Who the Heck is Yohei Shimada?

[Berserk]

I've been bothered by this guy for a long time now. I've always wondered why he arranged songs like Au Revoir, Gekka no, and Le Ciel; I Googled him and apparently he's written and arranged things for Gackt in his solo career too.

Why is this guy writing and arranging songs for these artists? It's irritating/disappointing to see someone outside of the band taking such an active role in Malice Mizer's compositions--it's not like most bands do that, right?

 

[Pierrot]

the wonders of being major and having a team you've to work with. I don't think Gackt bothers getting to know all those buttons on the consoles really O_o;;;.

 

[Kyuketsuki]

It's because they have symphonic instruments in their songs, such as multiple violins ar anything that sounds like there's a small orchestra or band in it- he arranged those parts. It isn't to say he wrote them- MM or whoever wrote the song wrote the parts- this guy just made it fit in with the other melodies and instruments used in the song.

It's like when you pick up a classical piece and it says 'Composed and Arranged by....'

 

[flowersofnight]

Yohei Shimada's also apparently helped out Kozi; he's in the thanks section of Catharsis.

Anyway, I think it's a fairly standard practice to call in an outside hand for strings arrangement. Even Hirasawa, whose musical credentials are beyond reproach, generally had an arranger on his songs that featured strings.

 

[Berserk]

Ah, that makes sense. I suppose not everyone is capable of arranging things appropriately for instruments outside their area of expertise. It just kind of came off as "we can't do it well enough, so this guy helps us", but I didn't consider that he might be arranging more minor things than the entire structure of the song.

Thanks for the enlightenment