[Serene & harmonic]
No.41 "Ima wo Ikiru" by Naoko Gushima
Hi. Today's song is "Ima wo Ikiru" (Live the present) by "Naoko Gushima".
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Index
1. Song data
| Title | Ima wo Ikiru (Live this present) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Naoko Gushima |
| Album Title | miss.G |
| Catalog Number | TOCT-945 |
| Track No. | 9 |
| Duration | 5:04 |
| Released | 1996 |
| Publisher | EMI music Japan |
| Lyricist | Naoko Gushima |
| Composer | Naoko Gushima |
| Arranger | Toshihiro Kirigaya |
- About the creators
Naoko Gushima
Naoko Gushima is a talented singer & songwriter.
She is particularly good at writing soulful mellow ballads, and has released many nice song so far.
We would like to cover some more in the later section.
Toshihiro Kirigaya
"Toshihiro Kirigaya”is a singer-songwriter and professional vocalist debuted in 1979 with album "Aki, Anata-ni"(Autumn for you).
Since high school, he started musical activity, and studied vocal music after entering the college.
He has been taking part in a various recording of the other artists as a backing chorus since debut.
And at the same time, he began to train others as a voice coach, and quite a few of singers or TV characters has learned from him.
(Ref: bobbykirigaya.com, profile)
Actally Naoko Gushima was a student of him at first, but he picked up her potential during training and made her debut.(by wikipedia)
Cover art
- Sound impressions
Like the wind
This music is more like a stream of the relaxing sound, rather than a normal song of the vocals.
Flowing sound
The shaker, hand clapping and the conga first initiate the rhythms, then the bass, electric piano, and the 2 layers of chorus take part in.
The continuous slightly modulated background chorus sounds like the cool wind on the hill top, and the male chorus of Kirigaya, and the female chorus by Naoko Gushima are like the voice of nature.
Relaxing
In the bridge, you can here a beautiful and impressive flute solo, which is played by an American woodwind player "Dan Higgins". And the high position strumming by acoustic guitar also joins, and add a shine to the melody.
Soft and leisurely tone of Naoko Gushimas voice can always reduces our tension, and let us feel like breathing in the morning forest.
- Reference
- About the artist
A gem playing hide-and-seek
Naoko Gushima debuted in 1996 with single "miss.G". Since then, 5 singles, and 4 original plus 1 best album has been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Naoko Gushima)
Meet with Bobby
According to wiki, she had met with Toshihiro "Bobby" Kirigaya to have a vocal lessons during her college time.
But later she dropped out from school and joined the music business.
Rare flower
She has been creating very nice mellow & soulful ballads since debut. Such artist is in fact rare in Japan, and even less as a female song-writer.
Additionally, she has a much relaxing, charming voice, which is again quite precious in Japanese pop music scene.
So, her songs a quickly accepted firstly by fans of soul music and AOR, then used in the various TV commercials and programs as theme musics or interludes.
Audible, but invisible
On the other hand, it seems she was not keen to expose herself to the public. For example, she had a first live stage in 2008, but it was the 12th year after she debuted in 1996.
So, she had been a "audible, but invisible" type singer for a long time, therefore, people cannot connect her song and face easily.
It maybe the reason we feel she is like a gem playing hide-and-seek.
(Ref: Wikipedia, Naoko Gushima)
Mysterious
It seems she is not particularly keen to release detailed biography, then there are no much background information available.
So, if we found some, we would like to add them here.
Music clip
Here is a rare clip of her live at "Sweet Basil 139"(jazz club) posted by her management office "Hawaii mana music".
Please have a look.
* Naoko Gushima "1969"
- Samples from online music stores
About the samples
Please go to the page below, and just play or click track No.9.
Trial button is on the left side of the song title.
AD : Free listening samples
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
9
8. Japanese Letters
| Song Title | 今を生きる (Ima wo Ikiru) |
|---|---|
| Artist | 具島直子 (Naoko Gushima) |
| Album Title | miss.G |
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