In order to talk about this album, first we need to talk about the works it's adapting and interpreting in turn.
Touhou Project developer ZUN has made it clear over the years how important music has been to the series; if not the case anymore, then initially at least he treated the games partly as vehicles for his composition work, which is evident to this day in the sheer breadth of material he has and continues to produce for the games, and how valued they are by the audience in turn. The games, however, did not encompass everything ZUN had in him to put out into the world, and for the past few decades he has continued to run a series of music albums in tandem with everything else
Touhou, from the video games, printed works and anything else.
2003's
Ghostly Field Club introduced the format these albums would follow in continuing the part original compositions, part arrangements framework, and also introducing a narrative component, as each album from this point on would include a short story within it. The protagonists of these stories are the Hifuu, or "Secret Sealing" Club, a pair of university students from our near future who are
Touhou characters amongst the dozens, but ones who exclusively exist in these music albums, reflected in their narratives. Physics major Renko Usami and psychology major Maribel Hearn exist in the "real world" and not the fantasy land of Gensokyo, and their misadventures under the auspices of the supernatural investigative club they belong to (and are the sole members of) give form to the musical narratives that run through this parallel history of the series that's informed by the rest, but remains isolated and apart from what is the primary setting of the games and other media. As a result, there's a consistent undercurrent of melancholy and a deep personal connection and emphasis in how Maribel and Renko are portrayed, at a more interwoven and intimately interpersonal level than ZUN's writing voice usually lends itself to.
If you interpret any
Touhou character as "textually queer" based on the official material available, without resorting to fan interpretations and fan wish fulfillment, then there's simply no better avenue to pursue that reading than the Hifuu Club, as they are the closest that a lesbian romance has ever manifested from all the material that ZUN has conjured up over the years, where such an interpretation isn't a willful reach but as ordinary and plain a comprehension of the written text as anything else. That is what doujin music circle Akatsuki Records have done with this album, where it encompasses explicit and sugary love songs as its foremost throughline; a testament and celebration of Renko and Merry's relationship. But because this is Akatsuki Records, that is not the only tone reached for and grasped at.
Akatsuki Records are my favourite musical outfit in general, because they intersect with my other loves in being foremost a
Touhou arrangement circle, and do it better than anyone else. The group's "face" is without a doubt Stack, whose voice and lyrics are ubiquitous to their output, with her arrangement work often featuring in too. Stack possesses a voice unlike any other, and is perhaps most arrestingly defined by her incredible range, having been at it for over a decade and representing hundreds of characters through song, always diversifying her approach whether it calls for throat-curdling screams, cutesy choruses, ethereal wails, aggressive grunts, comedic slapstick, or anything inbetween.
ROMANCE TRAVELER is not perhaps the best showcase for her multitudes because it takes its subject matter with great seriousness and (mostly) consistency in tone, so my love for this particular record is informed by the outside context of knowing just how far Stack
can go--and that for Renko and Merry's sake here, often abstains.
Even at its most sentimental and sappiest, there's a power and playfulness to the material that combines together with ZUN's melodic structures, Stack's energy as a vocalist, and the pop rock arrangement style of the rest of the circle that allows the material to breathe and exist on a level other than just self-serious schmaltz. Stack's lyrical output helps with the endeavor, as her introspective, heartfelt ruminations give way to rapidfire patter and syllabic juggling in a way that never allows the work to submerge under its own pretenses. I have equally been emotionally moved by her work and sent into a laughing fit for its absurdities, which to me speaks highly of how keenly she and the circle understand the material and what makes it tic for those that love it. There are aspects of displaced, quiet tragedies, next to the outer space romanticism, frenetic mission statements and lovelorn confessions and affirmations. Like the Hifuu Club, Akatsuki Records continue to chart the boundaries of what's possible to discover in our shared world and beyond.
