Eternal Melody II is the second classical studio album by Japanese musician

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "justice, opportu ...

. It was released on March 23, 2005.

Overview

In 1993, Yoshiki recorded his first classical studio album, ''

Eternal Melody Eternal Melody is the first classical studio album by Japanese musician Yoshiki. It was released on April 21, 1993. Overview In 1991, Yoshiki released his first album, classical compilation ''Yoshiki Selection'', which included various classica ...

'', in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at the studios owned by English record producer

Sir George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beat ...

, who produced and co-arranged the album, with the music performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

. It mostly included orchestral arrangements of songs from his band

X Japan was a Japanese rock band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer and pianist Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Starting as a predominantly power/speed metal band with heavy symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive soun ...

. This second album was recorded in the

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

; in his own Extasy Recording Studio,

O'Henry Sound Studios O'Henry Sound Studios was a commercial studio complex in Burbank, California, that was owned by engineer Hank Sanicola and his wife, Jacqueline Sanicola.

, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Scoring Stage M facility. All songs were written and composed by Yoshiki.

Composition

The albums contains two songs from his first single "Amethyst", the title track and "Ima wo Dakishimete". The second song was also released as a single in

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

adaptation, in 1994 was the 35th annual best-selling single, and won the "Excellence Award" at the ''

36th Japan Record Awards The 36th Japan Record Awards were held on December 31, 1994, and were broadcast live on TBS. Award winners *Japan Record Award: **Takeshi Kobayashi (producer), Kazutoshi Sakurai (Songwriter and Composer) & Mr. Children for " Innocent World" *Bes ...

''. There are two orchestral arrangements of

's songs "

Longing Longing may refer to: Music * ''Longing'' (Bell Witch album) (2012) * ''Longing'' (Dusty Springfield album), an unreleased 1974 album * "Longing" (song), a 1994 song by X Japan * "Longing", a song by Gackt from '' Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantas ...

" and " Forever Love", studio versions of songs from Yoshiki's symphonic concerts held in 2002, and the new song "Without You". It also includes songs by his solo project Violet UK, "Unnamed Song" and "Red Christmas". The first features female singer Daughter, who performed it in his concerts in 2002. The song "I'll Be Your Love" could possibly belong to his solo project as it was also performed for the first time in 2002, sung by

Nicole Scherzinger Nicole Scherzinger (; born Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Valiente, June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She is best known as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, one of the best-selling g ...

. However, the song was released in 2003 as the debut single for American-Japanese female singer Dahlia, and was used as the theme song for the world fair

Expo 2005 Expo 2005 was a World Expo held for 185 days between Friday, March 25 and Sunday, September 25, 2005, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, east of the city of Nagoya. Japan has also hosted Expo '70 Osaka (World Expo), Expo '75 Okinawa (Specialised Expo), ...

, held in Japan, where Yoshiki conducted the orchestra in the opening ceremony. The album also includes; an orchestrated version of, one of the few songs he contributed while in

Tetsuya Komuro is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is recognized as the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced contemporary electronic dance music to the Japanese mainstream. He was also a former owner of the ...

's pop band

Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...

, "Seize the Light", the theme song "Kimi Dake Dakara" for the TV

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

's 50th anniversary commemorative broadcast, and the song "Anniversary" which he composed and performed at the request of the Japanese government at a celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of Emperor

Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Bo ...

's enthronement in 1999.

Release

The album was released on March 23, 2005, by

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

. It debuted in third place on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

daily charts, and reached number fourteen on the weekly chart in the initial counting week of April, with sales of 16,241 copies, and charted for six weeks.

Track listing

Recording personnel

* Piano & harpsichord: Yoshiki * Vocals: Daughter (T-1) * Orchestra arrangement: Yoshiki,

Shelly Berg Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg (born August 18, 1955) is an American classical and jazz pianist and music educator. He is the dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and the school's Patricia L. Frost P ...

Ikurō Fujiwara , is a Japanese pianist, composer, conductor and musical producer signed under Being Inc. He is Pops Executive Producer in the Pacific Philharmonia Tokyo orchestra. Biography Ikurō started learning piano and composing from an early age. He stud ...

Dick Marx Richard Henry Marx (April 12, 1924 – August 12, 1997) was an American jazz pianist and arranger. He also composed for film, television, and commercials. Personal life Marx and wife Ruth (née Guildoo) had a son, Richard Marx, pop singer, s ...

* Recording engineer:

Steve Churchyard Steve Churchyard is an English record producer, recording engineer and mixer who began his career at Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. He currently resides in the United States. He has been nominated for 15 Grammy awards. In 2008 he wo ...

, Tar Miller, Hideaki Okuhara, Suga Takao * Mixing engineer:

Joe Chiccarelli Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

, Steve Schurchyard, Rich Breen, Suga Takao

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Yoshiki (musician) albums