Sonoko Kawai -- Aishuu no Carnaval（哀愁のカルナバル）

Good heavens! It's been a good long while since 80s aidoru Sonoko Kawai（河合その子）has made her appearance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus"...a little over 4 years when I contributed the fleet-footed "Aoi Station"（青いスタスィオン）.

Well, time to rectify the situation. Plus, I'm still on that kick about searching for some of those "lost" aidoru tunes from the late 1980s. I managed to find one through Mamiko Takai's（高井麻巳子）"Yakusoku"（約束）. And going through Onyanko Club's（おニャン子クラブ）other members' solo efforts, I was able to find Kawai's "Aishuu no Carnaval" (Carnival of Sorrow).

This was Kawai's 6th single from February 1987. Written and composed by the same duo behind "Aoi Station", Yasushi Akimoto and Tsugutoshi Goto（秋元康・後藤次利）, "Aishuu no Carnaval" starts off sounding like a typical slow-paced ballad when it then takes off with a burst of speed and a distinct synthesizer sound that doesn't take its foot off the pedal. Rather like "Aoi Station", Kawai takes us listeners on a whirlwind tour somewhere exotic...perhaps not in France this time, mind you, but somewhere else in Europe perhaps.

The opening bars sparked off some memories so in all likelihood it was placed on some borrowed compilation tape or maybe it even got onto "Sounds of Japan" years ago. In any case, "Aishuu no Carnaval" peaked at No. 3 and was placed as a track on her 4th album "Rouge et Bleu" in July 1987.

My expedition continues...