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| Voyage Sans Retour | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 9, 1996 | |||
| Studio | Bazooka, Wonder Beat, Cats [1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:37 | |||
| Label | Midi:Nette | |||
| Producer | Malice Mizer | |||
| Malice Mizer chronology | ||||
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Voyage Sans Retour (French: Journey Without Return) is the second album by Japanese rock band Malice Mizer, released on June 9, 1996. It is their first album with second vocalist Gackt.
Malice Mizer's singer and lyricist Tetsu left the group after a concert on December 27, 1994. After almost a year of inactivity, Malice Mizer recruited Gackt as their new vocalist and released the single "Uruwashiki Kamen no Shoutaijou" on December 10, 1995. With a new concept, the band's music became more art rock and synthpop, incorporating even stronger classical and electronic elements. Visually, they abandoned their 1980s goth look for colorful historical costumes with a gothic feel. It features an instrumental arrangement of a song from the days of the first vocalist, Tetsu. This is the first song to feature Gackt playing the piano and credited for the arrangement.
Voyage was released on June 9, 1996 by guitarist Mana's own record label, Midi:Nette. The first press edition, limited to 5000 copies, came in a plastic slipcase with an additional "Visual Arts Booklet".
The theme of the album is "based on the story of vampires, taking a scalpel to the human world from the vampire's point of view", which also became the concept of their live performances before their major label debut.
Except for Track 7, all the songs subtitles are only included in the lyrics sheet.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Yami no Kanata e~" (闇の彼方へ～) | Mana | 0:26 | |
| 2. | "Transylvania" | Gackt | Mana | 4:01 |
| 3. | "Tsuioku no Kakera" (追憶の破片～a piece of broken recollection～) | Gackt | Mana | 6:21 |
| 4. | "Premier Amour" (premier amour) | Gackt | Mana | 4:55 |
| 5. | "Itsuwari no Musette" (偽りのmusette) | Gackt | Közi | 5:13 |
| 6. | "N.p.s N.g.s" (N・p・s N・g・s～No pains No gains～) | Gackt | Mana | 4:07 |
| 7. | "Claire ~Tsuki no Shirabe~" (claire～月の調べ～; "Melody of the Moon") | Gackt, Közi | Közi | 5:47 |
| 8. | "Madrigal" | Gackt | Közi | 4:03 |
| 9. | "Shi no Butō" (死の舞踏～a romance of the "Cendrillon"～) | Malice Mizer | Mana | 5:25 |
| 10. | "~Zenchō~" (～前兆～) | Mana | 4:19 |
Malice Mizer was a Japanese visual kei rock band active from 1992 to 2001. The band was notable for their music and their live shows, featuring lavish historical costumes and stage sets, short silent theater pieces preluding various songs.
Visual kei, abbreviated v-kei, is a category of Japanese musicians that have a strong focus on extravagant stage costumes that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Koji Dejima of Bounce wrote that visual kei is not a specific sound, but rather it "revolves around the creation of a band's unique worldview and/or stylistic beauty through visual expressions in the form of makeup and fashion". While visual kei acts can be of any music genre, it originated with bands influenced by glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock and gothic rock.
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Mana is a Japanese musician, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer, best known as guitarist of the visual kei rock band Malice Mizer from their formation in 1992 until their indefinite hiatus in 2001. A year later, Mana formed the gothic metal band Moi dix Mois as his solo project.
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Tetsu Takano is a Japanese rock musician and singer-songwriter. He first became known as vocalist of the visual kei rock band Malice Mizer from 1992 to 1994. After leaving them, Tetsu formed and performed with Mega8Ball from 1995 to 1997. From 1999 to 2002 he was part of the supergroup Zigzo, who became quite popular despite being an independent band and reunited in 2012. In addition to Zigzo, Tetsu is currently active in the bands Nil, The JuneJulyAugust, The Black Comet Club Band, and Disco Volante, all of which are on his record label Afro Skull Records.
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