Hello! from Japan

About Japan and music

音楽

What is City Pop?

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Hi, how’s everything?  
I guess most people in the world spend majority of the time at home nowadays, so I wrote about Japanese music that can make your time in the house more interesting. It is kind of an old style of music, but we can still get inspired by the sound of it. 
And I heard a news that City Pop was becoming popular in the western countries last year. It seems that the genre is regaining the popularity and kind of a trend now. Here is about City Pop!

What is it?

As Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone said that City Pop was “Not a strict genre term but a broad vibe classification”, City Pop is about the urban, futuristic feeling of 70’s to 80’s in Japan, and the word simply meant, “Music made by city people”. It is western influenced Japanese pop music that was popular during bubble economy time in Japan including a wide range of styles such as Funk, R&B, Soft Rock, and some even included Jazz Fusion, Latin, or Caribbean elements. During that time in Japan, new devices and electronics like Walkman, Cassette Decks, and FM Stereos were hip gadgets and the music style was associated with those emerging technologies. Young people were enjoying modern lifestyle listening to City Pop that had the latest sounds of electronic musical instruments.

Recommended artists

Tatsuro Yamashita 

He was among the most successful artists of City Pop music. Rolling Stone Japan ranked his album Spacy number 14 on a list of the greatest Japanese music albums of all time in 2007.

Haruomi Hosono

He is a famous composer, singer, and record producer and he is one of the most influential pop music artists in Japan. Using electronic sounds, he contributed a lot to City Pop and numerous electric genres.

Mariya Takeuchi

She is one of the most popular pop singers in Japan. Over 16 million records were sold so far, and her early work during 70’s and 80’ is largely associated with City Pop. She’s wife of Tatsuro Yamashita.

I love listening to various kinds of music from different times imagining what people were thinking and doing. Music takes you back to the era and I think it is great that we can feel the atmosphere at anytime, anywhere just by playing it. When you get bored at home, I recommend that you dig some music that you don’t usually listen to!

Have a great day!
Taka

*I’m a professional composer by the way.
You can listen/download my album below.
Free Somebody
Skyhigh

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me: [email protected]

People and Music: 2 things I love in life!

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Hi, how are you?  It’s already the end of Feb now. Time goes so fast!
We get a lot of tourists from all over the world in Japan these days.
It’s always fun to meet someone new from a different country and be friends.
A few weeks ago, I met a singer from China.
We both like Jazz, so we hit it off well.
Music is great because it is universal.
It’s about the feeling we share, and that’s all you need to be close!
You can do that even with someone you don’t know.
Isn’t that great?

Here is the movie of our acoustic session at home.
This is a famous Jazz tune, “Lullaby of Birdland ” composed by George Shearing in 1952 with a slight variation to it.
She’s got a really great voice and I hope for her success in the future.

Talking about the relationship between China and Japan, China has been a huge influence on Japan with its religion, food, language (kanji), philosophy, law, and architecture.

It is believed that the relationship started sometime in the 1st century according to “History of the Later Han Dynasty” (it says that King of Japan received the Golden Seal of the King of Japan from the emperor Guangwo of the later Han dynasty in 57).
Since then, there have been a lot of import and export activities, and we are the top two-way trading partners now.

However, there have been large mutual dislikes between Japanese and Chinese in recent years due to the wartime crimes, The Senkaku Islands dispute, and etc.
It has been only these few decades since we started improving the relationships after the wartime, and there are a lot more to work on.
I hope that our relationship will continue to get better.

By the way, here is 19 years old me playing the guitar in Florida.

I’ve been trying to be with people from all over the world to learn more about different cultures.

It’s has been my big dream to get everyone from different countries together to create a place where we can understand each other.

Music and English have been my great tools to do that ,and I feel that I’m very fortunate to have been able to meet amazing people!

If you haven’t visited Japan yet, come visit!
And let me know if you need any help with your trip.

See you next time,
Taka

※Complete song is available here Skyhigh Or click on the band camp link below.

*Need more info about Japan?
Give me a comment here or send me a message to
[email protected]

Recording day in Tokyo!! New album is coming soon.

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Hi, How are you?
Can’t believe that it’s already Feb!
I currently live in Takayama in Gifu prefecture,
but I go back to Tokyo when I have a recording work
(or just on days off to see my friends and parents).

Before the recording session, I went to Nerima with my friend.
He’s a professional cartoonist, and we’ve been together since we were amateurs.
He’s working on the series of works he’ll publish this year.
I might be able to introduce his manga on my blog sometime soon.
It’s always inspiring to be with a creative person like him.

There are some interesting bars/cafes in Tokyo.
That day, we went to this one called Tsuribori Cafe Catch and Eat.
(The link is the blog of the one in Kichijoji. We went to another one in Nerima).
You can fish and eat the ones you get there.
We caught 10 fishes in total and got them fried!

And then the recording session.
I worked with a guitar player, and a recording engineer.
The guitar player is a professional studio musician.
He often plays on the stage and can play many kinds of music from Hard Rock to Japanese idols.
He’s a great composer as well.
And the engineer is one of the best ones in Japan. Man, seriously he’s amazing!
He worked for many major Japanese artists like Yuzu, Chatmonchy, pillows, KANA-BOON…!

That’s the team I formed in Tokyo!

First I compose, play all instruments, arrange, and sing.
And then after recording all my parts, I ask the guitar player to play over it.
He usually takes the solos on my songs.
And the engineer works on the mixing.
My last album, Skyhigh was made by this team.

This new album we are working on will be out in Spring this year.
Here is me working in the studio. No effects or mixing yet.

After the recording, I had some drinks with the team and went back to my hometown, Kichijoji, and met my brother.
We walked around Inokashira park, drinking a cup of chai tea.
It was really relaxing. I’m glad to have a nice brother like him.

How’s your 2019 so far?
See you next time!
Taka

Happy New Year! 2019

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Hi! Happy new year from Japan! I can’t believe that it’s 2019 already.

It’s been a while since I wrote here last…
I was busy traveling in Europe and working on new album titled “Free somebody”.
If the recording session goes well, I can release it in Spring this year!

And I decided to post more movies on my site as I got some requests.
I will keep on posting info about my country and music!

Here are some pics of me in Bulgaria.

And me working at a recording studio in Tokyo. I compose and play all instruments.
Work in progress…!

To another good year!

Taka

※Complete song is available here Skyhigh Or click on the band camp link below.