a whisper to great effect. The orchestra is very heavy and foreboding and includes a massive sounding church organ. Probably the most epic song on the album, and one of the best.
The area where I can find fault is that the production is sometimes too clean. There are moments during ‘L’espoir – Mahou No Akai Ito’ where live drums would have conveyed much more energy than a drum machine. This could have been a great song, but without an energetic drum performance it doesn’t reach its full potential.
This isn’t an album that I really expected to enjoy all that much but I am glad to be surprised. Shinshoku Dolce features great songwriting and a really interesting sound. I’d like to hear Kanon Wakeshima come out with something more live sounding, featuring less electronic sequencing, but Shinshoku Dolce is a strong debut and she’s definitely an artist to watch.
Kanon Wakeshima MySpace, official website.
Buy Shinshoku Dolce at Maru Music (Kanon Wakeshima’s record label) or at 
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