Alice Schach
Alice Schach and the Magical Orchestra is an indie band, debuted during 2016, and had garnered a fair following since then. They have released a total of 3 Albums, all featuring a different tone and aspect to them that are unique to their own respective topics.
The difference between the current and past music created by the magical orchestra is an interesting topic. If one were to stumble upon their channel and take a dive into their recent music, they will be greeted with a heavy approach to electronic music with medieval undertones, paired with heavy hitting vocal work by Nene Akagawa and relentless music constantly driving the music forward.
Their past tracks however, would never suggest that this is the type of music they will compose, featuring clear and inspiring instrumentation with clear Egyptian influence, and a much less imposing musical philosophy overall. It’s interesting to feel the difference between the present and the past, and despite the clear difference between the two, the music produced by Alice Schach and the Magical Orchestra is always unique, and something truly special to listen to.
If one were a fan of Mili, I think the same charm can be found here as well. Tracks are heavily focused on the Vocals, similar to how Mili tracks would often find themselves heavily hinging on Cassie Wei’s vocals with the music dancing alongside to create a ballet of pure musical euphoria. In addition to that, all tracks are sung in a made-up language called “Alician”, with their own unique vocabulary and grammatical niches.
I believe the band’s work is hugely underrated, and I’m confident that for those who seek unique music out there on the internet, they will find Alice’s music to be very palatable. With a long list of songs to listen to, and the unique and ominous atmosphere the band brings, it’s something that is worth beholding. They can bring you to both Paradise, and Purgatory at the same time, and that’s really admirable.
For those that read enough fantasies out there, I’m sure every now and then we will run across a work that makes us feel very foreign yet familiar with the world being depicted in the work. This kind of feeling is usually very specific, either to a certain individual or a group of people with similar background/ ethnicity/ culture or upbringing, so having a medium that can make everyone feel something like this is almost impossible, even in the realm of music, where it is something that suppose to transcend borders, mainly due to the context in which the piece was made in and it might lead to ‘lost in translation’. But what if there’s something that can enable you to make something that everyone can have the same feeling and initial reaction towards? Well, that is where made up languages come into play. Look at NieR’s Chaos Language, Gravity Rush’s French Amalgamation of a language, Modern Hylian and others of the sort. By using made up language, no matter where you draw your roots from, even to the native speaker of the language you borrowed from, it will still sound foreign and new, while having a hint of familiarity , same with the rest of the world. A common alienated experience if you would. With that, every release by Alice Schach and the Magical Orchestral is something that can resonate with you with how the made up language ‘Alician’ is cleverly used by them.
To the best of my ability the following is the best I can describe ‘Alician’. Imagine old English, but instead of evolving straight to the modern English we know today, it was passed through the whole of Europe, and every country it goes through will leave a set of language rules to it (i.e. grammar, spelling, vocab, pronunciations etc). Then finally after going through all that you get the product that is ‘Alician’. (Greek and Latin leaving the biggest influence, to me it feels like that at the least.)
On to their music (god, I took 3 paragraphs to write whatever that is). The songs on their youtube channel, from Maharajah to Fushigi chan, it looks like they are trying to build a world that is similar to the one we’re in right now all while being foreign, and with the vocal works and lyrics of each songs, it further pushes the idea of a whole new world being depicted right in front of our eyes.
That aside, their way of world building, I would say they've done so in a very organic way, not like the ones that forcefully shove everything down your throat, or that which requires you to dig everywhere on the internet and find magazine releases then you would need to watch a 10 hour long original animation, and after that read a few novels and comics to get what the world is about, (talking about some isekai stories and FFXV). They build their world by sprinkling small amounts of details into their lyrics of each song. For example, look at Maharajah, it has introduced the hierarchy and system of the world, and in Chocolate missile, it showed us how their society functions on an individual’s level. There are a lot of small nuances in each song from the illustration to lyrics, and some even instruments. It is a blast to find them, since most of them are embedded into the song very nicely.
All and all, if you’re interested in songs with made up languages or discovering a fictional world through music, this is the artist you should listen to.