Yoko Oginome -- Look Up To The Sky

 

Around this time in August, I wrote about this amazing collaboration among music producer Mondo Grosso, singer-songwriter UA, special guest Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and vocalist Hikari Mitsushima（満島ひかり）for the 2022 synthpop tune "In This World".

Well, much to my surprise and delight, those first two figures of Mondo Grosso and UA actually had worked together much earlier. Going back to 1997, they worked on music and words respectively to create Yoko Oginome's（荻野目洋子）36th single "Look Up To The Sky" which was released in March that year.

According to the J-Wiki article for the single, Oginome was able to listen to a CD by Mondo Grosso that she had received from photographer Itaru Hirama（平間至）who had accompanied the producer on a concert tour. The singer was duly impressed from what she heard and stated that she wanted to infuse that groove in any future music. I gather that it was only a matter of time before she and Grosso got together with UA to come up with "Look Up To The Sky".

I do love my groove as well so I do like "Look Up To The Sky". In a way, the song does hint at some of that Mondo Grosso goodness that was to come with stuff like bird's "Souls" and BoA's "Everything Needs Love". Plus, the previous year, UA herself had one of my very favourites thanks to her and Mondo Grosso with "Rhythm". The music video with Oginome going all sexy and tropical doesn't hurt either. "Look Up To The Sky" has got groove and perhaps some house with the singer going mellower in her vocals compared to her aidoru-era nasally delivery. Incidentally, the song also got into her 17th studio album "Chains" from December 1997.