Ichiko Hashimoto -- Kitsune（きつね）/Romantic na Ame（ロマンティックな雨）

 

Commenter Tae informed me one time of some of her favourite performers in the technopop field, and one artist in that group was pianist/composer Ichiko Hashimoto（橋本一子）. I think that Tae also let me know about one of her early albums, "Beauty" from 1985. Her J-Wiki article has quite a bit more information than her Wikipedia equivalent but from what I've gleaned so far is that she was born in Kobe although she soon moved to Tokyo by way of Kumamoto, eventually attending Musashino Academia Musicae (graduated in 1975) and beginning her music career during that time.

Hashimoto got a big break in 1980 when she joined Yellow Magic Orchestra's first national tour, "TECHNOPOLIS 2000-20", as a support member while Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）was on maternity leave. She met her future husband, musician Atsuo Fujimoto（藤本敦夫）, during that time and afterward, the two of them formed a duo called Colored Music. Hashimoto has collaborated with numerous other music acts and helped with music production for movies and commercials. She also released many solo albums throughout the 1980s.

But going to "Beauty", I definitely think that some of that time with YMO on tour had some impact on her approach. For example, one track, "Kitsune" (The Fox), for which she created the words and music, reminds me a lot of Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）more esoteric creations. It is an original work and yet there is something familiar about it as if a traditional folk song had been given the synthpop treatment. "Kitsune" is very languid and soothing...a musical version of a ukiyo-e painting with sudden bursts of sounds. There is also a slightly haunting and sinister emanation due to the odd dissonance of the arrangement and Hashimoto's vocals which seem to float among the trees in the woods. In a way, perhaps, as the cover for "Beauty" may be indicating, "Kitsune" and its fellow tracks may be the soundtrack to life in a future and more austere world.

Also, according to her J-Wiki profile, Hashimoto moved into a more jazz direction from the 1990s and indeed she's been labeled as a jazz musician. In 1992, she released the album "Romantic na Ame" (Romantic Rain), and the title track is a pretty quick-paced bossa jazz number again written and composed by her. Once again, there is a certain familiarity with this particular tune as there was with "Kitsune", and the speed and bounce with which it's performed strikes me as something like an old show tune with a couple of dancers doing the old softshoe and cane thing on stage.

Hashimoto's website begins as a family affair. Not only is her husband, Atsuo, featured, but there is also her sister Mayumi Hashimoto（橋本眞由己）who is a singer-songwriter.