No.195EX "La Petite Fille de Dimanche" by Y. Nakamura & N. Tsuru
Hi. Today's song is "La Petite Fille de Dimanche" (The Sunday girl) by "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru".
We would like to introduce a quiet & peaceful instrumental music today instead of a regular vocal pop song, since we think now is the suitable season for this piece.
Almost healing music like its ensemble might make you feel like you are enjoying an absolute silence of a snowing mid-night in somewhere in Nordic region.
Because of its slow, waltz rhythm, you might recollect Érik Satie's "Gymnopédies" by listneing this. But actually, we feel today's piece is a lot easy to listen, since it is more hope-filled.
Both "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" are known names in Japan's New-Age music sector, and their artistic, and elegant melodies have been attracting fans.
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 "▶" mark in each section, so please click it to see.
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 | La Petite Fille de Dimanche |
|---|---|
| Artist | Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | PICW1021 |
| Track No. | 8 |
| Duration | 5:25 |
| Released | 2002 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | >Instrumental music |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
No lyricist Lyricist
This is an Instrumental music, and there is no lyric.
Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro TsuruComposers
Both "Yuriko Nakamura" & "Norihiro Tsuru" are credited as composers of this instrumental music, and might be the arrangers too, though we could not find any credits.
So, we would like to introduce "Yuriko Nakamura" a little in this section. And for "Norihiro Tsuru", in the next section.
Yuriko Nakamura - Early times
"Yuriko Nakamura" began to play a toy piano when she was 3 years old.
In little time, she started to attend piano class as a part of her preschool education.
Perhaps, she had a talent for playing the piano.
Already in middle school, she received an award at a local music writing contest.
And naturally, she went on to a music college after high school, for studying the piano further.
After graduating from college, she began to work as a Professional freelance pianist.
And after few years, "Yuriko Nakamura" finally received an offer from a record company, and debuted with her 1st piano instrumental album, "Kaze-no Kagami" (Wind and reflections).
New-Age
In the early to mid 80's, NewAge music, like "Windham Hill" which was represented by an American pianist "George Winston", became very popular in Japan.
(Even our writer "Satsuma" like average Pop music fan, also bought Winston's albums "December" (1984).)
At that time, "Yukie Nishimura", "Natsuko Kyōno" or of course "Yuriko Nakamura" like fresh, and talented female pianists made a debut in a row, and released excellent albums of New-Age music.
Since then, "New-Age" piano instrumental has been a fairly stable, and popular category in Japan, though it is not a huge market.
Acoustic café
Around 1990, "Yuriko Nakamura" teamed up a 3-piece instrumental group, "Acoustic café" with a Violinist "Norihiro Tsuru", and Cellist "Yoshihiko Maeda", and began to perform relaxing instrumental music.
They say that "Acoustic café" was not a fixed band, but changing the group formations fairly flexibly depending on the music to play.
And the group seems to have released at least 8 instrumental albums so far.
Korea & TV series
Since 2000, "Yuriko Nakamura" began to launch her albums also in Korea (south).
Her music gradually reached to the music fans in there, and finally in 2004, one of her works was chosen for an insert song for a Korean TV drama series, "미안하다, 사랑한다 (I'm Sorry, I Love You)".
After that, "Nakamura" swiftly became a popular music creator for TV series in Korea, and her excellent music pieces for Korean drama series are now reverse-imported to Japan, together with the TV series.
Recent
It seems that "Nakamura" has been actively making herself engaged in various musical events even these days.
Even in 2010s, she is releasing diverse albums almost every year.
And recently, she is often holding compact sized joint concert in many small venues.
-
(Ref: yurikopia.com,
Discography)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce an elegant ensemble of the piano & the Chromatic harmonica, performed by "Yuriko Nakamura" & Rei Yamashita respectively.
The title of the song is "Nona-no hoshi" (The star of "Nona").
"Nona-no hoshi" was written by Yuriko Nakamura in 2006, as an insert song for a Studio Ghibli's short anime film, "Hoshi wo katta hi" (lit. "The day I bought a star"), which has been exclusively shown at "The Ghibli Museum, Mitaka forest".
Rei Yamashita is a unique, model turned Chromatic harmonica player, but seemingly, she is rapidly expanding her field day by day.
If you like, please listen.
Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro TsuruArrangers
The name of the arranger(s) for this song are not clear, but likely "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" naturally.
As mentioned in the above, we would like to introduce little about "Norihiro Tsuru" in this section.
