Mitsutoshi Ambe -- Hoshi no Tabi（星の旅）

Over six years ago, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" writer nikala had written about a song by singer-songwriter Mitsutoshi Ambe（あんべ光俊）called "HEART" from 1983 which moved her a fair bit. It is something that struck me as being a distinct and dreamy pop song, helped along with Ambe's sweeping voice.

Nikala then mentioned about Ambe's folk roots with his band Hikousen（飛行船...Airship）in the early 1970s. Following that band's breakup, he pursued a solo career, and so I managed to find the first song from his second solo album "Hekikuu to Umi no Sukima kara"（碧空と海のすき間から...From Between the Blue Sky and the Sea）released in December 1978.

Titled "Hoshi no Tabi" (Trip Through the Stars), this was also created by Ambe in which he sings about what seems to be a man trying to reassure his distraught significant other while he goes away for a while (or maybe it's something more permanent, although my gut tells me it's the former). It's a mellow and jaunty folk number that has me thinking of other folk/pop singers such as Kozo Murashita（村下孝蔵）and Masashi Sada（さだまさし）. There's a bit more of a lower growl to his vocals when compared to his dreamier delivery of "HEART" some years later. The interesting thing is how "Hoshi no Tabi" slows down so much near the middle that I thought it was ending only for the engine to get revved up again.