[Stylish & lively] <br>No.118 "Snow girls" by Yuko Imai

snow-ski-skier-winter-skiing-cold Photo by usaf314, pixabay.com under pixabay.com license

Hi. Today's song is "Snow Girls" by "Yūko Imai".

Persimmon

Not particularly related to the subject for today, here is a small topic about persimmon.

Few days ago, a neighbor of our mini-farm gave us a small box amount (approx. 40pcs) of "astringent" type persimmon fruits, which we call them "Shibu-gaki" in Japanese.

So, we decided to make some dried persimmon from them.

This is a picture of the persimmons.

And here is a close-up photo. The metal scale on the above is 15cm.

About persimmon

Persimmon, also called "Kaki" in Japanese, is a round and yellowy autumnal fruit, which is especially widely grown and consumed in East Asia and Brazil.

natural-fruit-trees-persimmon Photo by gang2015, pixabay.com under license of CC0

Sweet & astringent

In general, Persimmon is divided into 2 types. They are a "sweet" type (Ama-gaki) and "astringent" type (Shibu-gaki).

The most of fresh persimmons you see in the grocery stores are "Sweet" type, which is sweet like mango when ripe enough, and consumed as a fresh fruits.

Diospyros kaki 'Fuyu' Photo by Batholith, ja.wikipedia.org under license of CC0

Contrary, the "astringent" type is violently astringent even ripened, and not at all edible as it is.

So, "astringent" type are usually eaten up after processed to dried fruits.

Surprisingly, the dried persimmon is quite sweet. Some says it is like honey. (We think it is too much but.)

Dried Kaki Fruit Photo by Searobin, ja.wikipedia.org under license of CC BY-SA 3.0

So, if our "Shibu-gaki" is ideally, professionally processed, it becomes like this.

But, beautiful stuff like this is already beyond food category, and maybe treated as an edible art.

Therefore, they are often selling at 5 to 80(eighty) USD per piece (like Dōjō Hachiya-gaki) at special sweets shops.

Let's try

Anyway, we are now planning, or just started the process to make those "astringent" persimmons into dried fruits.

Because this is the first challenge for us, we are little bit excited.

Let's see what happens.

Finally, here is a short video clip about how to process to "Dried persimmon".

* "Dried persimmon"

Youtube, Overview of making
Ichida-gaki
01:32

Uploaded by toraiwasyunsaien

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Songdata
Title	Snow Girls
Artist	Yūko Imai
Album Title	Perfect best
Catalog Number	KICS-1731
Track No.	14
Duration	4:41
Released	2011(1997)
Publisher	King records
Lyricist	Narumi Yamamoto
Composer	Yūko Imai
Arranger	Takayuki Negishi

About the creators

Narumi YamamotoLyricist

"Narumi Yamamoto" is a lyricist and singer-songwriter active since around 1994.

Debut

"Yamamoto" started her music career as a vocalist of the band which she had been a member since school days.

The band seems to be challenging for some auditions. And one day, "Yamamoto" received an offer for writing a lyrics to other artists.

And through this event, she set of her career as a lyricist.

"Disclose"

The first artist that "Yamamoto" offered her lyrics was today's singer, "Yūko Imai".

She wrote 3 lyrics for Imai's 8th album "Disclose" released in 1994. And this became her first job as a professional.

Women's feelings

Since then, she has been offering many songs, particularly for young female singers.

"Katachi aru-mono (Tangible something)" by "Koh Shibasaki (or Musek)" in 2004, or "Ei-en (eternal)" by BoA in 2009 are known hit songs among them.

Active

She has been continuously active in the pop music scene even the market preference is rapidly changing.

It might be because of her flexibility for choosing the words which are well up-to-date.

(Ref: Wikipedia, Narumi Yamamoto)

(Ref: uta-net.com, Narumi Yamamoto interview, 2016.10.26)🇯🇵

Video clip

Finally, here is a music clip of a pop song titled "Real Voice" performed by a female pop duo "BESTIEM" in 2017.

"Narumi Yamamoto" has offered a lyric for this song.

* "Real Voice"

Youtube, "Real Voice" (LIVE MV)
by BESTIEM (2017)
04:06

Uploaded by
BrandNewMusicChannel

Yūko ImaiComposer

The composer "Yūko Imai" is the artist of this song.

Then, we would like to cpme back to her on the "About the artist" section later.

(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yūko Imai)

Takayuki NegishiArranger

"Takayuki Negishi" is a composer, arranger, music producer and a keyboardist active since around 1983.

Game and Anime music

"Takayuki Negishi" has been vibrant in various music area. But above all else, his contribution to Anime music, and game music categories are remarkable.

