Welcome to Akino's Eden...

As I promised, it's time to fully introduce you to the incredible artist that this site owes its name to: Miss Akino Arai. Yes, I posted the "Kanaete" single as my first entry in this blog, and she was also mentioned on the "Escaflowne" and "Windaria" posts, but I say her own full album article is long overdue, and after all this is my blog, so 'nuff said ! :-P

I'm a fan for life of this woman and of her music. I swear once you let yourself be carried away by the sweetness of her voice and for the ambiances that she builds up around each of her melodies, you just cannot get enough of her. Each song she composes and arranges with longtime musical partner Hisaaki Hogari is a world in its own where the most dissimilar instruments (from strings to synths, from mandolin to electric guitar and everything in between) are combined to ellaborate a flowing mood that is... just impossible to describe. You may read user reviews of her CDs and everybody agrees on the musical genius that she is: her lyrics are poetic, enchanting, metaphorical... her sound is unique, original, unclassifiable, yet absolutely distinctive. I could go on praising her music but I think that if "Kanaete" was not a fair sample that should speak on my behalf, then I don't know what will it take...

Akino Arai was born in August 21 1959, though the exact date is subject to debate, since she's such a reclusive person that seldom is open for interviews and shies away from discussing about her music and most of all her personal life... She's said to have turned to music as a creative outlet in order to express herself after her father abandoned the family when she was 8 years old. She used to perform at her mother's coffee shop (sort of a "Phoebe" from "FRIENDS", but with talent... :-P) when she won a popular song contest in Japan that would open the doors for her in the music industry.

But the way was not easy: her recording company and management were trying too hard to mold her image and sound. After a first album she was not happy with, she left disenchanted the company and focused in singing backing vocals for the likes of Tomoko Tane and Yuri Shiratori, and started composing singles for commercials. She was rescued from this relegated position by none other than Yoko Kanno, with whom she formed a collaborative team in the "Please save my Earth" soundtrack. This experience made her regain confidence in her creativity and resume her own music career. Since then, she has put out the amazing music we are acquainted with, and collaborated with animation projects... mainly productions of the Sunrise Studio.

The list of anime titles that she has collaborated with is impressive. While many singers and groups turn to anime music as soon as they see their popularity declining, Akino is an artist that was introduced to the masses through anime music, and only later developed a parallel career as a singer/songwriter and published her own albums. She never forgot about her beginnings and the adoring followers that she found in the anime fandom. The first single of her professional career was "Yakusoku/Utsukushii Hoshi", from "Windaria" and the love affair between her and the Japanese anime followers was instantaneous. Her name became known internationally when she composed OP & ED of the classic OVA Series "Record of Lodoss War" (both performed by Sherry), one of the first hits in that format in the US. By the time she sung "Voices" in another OVA megahit, "Macross Plus", she was a familiar name but that song undoubtedly placed her on a pedestal in anime music. "Voices" is a classic on a par with "Ai Oboeteimasuka" from the Macross movie or "Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze" from the TV series "Neon Genesis Evangelion"... The EDs she performed for the TV Series "Noir" ("Kirei na Kanjou") and "Outlaw Star" ("Hiiru no Tsuki" & "Tsuki no Ie") reaffirmed her status as a leading artist in anime music, while also introduced her to a new generation of fans that got into anime thanks to the segment "Adult Swim" in the American version of Cartoon Network.

I'm posting today her 2005 compilation album "Sora no Uta", which was put out to celebrate the first 20 years of Akino's music career. To try to encompass in a single disc 20 fruitful years of music is a nightmarish task for many artists. In the case of Akino it is extremely difficult since she has done songs for videogames, commercials, background music for her radio show, collaborated with groups such as Marshmallow and Goddess in the Morning... let's say she's really a prolific composer that knows no boundaries in her creativity. "Sora no Uta" focused then on extracting songs from her albums as a solo artist, and while I cannot actually complain about the selection, of course many favorites of mine were left out. It's particularly puzzling not to see any tracks from "Eden", which is one of my favorite albums of her... Here you have an extremely rare clip of her performing live her song "Little Wing", as part of her 2002 RGB Tour. The video is taken by a fan but it's really a treat to see her in concert (credit: allirow @ YouTube):

This is the tracklisting of the album below, with a brief description of the songs:

