[Serene Bossa]
No.188 "Otsukisama no uta" by Sinon
Hi. Today's song is "Otsukisama no uta" (A song of the moon) by "Sinon" (sínon).
We have no particular intention, but you might be feeling that our site tend to post the moon related songs quite often . Yeah, we agree. We are also curious why.
But today's is perhaps the most straight-forward song among our past selection, since its title is "O-tsukisama no uta" (The moon song).
(What a coincidenece. It's full moon tonight.)
This is a serene & peaceful acoustic Bossa Nova song.
The singer "Sinon" is popular for her charming voice, and inspirational singing. And we suppose this song is a good example of her such delicate expression.
If you like please listen.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with " ▼ " marks in each section, so please click it to read.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Thank you.
Cover art today
Song data
| Title | O-tsukisama no uta |
|---|---|
| Artist | Sinon |
| Album Title | Sukoshi Arukōyo |
| Catalog Number | LNCM1069 |
| Track No. | 8 |
| Duration | 2:51 |
| Released | 2014 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Kaori Nakajima Lyricist
The lyricist, "Kaori Nakajima" is originally a book designer (cover), and author of picture books for children.
So, it seems this is the only lyrics she has published so far.
Profile
According to the profile on her web site, she studied interior design in an art college.
After the graduation, she joined a design office, and worked as an art director. And in 2005, she became independent by opening her own office.
Since then, she is designing covers of various books, CDs, Logo's illustrations, or fliers in her own pace.
She is also writing and drawing picture books by herself.
A coincidence?
"Kaori Nakajima" once designed the cover art of "Yoshirō Nakamura"'s 18th album, "Oto-to katareba" (Inner talk with the sound) in 2008.
This possibly resulted in a collaboration in 2014 on today's song "O-tsukisama no uta"? (just a guess.)
-
(Ref: www.nakaori.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Yoshirō Nakamura Composer & Arranger
"Yoshirō Nakamura" is active since 1980, as a guitarist, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, music producer, and teacher of Bossa Nova guitar & singing. And also occasionally appearing on various music programs on the radio as a guest personality.
"Nakamura" is not only performing as a master of Bossa Nova in Japan, but also has collaborated with many famed musicians in overseas.
His fine guitar play, and gentle & velvety vocal are particularly praised, and often fondly called as a Japanese "João Gilberto".
Came across the music of Bossa Nova
From around 1977 to 1979, "Yoshirō Nakamura" went on a journey around South America, after graduating from university.
During a wandering journey in South America, "Nakamura" got attracted to Brazilian music, and particularly charmed by Bossa Nova.
"Nakamura" stayed in São Paulo for a while to learn Bossa Nova guitar from the good teachers in there. And returned to Japan in 1979.
As a professional
After came back to Japan, he started his professional career as a Bossa Nova guitarist in Tokyo.
"Nakamura" regularly appeared on stage at a live music restaurant, and at the same time, he took part in a Brazilian music group, "Rio som" formed by 5 Brazilian musicians active in Japan at that time.
And in 1981, "Rio som" collaborated with a leading Latin Jazz saxophonist, "Hidefumi Toki", and released an excellent Latin Fusion album, "Brasil" under "Toki & Rio som" name.
"Nakamura" also participated in albums of notable Latin Jazz bands like, "Naoya Matsuoka & Wesing" or "Spick & Span" lead by "Kazuo Yoshida", as a Bossa nova guitar specialist, in this period.
After 10 years from the start of his career in music, "Nakamura" released his first album "Literario" in 1990.
Since then, he has released 20 leader albums in almost 1 album a year pace until now.
International
"Nakamura" has collaborated with various great musicians, like "Pierre Barouh", "Richard Galliano", "Richard Bona", "Miucha", "Wanda Sá", "Quarteto em Cy" or "Toots Thielemans", and praised from them as an excellent musician.
Not only with musicians in overseas, but "Nakamura" also work jointly with many domestic music artists to date.
Recent
In July 202O, "Nakamura" released his 22nd album, "O grande João Do Meu coração".
In that way, he is quite active today.
-
(Ref: yoshiro-diary.cocolog-nifty.com,
Bar sem nome)🇯🇵 -
(Ref: yoshiro-diary.cocolog-nifty.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce "Nakamura"'s nostalgic Bossa Nova number, "na esquina de uma cidade" (on the corner of a city).
"Nakamura" released "sing in Japanese" album, "Chikyūgi no aoi umi" (The blue sea of the globe) in 2007, for the first time in his career. And "na esquina de uma cidade" is included as a Japanese title song, "Yūgure no machikado" (On the street-corner in twilight town), in the CD.
