Kyo Nishimura -- Tabi ni Detai（旅にでたい）/Natsu no Owari ni（夏の終りに）

 

Hello, Monday! It's hard to believe that we'll be heading into October from this weekend but here we are.

I had never heard of Kyo Nishimura（西村協）, but I came across some of his music recently on YouTube and thought it would be nice to share. According to his (currently dormant) website (nothing about him on J-Wiki), he is a singer who arose from the Glee Men（グリーメン）, a folk chorus club at Meiji Gakuin University in 1969 with a song called "Koi Shitara"（恋したら...When You Fall in Love）, created by lyricist Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）. In the 1970s, he apparently was a part of the legendary ereki guitar band Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans（寺内タケシとブルージーンズ）as a percussionist although I couldn't find any proof of that on the J-Wiki profile of the band; I had to find it at a website called White Rock.

His website states that he has been a jazz singer for the past few decades but there's nothing on his earlier discography. But I do know that he did release at least two singles as a solo artist in the 1980s with one of them being "Tabi ni Detai" (I Want to Go on a Trip). Composed by Masamitsu Tayama（田山雅充）, written by Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）and arranged by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）, "Tabi ni Detai" was released in 1982 but it seems like a gentle throwback to the folksy kayo of the 1970s, reminding me of acts such as Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）and Karyudo（狩人）. I couldn't find Tayama's lyrics, but the overall feeling and that title make me want to think that it's another wistful account of someone traveling to the regional areas of Japan to forget a now-former romance.

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

The B-side of "Tabi ni Detai" is "Natsu no Owari ni" (At the End of Summer), and it's also a pretty wistful tune. However, although this song was also created by Tayama and Nakasato, the arrangement here is by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）and it's done more like a Fashion Music (Japanese Baroque pop) tune with those strings and a sensation of something classical. If there is a trip to be done here, it's most likely somewhere in Europe.