Michiru Kojima -- Haruka naru Rakuen（遥かなる楽園）

 

For some reason, YouTube's "kojima michiru -- Topic" placed this song and album as 1996 productions when they actually come from the year (September) 1986. But to be honest, listening to the cool and crystalline "Haruka naru Rakuen" (Distant Paradise), I probably would have believed the 1996 dating. There's just something about the certain synths or other keyboards in the song that also has me thinking the 1990s.

But let's not stray from my observation that this is a pretty good tune by Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composed by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）as arranger, I was hovering between City Pop and regular pop for at least half the song until certain urbane chords punched their way through and that saxophone at the end finally convinced me that we had another City Pop tune. I guess on the pop side of things, we can consider "Haruka naru Rakuen" a pop tune of sophistication. Incidentally, this song belongs to the album "Michille".