Sakura Fujiwara -- Soup

 

I've learned to make my fair share of soups over the years because of my solitary lifestyle in Japan. My repertoire has ranged from tonjiru (Japanese pork soup) to good ol' minestrone and I quickly picked up the point that soups gain better flavour and depth when the ingredients are left alone to get to know each other over a day or so. 

There's a better than even chance that my night tonight will be filled with Kohaku Utagassen on the PVR so I'm getting this final KKP song for 2023 posted on the afternoon of December 31st. Maybe one or two of the other writers will write up something but my contribution ends here until I'm on the side of 2024.

Listening to the good folks at "Weathernews Live", I've managed to find out about another nice song from their "Weather Music" segment, and it's by a singer that has already gotten some acknowledgement on the blog. Last year, I noted about singer-songwriter and actress Sakura Fujiwara's（藤原さくら）"Watashi no Life"（わたしのLife）, her digital download single from March 2022. Well, this song was her debut single from June 2016, "Soup". Like any good soup, it's got a fair mix of interesting ingredients in the form of pop, country and folk, all genres that Fujiwara has dabbled in although in this case, actor-singer Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）provided words and music. Fukuyama and Akira Inoue（井上鑑）worked together to arrange it. Lyrically, it's also about what a couple can add to their increasingly flavourful soup of a relationship over the years and decades. 

The collaboration between Fujiwara and Fukuyama didn't end there. "Soup" was also the theme song for the 2016 Fuji-TV drama "Love Song"（ラヴソング）which starred the two as a spring-fall couple. I don't know how the drama did, but "Soup" itself not only went to No. 4 on Oricon but it also went Gold and Platinum. It would end the year as the 71st-ranked single and become a track on Fujiwara's 2nd album as a major artist, "Play", which peaked at No. 5.

Anyways, thank you "Weathernews Live" for another lovely tip. And I must thank all of you out there, fellow KKP writers, commenters and viewers for checking in and supporting us throughout this year. There have been a lot of things that have happened in Japanese music, sad and good, in 2023, but once again, we've got a fresh new year coming in and hopefully we can continue the kayo kyoku journey together! Happy to say that we got to 1103 articles!

Tomita Lab -- MAP for LOVE

 

A Happy Good Friday to you! Yup, it's a long weekend here in Canada so while things are still chilly outside, at least the sun is out brilliantly. 

Starting off Urban Contemporary Friday from a weird angle, I recollect that I saw Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its entirety only once. There were a number of noteworthy scenes including the title sequence with "Also sprach Zarathustra", the appearance of the massive spiral space station, HAL 9000, and that final mind-altering sequence featuring Dr. Bowman's evolution into the Starchild. The one chilling scene was seeing HAL murder Dr. Poole and throwing him into the celestial abyss (no worries, though...he gets better in the novel "3001: The Final Odyssey").

Watching the relaxing music video for Tomita Lab's（冨田ラボ）April 2021 digital single "MAP for LOVE", I couldn't help but feel that this could have been the perfect song and fate for good ol' Dr. Poole...he somehow gets thrown into an alternate universe over Tokyo in the year 2021 (mind you, he seems to have an even better future in the year 3001). As for the song itself, "MAP for LOVE" is basically a get-together of the Tomita Family in the recording booth. Written by Ryuta Tsunoda（角田隆太）of the band Mononkul（ものんくる）and Ryohu from KANDYTOWN, both of whom had a hand in Tomita Lab's 2018 album "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'" and composed by the Lab himself, there are no fewer than nine singers behind the microphone: the aforementioned Ryohu, singer/seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, guitarist Ryosuke Nagaoka（長岡亮介）of R&B band PETROLZ, Kento Nagatsuka（長塚健斗）of WONK, Naz, Bird, Sakura Fujiwara（藤原さくら）, Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）of Kirinji（キリンジ）, and Mononkul vocalist Sara Yoshida（吉田沙良）, all of whom have collaborated with the producer in the past.

All of the Arthur C. Clarke comparisons aside though, "MAP for LOVE" is a sweet and breezy romantic soul ballad about being connected by love no matter the distance whether it be in kilometres or light-years. My apologies but I'm going to have bring in another motion picture here. There's something about the story that reminds me of "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan...and the crazy thing is that I read on Wikipedia that Hanks had once been interested in adapting "3001: The Final Odyssey" for the big screen. 

Sakura Fujiwara -- Watashi no Life（わたしのLife）

 

Happy Monday! Plus, of course, for all American readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I'm hoping that you are all enjoying your Fourth of July holiday.

While I was writing up the final article last night which involved Tomita Lab's（冨田ラボ）collaboration with music legend Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, I saw to the right of my YouTube page, a video containing a couple of radio broadcasts on InterFM, a station based in the Tokyo area that I remember getting its big premiere in 1996. I would have loved to have listened to the English-and-Japanese-language station since it was and still is dedicated to showcasing most of its service to music from around the world with some Japanese pop music; unfortunately for whatever bizarre reason, my neighbourhood in Ichikawa was absolutely horrible to pick up any radio reception. Otherwise, my Onkyo setup was perfectly fine. Maybe my interest in radio that had once thrived in the 1980s could have been extended some more if I was able to pick it up in my apartment. Certainly, having listened to shows like these two programs on the video above would have made things very enticing.

The two shows on InterFM here are Sakura Fujiwara's（藤原さくら）"Here Comes The Moon" and Harry Hosono's "Daisy Holiday", both featuring music and talk. They are also "neighbours" on the InterFM schedule with Fujiwara's "Here Comes The Moon" broadcasting on Sundays at midnight for an hour followed by Hosono's show coming on at 1 am for 30 minutes. It just so happens that the two of them decided to guest on each other's programs on April 17th 2022. My impression is that both programs are very attractively chill and velvety-voiced, nice for midnight shows.

Now, Fujiwara isn't just only a radio DJ. She's also a singer-songwriter (she can also play the guitar and ukulele) and an actress with her music career beginning in 2013, and her first single coming out in 2016. According to her J-Wiki file, the Fukuoka-born artist covers a whole range of genres in her music: country, blues, folk, jazz, City Pop, indies, funk, hip-hop and just straight-ahead pop.

Her most recent digital download was released earlier in March. "Watashi no Life" (My Life) is that soft, unassuming but cheerful pop song that I appreciate on Monday mornings, and the video of Fujiwara taking care of things on her apartment balcony is the right setting. I kinda like to know where that apartment is located; the old but renovated buildings are always quite nice.

To finish off, I also liked that opening song for Fujiwara's "Here Comes The Moon", so J-Wiki was nice enough to give a list of the songs used during her broadcast. It just so happens that the opening theme is "Summer" by English musician and producer Tom Misch. The track can be found on his 2014 release "Beat Tape 1". Time to make those Brown Cows!