For example, "Card captor Sakura", "Yawara!", "One piece", or "Kaiketsu Zorori"... , these are all popular Anime TV series, and for all of them, "Takayuki Negishi" has participated as a composer or arranger.

(Ref: Wikipedia, Takayuki Negishi)

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Card captor Sakura
Original sound track
(2000)
{Collector's item}

Video clip

Finally, here is another popular anime music clip which "Takayuki Negishi" participated as an arranger. (Composer is "Kōhei Tanaka".)

The title of the film is "Sakura Wars Kanade-gumi", which is a kind of side story to "SF adventure game and anime, "Sakura Wars" series.

By the way, "Kanade-gumi" is basically the name of the team, but it also suggests the team is an orchestra, or a kind of music related group.

* "Sakura Wars Kanade-gumi"

Youtube, "Waltz, kimi-ni"
(A Walts, for you.)
Main theme,
"Sakura Wars Kanade-gumi"
04:40

Uploaded by SEGA

Cover art today

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Yūko Imai Perfect Best

(New & used CD, Amazon.co.jp)
Yūko Imai, 2011(1997).

* The above is a link to the full album. For single song, please check here.

Song image & Lyrics

▼ Memo

Link to the lyrics

j-lyric.net, Snow Girls

▼ Copyright notice on the lyrics link

Sound impressions

Stylish and lively

This is a modern, urban and fashionable crossover based pop music in upper middle speed in 16th note rhythm.

Or, it might be more evocative to call this as "a very cool and stylish fusion instrumental with fine vocal".

So, we can assure the fusion fans would love this song much.

Melodious then bubbly

A short, but slow and melodious introduction began with the electric piano, strings, and the vocal. Then active and perky main theme starts.

The bass, high-tension drums, electric piano, electric guitar, and percussion play a pleasant main melody, and support her sweet vocal.

In the later of the song, the strings and horn section take part in, and pump up the music further.

Silky voice

Yūko Imai's shiny but mellow vocal is often referred as "Silky voice" because of its remarkable smoothness and brightness.

We think that type of voice tone actually matches well with the music like AOR or fusion which she loves to perform.

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SWEETEST VOICE
Yuko Imai Best Album
(2016)
[Digital music]

Reference

Wikipedia JP, Yūko Imai

Google translate(en)

Wikipedia JP, Yūko Imai

▼ about Google translate

About the artist

Yūko ImaiLOVIN’YOU

"Yūko Imai" is a pop singer and a song-writer active since 1987.

She debuted in 1987 with single "Kanashimi-no pavement"(Heartbreaking pavement). Since then, 8 singles, and 11 original plus 3 best albums have been released until now.

(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yūko Imai)

Scouted

It seems she had no particular musical activities prior to debut.

But one day in 1985, she entered a certain Karaoke contest and won.

In the wake of the happening, a renowned popular song composer "Masaaki Hirao" invited "Imai" to be a popular singer, and enrolled her in his music school.

Debut

Soon, she came in first at an in-school audition, and qualified for debuting.

And in 1987, she released the first single, and started a career.

'90s girls pop movement

Interestingly, 1987 was the beginning year of so called " '90s girls pop movement", which a number of brilliant young female singers were simultaneously debuted within a short period of time.

Singers categorized to here quickly obtained a lot of attention from fans. And many of them were treated like idol stars.

In other words, like having a regular TV program, become a radio personality, interview from magazines, etc.etc. They were not immediately a singer's job, but certainly useful to announce their names.

"Imai" also spent busy days like that after the debut, and soon she became a popular singer.

Orthodox method

At the beginning, she was singing songs which the management office provided for her.

Actually, this tactics was working well. A few of her songs was chosen for theme music for popular TV series, and some of them became smash hits. As a result, her name was further penetrated to the public.

More stylish

On the other hand, she had a wish to shift her music to more stylish direction like AOR, crossover or fusion.

Thanks to the supports from excellent producers like "Hideya Nakazaki" or "Yuji Toriyama", she was achieving her such will step by step

But in 1990, when she was producing her 3rd album "Do away", she experienced a big step, because the city-pop maestro "Toshiki Kadomatsu" took part in this album as a producer.

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Do away
(1990)
{Collector's item}

Yūko sound

"Kadomatsu" not just provided ideal songs for her, but demonstrated how to manage the recording, and also encouraged her to create music by herself.

According to an interview, she become musically independent through this experience.

In the aftermath, she began to establish her own music, which is a fusion & crossover based stylish light pops, and fans are now calling them "Yūko sound".