チャイルドフッド（childhood）

チャイルドフッド which is a female duo, erina and mayumi from Yamanashi, was set up in September 2003. Then the duo has been awarded prizes in several local music contests, especially awarded a grand prize in KARUIZAWA Love Song AWARD 2007. In September '08, they released the first indie album "Taisetsu na Jikan 大切な時間 (important time)" and until now have performed live concerts on a regular basis in Yamanashi, Tokyo and so on.

■Songs on YouTube
・Hanabi 花火 (Firework) (the Grand Prize song in KARUIZAWA Love Song AWARD 2007)
・Kokoro no Kakera 心のカケラ (Fragments of the Heart)

■LINKS
・チャイルドフッド's official site (Japanese version only)
・ibaneez's channel on YouTube, where you can watch many live videos of チャイルドフッド.

THE BOOM

This year is the 20th anniversary of THE BOOM, being famous for their song "Shima Uta 島唄 *". The band which consists of 3 persons (Kazufumi Miyazawa 宮沢和史, Takashi Kobayashi 小林孝至 and Hiromasa Yamakawa 山川浩正) from Kōfu and a person (Takao Tochigi 栃木孝夫) from Chiba Pref, was set up in November 1986. They started up their performance at Hokoten ホコ天 (pedestrian zone), Harajuku 原宿 in the following year and came out with the single "Kimi wa TV-kko 君はTVっ子" & the album "A Peacetime Boom" in 1989. "JAPANESKA" in which "Shima Uta" is included was released　in 1990. From that time, THE BOOM's music was changing its style and sound, absorbing ska, Brazilian music, Okinawa's sound and so on. They had suspended their activities from 2006, but have taken them up again since 2008.

There are some lyrics associated with their home, Yamanashi, in their songs.
・On "Soko ga Boku no Furusato (That is my home town) そこが僕のふるさと", included in their 9th original album "LOVIBE" (released in 2000), Mt.Atago 愛宕山 in Kōfu appears. They sing, 'Let's get (friends) together to climb' the mountain.
・In "Hoshi no Love Letter (Love letter of stars) 星のラブレター", they sing, 'In Asahi street at evening the familiar stray dogs sometimes used to tell me something about you that I didn't know.' Kazufumi Miyazawa, main vocals of the band, said in an interview** that he had bought his guitar in fifth grade in elementary school at a shop in Asahi street*** and the girl who he had loved had lived there.
・"Chūōsen 中央線"(refer to Chūō Line) whose lyrics are wistful and painful is one of my most favorite songs and has been covered by various artists (Akiko Yano 矢野顕子, Izumi Katō 加藤いづみ and so on).

■You can listen to the samples(only of "The Boom Collection 1989-2009 ") or buy the CDs from the below links.

LOVIBE
including "Soko ga Boku no Furusato そこが僕のふるさと"

89-09 The Boom Collection 1989-2009
including "Hoshi no Love Letter 星のラブレター", "Chūōsen 中央線"　& "Shima Uta 島唄"

■THE BOOM's official web site (Japanese version only, but you can read only the articles about Miyazawa in English or Portuguese)

* The song was hit in Argentina in 2001, sung by Alfredo Casero
** The program "Utti na Mokuyōbi ウッティ（UTY）な木曜日" in which the interview was included was put on the air in March 2008.
*** I introduced the spot on "Wagashi." You can know the location of the shop on the below map.
View Mt. Atago 愛宕山 & Musical instrument shop in Asahi Street 朝日通り on Google My Maps

OCARINA

What image would you have about ocarinas?

Healing & slow music?
Rustic tone color?

Now I would introduce "breath" which is the music duo of Satoshi Ōsawa 大沢聡 (ocarina player) & Masato Kobayashi 小林真人(keyboardist). Their music goes well over the category of common ocarina music. It is energetic, romantic, much expressive, mellow, latinized.... The first thing to do is try to listen their music.

"breath ocarina concert" on YOUTUBE, recorded & shot at Fujinomiya city welfare hall 富士宮市福祉会館 in October 25th, 2008 (The original of "Jōnetsu Tairiku 情熱大陸", played here, was made by Taro Hakase 葉加瀬太郎 in 1998 as the 35 second opening theme of TV program "Jōnetsu Tairiku" and the full version is included in "image イマージュ" which was released in 2000).

The birth of "breath" in 2007 was prefaced by the fact that they played opposite each other twice in 2006. They holded the first recital at at Suntory Hall and released the first album "breath – Subete wa, Kono Shunkan kara すべては、この瞬間から -" in March 2007. After playing in South Korea & China in October of the year, they released the second album "Kibo no Hikari 希望の光 - The First breath*" in November. In April 2008, the CD single "Dear Wind" was released.
*"Kibo no Hikari 希望の光 - The First breath" (You can buy the CD from the left link.)

Satoshi Ōsawa was born in Fujinomiya city, Shizuka Pref in 1971 and now lives in Yamanashi city. He'd learned saxophone at the Kunitachi College of Music, but had suffered from severe temporomandibular joint disease in school and had to give up to play it. Then he entered the world of welfare and stumbled on music therapy & ocarina there. Until now he's released some solo albums.

Masato Kobayashi was born in Yamanashi city in 1972 and also learned at the Kunitachi College of Music. What's interesting is that he was 17 years old when he started to play the piano and had been gone on rugby, soccer & cinema until middle school age. Until now he's participated in concerts and recordings of various artists(WaT, Katsuyuki Tsukui 津久井克行...etc) as a support musician.
.Masato Kobayashi's site on "Myspacemusic" (You can listen to his music)

・breath's official web site
・Official web site of Satoshi Ōsawa
・Official web site of Masato Kobayashi
・"Ocarina OSAWAismっ！" Official blog site of Satoshi Ōsawa
・"ピアノ弾き、小林真人のblog" Official blog site of Masato Kobayashi
(All these sites have only Japanese versions)

***** Reference data *****
The web site of UTY's TV program "Ongaku no Kaze おんがくのかぜ"

PIANIST

Recently, Nobuyuki Tsujii(Japan) and Haochen Zhang(China) took first prizes in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. I've been surprised at their high-level, beautiful & strong sound.

Asian prize winners are no longer a rare sight in competitions of classical music in recent years, but in 60's it was a different ballgame altogether. In 1965, Hiroko Nakamura 中村紘子(1944-) was awarded 4th prize in the 7th International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition. From my childhood, she has been the foremost authority on classical piano performance in Japan, and even now maintains energetic activities. She was born in Yamanashi, supposedly because of her mother being evacuated from Tokyo during World War II, and grew up in Tokyo.

■You can buy the CD from the below link.

Plays Chopin

WATER WATER CAMEL

The first menu offers "WATER WATER CAMEL". They are 3 pieces band from Yamanashi.

WATER WATER CAMEL's site on "myspace music" (You can listen to a few songs)

■You can buy the CDs from the below links.

Airship (1st Album)


Hana Ga Yoku Niau (2nd Album)

WATER WATER CAMEL's official site (You can listen some samples of 1st album "Airship" )
WATER WATER CAMEL's site on "last.fm"