Short Bio
"Norihiro Tsuru" is a violinist, composer, and keyboardist active since 1989.
"Tsuru" debuted in 1989 with his first his first instrumental album, "A man who made the moon".
Since then, he has released 5+ solo albums, and several sound track albums.
In 1991, "Tsuru" took part in a production of historical SF fantasy Anime, "The Heroic Legend of Arslan" as a film score composer.
And he become known as an competent music creator by his excellent jobs on this movie.
Composer & multi-instrumentalist
"Norihiro Tsuru" seems to be started his career in 1983, by participating in the production of a folk-duo "Fuki-no tou"'s 10th album "011" as a recording musician.
After working as a composer & musician for a while, "Tsuru" finally released his 1st instrumental album in 1989.
In 1991, "Tsuru" did an excellent job on writing incidental music for a historical SF fantasy Anime, "The Heroic Legend of Arslan". And since then, he has been a popular a film score composer to date.
Since around 1990, "Tsuru" formed a 3 piece acoustic instrumental group, "Acoustic Café" with a pianist "Yuriko Nakamura" , and Cellist "Yoshihiko Maeda".
"Tsuru" has written, and played many melodious & acoustic instrumental pieces so far, but the most of them are exclusively composed for movies, dramas, or picture books, like painting sceneries by sound, or by his violin.
That is perhaps why he is best known as an incidental music composer & Violinist.
Recent
It seems "Tsuru" is quite active even these days.
In 2018, he held a "Sound track" concert of a Studio Ghibli's short anime film, "Hoshi wo katta hi" in Korea.
-
(Ref: blog.goo.ne.jp,
tsuru-norihiro)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a short music video showing live performance of "Norihiro Tsuru"
This music clip seems to be an advertising video of a music program, focusing on "Norihiro Tsuru" & his live stage, and was originally aired in 2007 on a Japanese Satellite TV channel.
If you like, please listen.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Moist & acoustic
This seems to be a serene, and peaceful instrumental ballad in slow waltz rhythm.
It might recall to you Satie's "Gymnopédies".
fantastical
The acoustic piano, Celesta, and Bandoneon begin a dreamy, and fantastical brief introduction, then main melody starts.
In the main melody, the violin also joins, and plays the main phrase alternately with the acoustic piano, and the Bandoneon.
There is a thorough bass like, gentle breeze like calm back ground sound from the beginning to the end of the song, and it might be a human chorus.
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru Acoustic Café
"Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" is an acoustic instrumental unit formed by a pianist & composer "Yuriko Nakamura", and Violinist & composer "Norihiro Tsuru", to perform healing, or New-age type music, as a BGM for films, or nature images DVD.
"Yuriko & Norihiro" is not a firm, or fixed team, but more flexible internal session unit in its umbrella group "Acoustic Café", which was founded in 1991 by 3 musicians, namely a Violinist "Norihiro Tsuru", pianist "Yuriko Nakamura", and Cellist "Yoshihiko Maeda".
Short biographies for "Yuriko Nakamura" & "Norihiro Tsuru" are prepared in "About the creators" section individually.
So, we would like to introduce an activity of "Acoustic Cafe" mainly in this section.
"Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" were formed in 1998 as an internal project team in "Acoustic Café", to release the trilogy albums, "Beginnings", "Gemini", and "Progress", which include the themas of "Past, Present, and the future" respectively.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Yuriko Nakamura)
Acoustic Café
As mentioned, "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" was a sub-unit in a 3-6 piece popular acoustic instrumental group, "Acoustic Café".
Since debuted in 1987, a New-Age music pianist "Yuriko Nakamura" was constantly releasing a solo album almost once a year pace.
One day in 1990, thanks partly to a recommendation from a staff member of a record company, "Yuriko Nakamura" and 2 other members, namely a violinist "Norihiro Tsuru" & cellist "Yoshihiko Maeda" formed an acoustic instrumental unit, "Acoustic Café".
"Acoustic Café" started their activity by holding live concerts in various places.
Their high level performance, and an enjoyable concert style soon attracted the fans.
And in 1994, "Acoustic Café" finally released their first album "Sky Dreamer" from Columbia label.
Smoothly in 1995, their 2nd album "Sea Dreamer" was released in the form of a promotion album of "Osaka Aquarium Kaiyū-kan".
Members
"The members of original "Acoustic Café" were as follows.