It is a tender, and relaxing simple Bossa Nova song, sang by "Nakamura", with just his own guitar accompaniment.
If you like, please listen.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Serene Bossa
This seems to be a serene & relaxing acoustic Bossa Nova song in a moderated middle tempo.
Like moonlight
An ensemble of the "bandoneon (or "Melodica?), percussions, bass, and classical guitar begins a simple & soothing introduction, and main melody starts.
In the main part, quiet, but artistic classical guitar, played by "Yoshirō Nakamura", creates breezy & cozy Bossa Nova rhythm.
And it accompanies with soft, silky and charming "Sinon"'s vocal, like the moonlight illuminates the garden.
About "O-tsuki-sama"
Our neighbor who was a teacher before told us, that in Japanese language, "O-" is a frequently used prefix to add politeness, and "-sama" is the most commonly used honorific suffix in modern Japanese.
But words in "O-?????-sama" form are pretty rare, and used only for limited words like below. (There might be some complicated rules, though we don't know much about them.)
And interestingly, they are often found in child language.
For example,
- "O-hi-sama" (The sun)
- "O-hoshi-sama" (The stars)
- "O-tsuki-sama" (The moon)
- "O-hime-sama" (Princess)
- "O-shaka-sama" (The Buddha)
- "O-tono-sama" (feudal lord)
- "O-kaa-sama" (mother)
- "O-isha-sama" (medical doctor)
etc...
They are frequently used even in picture books. And therefore, these words have gentle and nostalgic ring to Japanese people.
So, we feel the melody of this song has matched well with the song title.
About the artist
Sinon Silky voice
"Sinon" is a singer, songwriter, a member of a pop duo, "Oncemores", and was a radio personality until recent.
She is popular with music fans for her silky, compelling, and really healing vocal. And has been rising slowly, but steadily since debut.
"Sinon" first debuted in 2000, (in a sense a little bit accidentally), as a member of 3 piece vocal group "Snowball", when she was a high school student.
And recorded a campaign song to promote her home prefecture, as part of a nationwide TV program.
As a solo singer, she started her career in 2004. She then debuted again in 2007 as a singer "mammy Sino", and in 2013, she changed her stage name to "Sinon", concurrently with her contract renewal with new management office.
As "Sinon", she was debuted in 2013 with her 1st album, "Suwarigokochi-no ii isu" (A comfortable chair). Since then, 3 original albums have been released until now.
By the way, there is another "Sinon" in J-Pop who is using this name since 1994.
Her name is "Sawako Yonamine", a pop singer from Okinawa. She used to be known as "Sawa" while she was a main vocalist of an acoustic pop rock band "Spray", but as a solo singer, she has been using the name "Sinon" since debut.
"Google" might return mixed results when you search, but please not to be confused with those 2 singers.
Early days
"Sinon" made her debut as a singer in high school days, but actually, it was almost an unexpected happening for her.
From 1998 to 2009, there was a TV variety show titled "Ōi Nippon". (Yoo-hoo Japan)
It was a 10 hours long, big infotaiment program, and aired on Sunday on Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
The main concept of the program was to spend whole program to introduce charms of the selected 1 prefecture of Japan. (There are 47 prefectures in Japan). For this purpose, 1 prefecture was being chosen randomly every week.
Song of the prefecture
On this program, there was a popular regular segment called "Ken no uta" (Song of the prefecture) project.
This internal project of the program aimed at creating promotion songs for each of 47 prefectures in Japan, by inviting a famed music producer, "Yasushi Akimoto" as a leader.
As a music producer, "Yasushi Akimoto" provided a unique promotion song for the selected prefecture every week.
"Akimoto", then auditioned hundreds of contestants gathered from the focused prefecture, and chose the best person as a singer for "Song of the prefecture".
When "Sinon"'s home prefecture "Aomori" was called, "Sinon" wished to participate in the program. But she was too afraid to ask her father to allow her to enter the contest. (Our basic culture is still quite conservative, and it's not rare that young women feel some conflict like this at home.)
But one day, her high school teacher, who were aware of "Sinon"'s high potential, made a phone call to her father, if he could permit her to went up for an audition.
Thanks to her teacher, "Sinon" managed to apply for the contest, and eventually she won. Then, a 3-piece vocal unit,"Snowball" was formed to make a recording of "Aomori"'s promotion song "Aoi Mori" (Blue forest). And "Sinon" became a member of the group together with 2 other young women.
A single CD, "Aoi Mori" was released in October 2000. And unexpectedly, it became "Sinon"'s debut song.