1) Sally no Beedama (this song is actually a self cover of "Ningyo Hime" by Rie Tanaka, ED of the TV series "Chobits"; Akino rewrote the lyrics of her own song, rearranged it and performed it herself for this album).
2) Kakusei Toshi (ED of TV series "Tokyo Underground")
3) Voices (from OVA "Macross Plus"... a true classic)
4) Sputnik (only Akino can combine subtle opening with a sample in Russian and finish the song with hard rock breaking loose... and making it work !)
5) Kouseki Radio
6) Hiiru no Tsuki (ED of TV series "Outlaw Star"... the reason why she got so many new fans)
7) Moonlight Anthem ~Enju 1991~ (from OVA "Please save my Earth")
8) Silent Stream (from TV series "XAXZA: Your own personal number"; a little known gem that I'm glad she included in this album)
9) Koneko no Shinzou
10) Gareki no Rakuen
11) Satellite Song
12) Natsukashii Umi (OP of TV series "Kurau: Phantom Memory")
13) Kirei na Kanjou (ED of TV series "Noir"... one of the most beautiful songs you'll ever hear !)
14) Furuu Purachina
15) Wanna be an Angel (from OVA "Macross Plus")
16) Utsukushii Hoshi (ED of movie "Windaria"; rearranged version for this album... as beautiful as it's always been!).

Track 1, 2, 8, 12 & 16 previously unreleased in an Akino Arai album
Tracks 3, 7 & 15 from album "Sora no Mori"
Tracks 4, 10 & 14 from album "Furuu Platinum"
Track 6 from album "RGB"
Track 9 from album "Sora no Niwa"
Tracks 5, 11 & 13 from album "Kouseki Radio"

Should you need any more information about this amazing artist, there's no better place on the net right now than Kimiko's website; check that one out; it's in English and she did an awesome job compiling information on each of Akino's releases. Akino releases this week her latest single, entitled "Kimi he Mukau Hikari", OP of TV series "Zegapain", so you can see that she's still very active participating in anime soundtracks.
Here's the album... more than ever, enjoy it ! And remember: "we can fly/we have wings/we can touch/floating dreams...":

Another Vintage Soundtrack: Nausicaa OST + Bonus

It's a Joe Hisaishi galore today, as fans of vintage soundtracks around the world rejoice in the music from the first film of Studio Ghibli !! Yes, pals, today we have the OST to "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), a movie from 1984 that is an established classic in the anime fandom and that -much to my shame- I only watched a couple of months ago...

"Nausicaa" tells the story of a young princess of a tiny kingdom in the Valley of the Wind. It has been some time since an apocalyptic war destroyed human civilization and nature, and the survivors coexist under the constant menace of the "Sea of Decay", an spreading woods of fungus and sporae emitting toxic fumes. In there, huge insects rule, and among them the Ohmu, the magnificent caterpillar-looking giant bugs that roam the desert in a stampede at the climax of the movie. When a neighbouring country unearths an old weapon from the war times and tries to use it for destroying the Sea of Decay and its inhabitants in order to regain control of the Earth, it is up to Nausicaa to intermediate between both factions once she realises that even the Sea of Decay has a role in the new ecosystem of the Earth.

Nausicaa would be the first hit for famed director Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli. In this film he would introduce us to some of the recurrent themes in his filmography: strong independent female characters, nuanced "villains" that are not one-dimensional characters but actually have reasons for their deeds, the relationship between man, technology and the ecosystem, the wisdom of the elder, the power of inner strength and belief in oneself, etc... Anybody that ever saw a Ghibli production knows what Miyazaki films are about and how wonderfully produced they are. Part of the enchantment of any Ghibli film is the score, and ever since Nausicaa, Miyazaki has trusted the soundtrack to his long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi.

Western audiences have discovered Studio Ghibli's work after the major success of "Princess Monoke", a 1997 Miyazaki film that got its worldwide distribution rights through Miramax and Disney. As a result of the partnership, Disney launched previous Ghibli films on DVD and VHS formats and distributed in theatres the following Ghibli releases "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (a.k.a. "Spirited Away", winner of the Oscar and the Golden Bear in the Berlin Film Festival) and "Howl's Moving Castle". Those films were responsible for introducing Hisaishi's music to a whole new audience that found in the dupla "Miyazaki-Hisaishi" a creative match made in heaven, not dissimilar to "Spielberg-Williams" or "Burton-Elfman".

