Today Kalafina (Wakana Keiko and Hikaru) announced (1, 2) that they will hold a 「Kalafina Anniversary LIVE 2025」 on January 15, 2025 at Tokyo Garden Theater with music direction by 武部聡志 Satoshi Takebe who was responsible for their earthquake concert and for Wakana’s album “Sono saki e”.
However Yuki Kajiura later twitted in a statement (1, 2, 3) that she was not informed at all about this by either the organisers or the Kalafina members, and she has no involvement, and that she is sad about this development, and any questions about the live should be posed to the Kalafina members, however she seems to accept that they can make their own choices.
google translate:
About Kalafina
I have received some inquiries regarding the announcement of Kalafina’s upcoming live concert, but I, Kajiura Yuki, have no involvement whatsoever in this concert, and I have not received any official notice or explanation from the organizers or any of the members of the group regarding the concert. Given the situation, I am unable to answer any questions. I apologize, but any future inquiries regarding Kalafina should be directed to the organizers of the concert or the agencies of the members.
I believe that the members of Kalafina have decided to leave me as their producer and to start a new Kalafina somewhere I don’t know about. I had been searching for a way to weave Kalafina’s music together again in the future, but that will no longer be the case. It is very unfortunate, but this is the path that each member clearly chose. We are each individuals searching for our own musical path, so things like this happen.
“As you all know, they are three truly wonderful singers. I have no doubt that they will continue to deliver wonderful voices and music to their fans. I would like to express my sincere gratitude once again for the happiness of having had the opportunity to create music together with them for nearly ten years, and I wish Kalafina nothing but success in the future.
Yuki Kajiura
I think most of us at the CPM community have mixed feelings about this, and wait to see how things will turn out…
thanks to Kugayama for the news!
[UPD: 3/10/2024 9:40]
https://x.com/Fion0806/status/1841874170998882762
Earlier Kajiura made another meaningful twit:
蛇足になってしまいますが…たかがプロデューサーが一人離れたくらいで、Kalafinaさんが過去の曲を歌えなくなるなどという事はあり得ませんし、私個人もそんなことは一切望んでおりません。
1月のライブでは素晴らしいハーモニーを響かせて下さるでしょうから、Kalafinaさんの歌にも、そのステージの音を支えるミュージシャンの皆様にもまた、盛大な声援や拍手を送ってあげていただけたらと思います。重ねて、成功をお祈りしております。
(Deep L translation:)
I know it’s a bit of a long shot, but… there is no way that Kalafina will not be able to sing her past songs just because one producer has left, and I personally don’t want that to happen at all.
I am sure that Kalafina will deliver wonderful harmonies at the live concert in January, so I hope that you will give a big cheer and applause again to her songs and to the musicians who support the sound on that stage. Again, we wish you success.
I wish the ladies all the best: I’d be fascinated to see them work together again as a unit(maybe I’ll get my wish to hear them do a cover of the ABBA song ‘Eagle’–you know that’d be amazing!). However, this would be a new phase for them; without Kajiura’s songs, who will be able to create the material to make them shine as bright as before? I’ve been following their solo efforts, and am liking Wakana’s output the most, but for me it’s not been as great as those five albums; to me, ‘Seventh Heaven’ and ‘After Eden’ are Perfect albums. But if Deep Purple was able to do well throughout all their line-up changes, we can’t rule out that Kalafina 3.0 won’t produce good stuff.