Solo Debut
After graduating from high school, "Sinon" moved to the town near Tokyo to study at a professional school.
She also began to gave street performances in town, and quickly attracted attentions from audience.
Sharp-eyed talent-spotters never miss the brilliant singer like her.
"Sinon" received an offer for debuting, and released her first maxi single, “Double fantasy”under her real name in 2004.
She had released one more maxi single until 2005.
As "mammy Sino"
Around that time, she took a temporary break from singing, because she became a single mother.
She came back to her home town, and devoted herself for taking care of her new born child for nearly 1 year. And in 2007, she resumed her activity as a singer under new stage name "mammy Sino".
"mammy Sino" released 3 impressive albums until 2011.
And seemingly, she has established her position as an excellent true singer in this period.
New start as "Sinon"
In 2012, in line with her move to new management agency, "mammy Sino" change her stage name to "Sinon", and freshly debuted under new name.
Actually, this was a so called "major debut", since her new label "Mastard records" is a joint venture of a well known music retailer, "HMV" & convenience store giant, "Lawson".
"Sinon" released her 1st album (6th in career) , "Suwarigokochi-no ii isu" (A comfortable chair, or more literally, a chair brings you a comfortable sitting feel) in 2013. And attracted fans of her little nostalgic, but very relaxing music.
In 2014, the 2nd album, "Sukoshi Arukōyo" (Let's walk a little) was became on sale.
From this album, today's track "O-tsukisama no uta" (The moon song) was picked out as a song for "Minna-no uta". And it made "Sinon" famous.
So, this might be a memorable album for her.
Then in 2017, the 3rd album, "Trinity", and in 2019, the 4th album, "Mariage" have been released. They are also available in digital format from on-line music vendors.
Like this way, "Sinon" is steadily building her career as a singer.
"Oncemores"
As you might noticed, a pop duo "Oncemores", which "Sinon" belongs to, is a tribute band to a legendary American pop group, "The Carpenters".
"Sinon" has a strong affection to the songs of "The Carpenters", since childhood, and always hoping, and practicing to sing like "Karen Carpenter" on the records.
Resultantly, "Sinon"'s singing of "Carpenters" has reached not just an excellent level, but people listened her singing often say, "Oh my god! Is this Karen?".
Then, she gradually came to be called "Japanese Karen".
Maybe because of that, "Sinon" teamed up a "Carpenters" tribute band, "Oncemores" with "Richard Koga" in 2015, and holding live concerts occasionally.
They say that the concert of "Oncemores" is so relaxing & enjoyable. If you have a chance, please join.
Recent
According to the articles on the inter-net, "Sinon" is now based in her home town in Aomori Prefecture, and regularly traveling to cities for her music activities.
In fact, it is a positive side of the inter-net, since such way of living was not easy before inter-net, because of communication issues.
Even in an era of "physical distance", "Sinon" is holding streaming concerts frequently on the inter-net, or appearing on various music programs on the radio.
-
(Ref: sinon-sings.com,
biography)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a video clip of today's song, "O-tsukisama no uta" sang by "Sinon".
This live clip of "Otsukisama no uta" sang by "Sinon" herself, was filmed at "Aomori City Hospital", when she collaborated with Hospital's "Medical office band", at "Aomori City Hospital Summer festival 2015".
"Sinon" lives in near "Aomori", so it seems she is performing in the community events like this occasionally.
On this concert, she sang a few of other Japanese Pops as well, and they were also uploaded by the same uploader, namely "ysasa920", who seems to be the keyboardist of "Aomori City Hospital Medical office band".
If you like, please listen.
(We have replaced the video to new one, since the previous one turned out it was an inappropriate (copyright infringement) upload by someone falsely using the copyright holder's name.
We are checking videos carefully before selecting one, but still such item slips into.)
One more song
We are introducing one more nice song today. It is "Sinon"'s relatively rare duet song, "mystery" released in 2017. The duet partner is "Chikuzen Satō", of a notable pop-rock band, "Sing like talking".
The song was written by a popular J-pop singer-songwriter "K", who is originated from Seoul, but debuted in both Korea & Japan in 2005.
Interestingly, he is also famous as a navigator of Korean language education program, which has been regularly broadcasted by NHK educational TV.
This is another nice track, but it is proving that "Sinon" is not only excellent on solo singing, but also able to show dynamic performance on duetting.
If you like, please listen this one too.
Music Samples
8
(試聴する)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Tower record on-line
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | おつきさまのうた(O-tsukisama no uta) |
|---|---|
| Artist | Sinon |
| Album Title | すこし歩こうよ(Sukoshi Arukōyo) |
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