Joe Hisaishi is actually a pseudonym; his real name is Mamoru Fujisawa. This talented composer was born in Nagano in 1950 and started playing the violin at age 4. Since early on in his career he began a fruitful association with animation, having composed all of Ghibli's soundtracks as well as the score for "Arion" and for TV productions like Mospeada (a.k.a., the "Third Generation" in Robotech, for Western audiences...). Hisaishi also developed a creative tandem with acclaimed director Takeshi Kitano and his talents can be appreciatd in movies like "Dolls", "Hana-bi" and "Brother".

What you have here is a mega-file in .rar format comprising the original 13 tracks of the OST released in 1984, plus the 9 tracks of the Symphony Album that was released shortly BEFORE the actual premiere of the film, plus the two image songs from the movie sung by the lovely idol Narumi Yasuda (who would later have a career in Japan as an actress...). Those songs were mainly used as background music for the trailers of "Nausicaa". Here you have two of the original Japanese trailers of the movie, courtesy of mondkaktus@YouTube. The first one is set to the title song "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" and the second and shorter one should be taken as a preview of the wonderful music that you will find in the album below:

This two-in-one album will provide you with most of the music heard in the movie. I specially like the Symphony Album, with some tracks from the OST rearranged for orchestra. You may find the sound of the OST a bit dated; as I warned you when I posted the "Windaria" OST, the synths were the "in" thing in soundtracks in the mid-80's, and Hisaishi was stepping out of a phase in his work that found him preferring minimalist arrangements. As a result, portions of the tracks sound like videogame music from the Commodore 64 times :-S, but melodically they are still enjoyable, and when the full orchestra kicks in, your hearing pleasure is guaranteed. Just let yourselves be carried away by the first track and you'll see what I mean...

As always, enjoy and leave comments, for crying out loud...

Hikki's in da house !

Hi, peeps ! I still feel guilty for not updating in so much time between Windaria & B'z, so here am I again willing to upload another greatest hits compilation, this time the first single collection released by my girl, J-R&B princess Hikaru Utada :-).

Hikaru ("Hikki") was born in 1983 in New York to Japanese parents that were connected to the music biz. Her mother is an enka singer and her father is a music producer. Though she made her first babysteps in music as a pre-teen in the US, success wouldn't hit until she released in 1999, at 16 years old, her debut CD "First Love" in Japan. At first sight, people who didn't know how talented she was and how much she was involved in her own music would have thought she was just another idol destined to disappear within 6 months. But then success hit Hikki, and it hit like a tsunami, convincing skeptics that this girl was here to stay...

"First love" became the biggest selling album in Japanese history, with over 10 million copies sold thanks to the popularity of her hits "First love", "Automatic", "Movin' on without you" and "Time will tell", all of which were # 1 songs and are included in this compilation. Her sudden megastardom was only strengthened with the release of her sophomore effort "Distance", and third album "Deep River". In those albums, Hikki continued growing as an artist, songwriter and producer, doing things her way, experimenting and getting a great response from the public to her lyrics and beats. Take a look at the "First Love" videoclip here, with subtitles, courtesy of rickazinhu @ YouTube:

In 2003 she attempted to cross-over to the American market with an English album called "Exodus", but that move suffered from the "Coco Lee syndrom" and was unsuccessful due to lack of promotion and to weird songs that, in my opinion, were not on a par with her Japanese material... Yeah, and I mean that even if Timbaland produced three tracks there for her ! In any case, her popularity in Japan has granted her the possibility of collaborating with big names in the American R&B scene, such as producers Rodney Jerkins ("Time Limit") and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis ("Addicted to You"). She also enlists reputed personalities in the dance music world to remix her songs for Japanese and overseas markets.

Right now, many Americans maybe know Hikki either as a dance artist under the name of just "Utada" (she had a #1 hit in the Billboard Dance Chart with "Devil Inside" off of "Exodus"), or as the voice performing the English tracks "Simple and Clean" and "Sanctuary" from the videogame Kingdom of Hearts I & II respectively. I think she definitely has the talent to crossover to the country where she was born (the fact of having English as mothertongue doesn't hurt, of course...), but she needs to deliver great material and claim for the promotion she deserves after being such a phenomenon in sales in Asia.

For the time being, at least, she stays focused in her career in Japan, and her next album (entitled "Ultra Blue") will be released next month. Here you have the cover, so check it out as soon as it comes out. Anticipation is increasing to see what this talented girl will deliver next...

For now, here you have a compilation of her past hits in the form of "Utada Hikaru Single Collection vol. I"... enjoy ! :-)