- Acoustic Piano
- Yoshihiko Maeda
- Bass
- Norihiro Tsuru
- Acoustic Piano
- Yuriko Nakamura
- Percussion
- Yasuhisa Yamamoto
- Bass
- Tetsuzo Kawai
- Multi instrumentalist
- Megumi Maruo
Among them, the cellist "Yoshihiko Maeda" was an original, and a core member of "Acoustic Café".
"Maeda" is known as an excellent Cello player with Classical music background, but what's unique on him is that he is quite keen to collaborate with the singers in Popular music field.
The name of the artists who "Maeda" participated in their recording were, "Ringo Shiina", "HIkaru Utada", "Miyuki Nakajima", or "Lisa Ono".
"Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru"
The background is uncertain though, but in 1998, a project for releasing a trilogy of New-Age instrumental albums were planned, and actually recorded and launched under "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru" names.
The titles of the albums were "Beginnings", "Gemini", and "Progress".
Although they were released under "Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru"'s name, other members of "Acoustic Café" were also took part in the recordings, so they were actually close to "Acoustic Café" sound.
The latest release of "Nakamura & Tsuru" was in 2006, on the sound track album titled "The Day I Bought a Star", which was recorded for a Studio Ghibli's anime film of the same title, and has been being shown exclusively at "The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo.
In 2018, "Norihiro Tsuru" & the members of new "Acoustic Café" held a Sound track concert of this album at Busan Citizen’s Hall in Korea.
8 albums in total
In this way, "Acoustic Café" constantly released 8 fine acoustic instrumental albums, (not including above 3 albums under "Nakamura & Tsuru"'s names.), until the time the 1st generation "Acoustic Café" ended its history in 2003.
"New" Acoustic Cafe
In around 2009, New "Acoustic Cafe" was reshaped by Norihiro Tsuru in around 2009 by welcoming new Cellist "Ayako", and a pianist "Yuri Hiranuma".
Thanks to the Korean TV drama series, which selected their instrumental music as theme music or BGMs, "Acoustic Cafe" is also popular in South Korea as a Japanese leading New Age instrumental ensemble.
Almost every year, the members of "Acoustic Cafe" are visiting Korea, and holding concert tours across the country.
And occasionally, they are also collaborating with excellent Korean musician, like a shining "gugak" (Min'yō, traditional folk music) singer Song So-hee (송소희.
Around 2012, pianist "Aya Yoshikawa", and "Rie Nishimoto" also have begun to take part in "Acoustic Cafe", and seems to be playing the piano alternately.
We found a nice video clip of Song So-hee's amazing performance.
Would like to introduce it later in video clip section.
Recent
Due to uncontrollable circumstances, the groups does not to perform live stages freely at the moment, but seemingly, the members are active individually.
-
(Ref: yoshihiko-chino.com,
profile)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a trailer video of "Yuriko Nakamura"'s piano solo album, "Yuriko Nakamura x 7Arts Penguin Music" released in 2012.
"Yuriko Nakamura" is a known penguin enthusiast, and also a member of "Penguin Fund", which is a Japanese NPO, supporting domestic & international researchers, or preservation groups of penguin.
"Penguin Fund" is regularly holding a charity event called "Penguin Parade". And in 2010, 7 artists draw illustrations of penguin as part of a event.
"Yuriko Nakamura" got an inspiration from those unique illustrations, and wrote perfect melodies for them.
"Nakamura" played those melodies by herself, and her piano performance was later released as "Yuriko Nakamura x 7Arts Penguin Music".
They are cute melodies, and you might remember when you a were a pre-school child.
In a sense, it could be also a healing music.
If you like, please listen.
Video clip 2
We would like to introduce an excellent performance of a Korean "gugak" (traditional folk song) singer "Song So-hee" as an extra for today, since we have introduced her a bit in the above.
The song title is "Gangwon-do Arirang". It is one of the most famous variations of Korea's national folk song "Arirang".
"Song So-hee" is a South Korean singer of traditional Korean music known as "gugak", and often called as a "gugak prodigy" because of her completely outstanding singing performance.
In the video, Song's overwhelmingly powerful, and persuasive vocal seems to be greatly impressing the audience.
If you like, please listen.
Music Samples
8
(試聴する)
AD: Listening samples (Free)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | La Petite Fille de Dimanche |
|---|---|
| Artist | 中村由利子&都留教博(Yuriko Nakamura & Norihiro Tsuru) |
| Album Title | Beginnings |
Comments