Tomita Lab feat. Kirinji -- Natsu no Ghost（夏の亡霊）

 

With the O-Bon holidays arriving in Japan (despite all of the meteorological tempest being thrown upon the nation), families are getting together, festivals are being held and ghost stories are chilling listeners. Perhaps this is the first normal summer in terms of traditional activities there in four years.

Those two masters of the contemporary urban groove, Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）and Kirinji（キリンジ）, are back together once more, and they've been collaborating regularly perhaps ever since the latter's "Aliens" in 2000. This time around, they released a digital single at the end of April this year titled "Natsu no Ghost" (Summer Ghost). 

With words by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and music by Tomita Lab with Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）behind the mike, this is an interesting twist on the summer ghost story. For one thing of course, with Tomita Lab and Kirinji cooperating, listeners are not going to get the usual scary music with a Theremin. It's gonna be groovy pop and the story concerns a ghost who may or may not be a woman's former lover still hanging about her surroundings and spouting some fancy stuff such as a Chilean Chardonnay, a walk through a marché, and even a cheap Cabernet. The only frightening thing here is the ghost's rising jealousy as he suspects that the woman may have gotten a new guy. Furthermore, I was struck by one line in "Natsu no Ghost" where the ghost puts out what he calls the paradox of him having no value unless there is unhappiness in her. 

Tomita's music is always reassuring and comforting and this time there's a bit more romance in there, so the song is about as far as one can get from the typical supernatural tale. I thought that it was also a great idea to film the music video in Vietnam, a former French colony, where a woman played by Sakura Motoyama is walking the streets and sitting around, perhaps thinking about her past, present and future. I'm glad that the producers didn't opt to have a ghostly presence follow her.

"Natsu no Ghost" is one of the tracks on Tomita Lab's latest album "WORKS BEST 2 〜beautiful songs to remember〜" which was released in June.