Smooth Ace -- Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo.（これから逢いに行くよ。）

 

And here I thought that Shibuya-kei was more of a late 80s going into the 90s genre. I've actually found this song performed by the vocal group Smooth Ace as their sixth and final single to date released in June 2004. "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo." (I'll Come and See You) definitely has that familiar Shibuya-kei sheen with that swinging Bacharach melody, and not surprisingly, words and music were provided by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽）who was part of the legendary band of the genre, Pizzicato Five. Along with the sunny melody of yesteryear, the lyrics talk of a fellow suddenly calling up an old flame out of the blue and declaring his still-retained feelings for the lady with the promise of meeting up for old...and perhaps new...times.

From what I've gotten from their J-Wiki profile, Smooth Ace started life in 1991 as Street Corner Symphony, an acapella music club at Waseda University whose quintet lineup had once included Tetsuya Murakami（村上てつや）who would leave the following year to become involved with the acapella group Gospellers (and become its leader). The group not only went through lineup changes but also name changes with monikers like Gandhi and Momocrobic（モモクロビック）before finally settling upon Smooth Ace in 1998. As of 2005, the group has been a duo consisting of Hiroko Shigezumi（重住ひろこ）and Makoto Okamura（岡村玄）but when "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo." was released some months earlier, they also had Maki Lee（李眞姫）and Shinya Taira（平慎也）.

Smooth Ace was still active up to 2017 at least with an enhanced version of their 2014 album "Sing Like Children". "Kore kara Ai ni Iku yo." was also included in a compilation album of Shibuya-kei tunes, "Bossa Nova 1991: Shibuya Scene Retrospective", released in August 2007.