GACKT Official X update. Translation below

I’ll write a story that I think anyone with even a slight interest in music will find interesting.

There are three main types of live performances.

The first is a completely live performance.

It is basically performed using only live instruments, such as an orchestra concert.

Nowadays, depending on the size of the venue, the music may be played through a microphone, but the essence is “live sound”.

The second is a live performance using electronic instruments.
This can be broadly divided into two types: “asynchronous music” and “synchronous music”.

Asynchronous music was mainstream in the past, but in the past 20 years, synchronous music has become the mainstream music.

In “asynchronous music”, the drummer acts as the rhythm maker on stage and everyone plays along with it.
The performance progresses as all the instruments synchronize their breathing in real time with the drummer’s groove as the axis.
When I started my band, we mainly played asynchronous music.
For me, who was a drummer at the time, creating a groove on stage was the greatest pride of being a player and the meaning of my playing.

Currently, the mainstream “synchronized music” is based on a synchronization signal, and everyone on stage plays in sync with this signal.
Drums, guitar, bass, vocals, everything is “synchronized.”

Of course, this is not a question of which is better or worse.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The disadvantage, or rather the difficult part, of synchronized music is how to create a groove within the constraints of matching the synchronization signal.

Each human being has “disturbance” and “wavering,” and it is this disturbance that creates the most human rhythm and sense.

When we talk about groove in general, there is “wavering” within one measure and “wavering” in four-measure units, and there is a big difference in the sound between someone who can express this comfortably and someone who is constantly out of sync.

And it is not necessarily better to match the signal perfectly just because it is synchronized music.
If that were to happen, it would be no more interesting than a machine. It would just be boring music.

That is why players who can create a comfortable feeling by wavering are valuable.

Incidentally, “GACKT LAST SONGS 2025 feat. K”, which started yesterday, is completely asynchronous music.
Performed only with live instruments, all the grooves are born on stage.
The player who leads the rhythm on stage changes for each part of the song.
Sometimes it’s the vocals, sometimes K’s piano, and sometimes the string members lead the rhythm.
All the members sharpen their senses and synchronize their breathing on stage.

LAST SONGS is just incredibly tense. A repetition of silence and impulse.
An overwhelming sense of tension that makes the audience forget to breathe.
A stage with a sense of pressure never felt before.

For me now, it’s one of my important concept live shows.
If you want to feel that tension, come and see it once.

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA