こんにちは、土屋です。
ガストのある長野では遂に12月1日、雪が降りました。そして先週は遂に雪が積もりました…。このプロジェクトを始めて2度目の雪です。去年の今頃、まだ設定を作り、凪良さんとキャラ絵を詰めていた頃を思い出すと、随分時が経ったものだとしみじみ思います。あの頃は、一年後の今頃は何をしているかなぁ…ソフトできてるかなぁ…(おい)と、よく想いふけっていましたが。
さて、第5回目に引き続き、歌い手さんにお願いするきっかけをお話ししていきましょう。2回目は志方あきこさんです。
志方さんを知ったのは、実は一年と数ヶ月前です。アルトネリコという企画が走り始めた後、友人から「凄く素敵な歌い手さんがいる」と紹介してもらいました。そのサンプルをMDでいただいたのですが、一発で気に入ってしまって、その返事に「この人プロかなぁ、仕事やってもらえるかなぁ」と聞いてしまったほどです。その後、すぐにネットを検索して、サイト「VAGRANCY」を発見、感想と一緒にCDを注文しました。そしてここで驚くべき事実が1つあったのです。志方さんは私(土屋)の事を知っていたのです。そんなこんなで、志方さんにお時間頂いて、今回のアルトネリコの企画のお話をしました。
志方さん自身、やはりファンタジー世界が大好きで、アルトネリコの世界観をとても気に入っていただけました。純粋な剣と魔法のファンタジーもいいけど、それにプラスしたロストテクノロジーと謎のある世界って更にいいよね!なんて話もしていたくらい。また、ご自身でとても世界観を膨らませるのが上手な方でしたので、私自身も志方さんから様々なモノを頂きました。
世界観を固めている時期にずっと聞いていたCDが「廃墟と楽園(志方さんのインディーズアルバム)」という事もあり、その楽曲イメージからエッセンスを沢山頂いていたりします。例えば、廃墟と楽園収録曲「ロマの娘」はほたる横丁の庶民生活に、「MARE」は塔中腹の氷の瞳、テル族の町イム・フェーナに、そして「Se l'aura spira」「ラヂヲ予報」はホルスの翼の風吹き抜けるイメージ…など、かなり具体的なイメージと直結しています。そして、意外と思われるでしょうが、そんな志方さんに一番最初にお願いしたのは、実は「作曲」でした。もちろんその後すぐ(5分後くらい?)に歌も一緒にお願いしているのですが、それくらい彼女の曲に魅力を感じていたのです。
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Hello everyone, I am Tsuchiya.
The snow finally began falling here at Nagoya, where Gust it's located. And so, during the last week, a lot of snow has piled up... This is the second snowfall since this project began. I remember that last year, around this time, I was still creating the setting, and still designing the characters with Nagi-san. I earnestly think that quite a time has passed. At that time, I was wondering where I would be in a year... and if it would be possible to make this into a game... (hey!), and... and that was what I frequently felt back then.
And continuing where we left off in the fifth issue, I will continue talking about how I asked the singers to participate in this project. This time, it will be about Shikata Akiko-san.
Actually, I have known about Shikata-san since around a year ago. After we began working on the Ar tonelico Project, one of my friends told me that [there was an incredibly wonderful singer]. And while he gave a sample of that singer, at the time I was quite pleased with it, and I asked him [This person is a pro, I wonder if she would accept to work with us]. After that, I began looking for information about her in the web, and I found her [VAGRANCY] site, in which, following the impressions I had about her, I ordered one of her CDs. And the truth was it was quite an astonishing thing to me. Shikata-
san already knew about me (Tsuchiya). And in that way, it was that I managed to find a chance to talk with Shikata-san, and I talked to her about our current project: Ar tonelico.
Shikata-san herself, as I thought, also likes a lot the fantasy worlds, and as such, the world setting of Ar tonelico also greatly caught her attention. Even if it was just a pure magic and sword fantasy world it would have been okay, but she liked it even more after she heard that this world setting also had the mystery of the lost technologies! Well, the conversation flowed more or less like that. Also, even I received many favors from Shikata-san, because of how skillfully I was handling the expansion of the world setting.
The vision of the world I had just solified forever after I listened to the [Ruins and Heaven] CD (one of Shikata-san's indies albums), because I could draw many inspirations from the images that these songs gave me. For example, one of its songs, [Girl of the Roma], allowed me to imagine how the people of Firefly Alley lived, while [MARE] gave me the inspiration for the middle areas of the Tower: the town where the Teru live: Em Pheyna, and the Frozen Eye, and finally, both [Se l'Aura Spira] and [Radio Broadcast] gave me the image of the wind blowing throughout the Wings of Horus... well,
they have quite a considerable connection to how I materialized these images in the game. And well, while it might be somewhat unexpected to thing about this, the main reason I wanted to ask Shikata-san to work in this project was actually
because of her [composition abilities]. Of course, I asked her immediately after (around five minutes later?) to sing as well, because I felt that her songs all had a characteristic charm.
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