【予選1st 第18ブロックA】OTONOVA2023 - Participation Report

I am very happy that Mudia exists and supports artists of all kinds. I am glad that events such as Otonova2023 are organised, which I am participating in for the first time.

As someone for whom life would be empty without music, I am even more excited about the Otonova2023 event and looking forward to all the performers taking part.

The course of the first qualification of this block 18 A was very interesting and exciting, as we were able to witness the confrontation of participants representing different musical genres and artistic achievements. It was also noticeable that the criteria for choosing to support a particular performer varied widely: admiration for their work, familiarity with a particular performer, following the majority of people.

Congratulations to all the performers taking part in Otonova2023 for their excellent participation! It was a really exciting duel, which in this group resulted in the following outcome:

1. Relax-JAM

Congratulations to RELAX-JAM for winning first place 🥇 in this qualifying group and advancing to the next stage. Please continue to give your best 💪 .

Relax-JAM is an original band founded in 2013, which originates from Gifu Prefecture on the island of Honsiu. The band consists of five talented members with different stories: CHIEMI (vocalist & guitarist), なっちゃん (keyboard & vocals & choruses), Shoooooji (guitarist & choruses), shin-chang (bassist & choruses), K (drums & choruses). The band has been actively delivering nostalgic, familiar tunes for nine years of existence and specialises primarily in improvised music. It is very unusual how their songs are able to sound completely different every time they are played, for example Satori or Cosmic World. I recommend visiting their channel (@relax-jam8773) on Youtube, where we can check out numerous recordings of their live performances and be transported into an extraordinary world of different sounds.

I am very curious to see how their future will turn out in the Otonova2023 competition.

2 ZEYΣ

In second place with 16981 points was the band ZEYΣ。🥈 Congratulations on advancing to the next stage! Please continue to give it your all 💪 .

ZEYΣ (read Zeus) is a relatively young band with strong sounds hailing from Osaka Prefecture. The band consists of five members: vocalist Rio, guitarist: NAbe, guitarist Mahiro, bassist Haruka and on drums sHoI. The band invites us into their somewhat dark world, unafraid to touch on themes of anxiety, death and loneliness. It has a released EP 戦ヒノ詩 (Tatakainouta), which contains seven tracks. On their Youtube channel (@zeys_jp), we can get a glimpse of their sound and learn the MV for the EP's title track "戦ヒノ詩 ". To better illustrate ZEYΣ's work, below are the lyrics to the track "戦ヒノ詩 ".

戦ヒノ詩

今日も暑いねって言いながら

日陰でお友達と遊んでたの

突然空がピカッて光って

気がつけばみんな真っ黒になってた

何も喋らなくなっちゃったの

何も聴こえない

みんなどこにいったの？

私だけおいていかないでよ

熱い

嫌だ、死にたくないよ

どうして私だけ真っ黒になれないの？

お母さんとはぐれちゃって

怖くなって泣いてたときだった

みたことないかっこいい兵隊さんが

なんだか悲しそうな顔でぼくのところまで来たんだ

ぼくは嬉しくなって兵隊さんの手を握ったけど

兵隊さんはぼくのこと嫌いだったのかな？

痛いよ

どうしてそんなことするの？

もしかしてぼく悪い子だったのかな？

痛い

嫌だ、死にたくないよ

苦しい

お前のせいだ

お前達のせいだ

嗚呼、雨が熱いよ

3. Ami Latte

Third place along with 5 points went to Ami Latte, 🥉 who is a jazz singer and songwriter. Ami Latte creates and plays her music based on Jazz, which she learned on her own while working for an IT company.  Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido Japan in 1989. Currently performing mainly in Tokyo. She started performing concerts since 2016 and singing in Hotels (Hilton Tokyo, Marriott Nagoya, Grand Hotel Sapporo) since 2017.  She won the 19th Kobe Jazz Vocal Contest in 2018.  She became a mum in 2020. She currently has two beautiful daughters. It is worth visiting her Youtube channel (@amilatte3454) and let yourself be transported to a world of music that soothes with its calm disposition. Ami has a very beautiful warm tone of voice.

4. 小林大輝

By the decision of the audience, fourth place with no points score went to 小林大輝. 

小林大輝 is a young performer who started his musical activity in 2020. He plays guitar and composes his own music. He is active in distribution media such as Youtube and on his channel (@hiro1h25) we can get acquainted with numerous rearranged songs by well-known artists such as Maneskin, Saucy Dog or Alexandros as well as discover his original songs such as 'Tonight'.

Everyone in this group proved to be very strong and intriguing, from which it was difficult to choose two performers who . I'm rooting for the winners Relax-Jam and ZEYΣ, and I can't wait to see how they will fare in the Otonova2023 competition.