Arrangement for HEAVEN?

[kristen]

^could be, which is why she helps compose sometimes

[Coelacanth]

I read on masa's site (I think) that the only album Ayu released where the music was written first was A Song for XX. All songs after that album, the lyrics were written first.

[truehappiness]

It was posted in an interview that the general process that an Ayu song will go through is..

a) selection of melodies from various composers [she'll listen to a bunch and choose a suitable one]

b) creating the background track, aka choosing someone to arrange the song

c) Ayu writing the lyrics

d) Choosing a title.

Might've gotten this wrong, as I have a fuzzy memory about it.. but I'm sure it's okay.. [think about when they made RAINBOW, they gave people the instrumentalish music and then had them send 'words' to ayu, and she made changes to the song as she sang it in the recording studio.] Eh.

Zeo

[Delirium-Zer0]

She writes basic lyrics first, i think, then does the whole music/arrangement process, then tailors the lyrics so they fit exactly. Lengthens & shortens some parts, moves things around, decides what choruses or bridges get repeated. That would make the most sense.

And it definitely sounds like HAL to me... So other people can make an educated guess, here's what else HAL arranged:

ANGEL'S SONG
appears
AUDIENCE
Because of You
Dolls*
evolution
fairyland
Far away*
Fly high
Free & Easy
GAME*
Greatful days
HONEY
immature (Album Version)
INSPIRE
Introduction
is this LOVE?
Kaleidoscope*
M*
my name's WOMEN
neverending dream*
No way to say*
Over* (well it's by two of them anyway.)
P.S II
Replace
SURREAL
UNITE!
WE WISH

Songs with asterisks (not to mention some solo HAL songs like "amulet" and "For you", as well as some of their remixes like those for "appears" and "ever free") are the ones that make me pretty sure that this is a HAL job.

[fierce]

Yeah, I remember Mika Nakashima (i'm not saying it's the same with ayumi but it might be) saying that she wrote the Lyrics to FAKE and chose from over hundreds of compositions for the song until she got the one that fit the best.