Ymo

Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born Akiko Suzuki (鈴木 顕子 Suzuki Akiko) in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. Her vocals and singing style have been compared to British singer Kate Bush.

Born 4 October 1957 in Auckland, New Zealand, Zaine Griff is a singer-songwriter who formed part of the English new wave scene of the 1980s. In 1979 for his solo career, he used various musicians for his band, including future film music composer and musician Hans Zimmer and Ultravox drummer Warren Cann. He released two albums, 'Ashes and Diamonds' (1980) and 'Figures' (1982). On both albums, Hans Zimmer played keyboards and computers. On the second album Figures, Kate Bush sang backing vocals in the song Flowers, which was dedicated to their mime and dance teacher Lindsay Kemp. Also Yukihiro Takahashi of Japanese electronic band YMO joined the musicians.

Sweet Revenge is an amazingly sophisticated album in which Sakamoto sets the distinctive and heart-rending chordal and harmonic ideas of his soundtrack work to trip-hop and neo-bossa-nova beats. The songs are fronted by a succession of guest vocalists who each contribute lyrics which add up to an amazingly coherent whole–a mature meditation on love, longing, conflict, revenge and regret. As usual, Sakamoto was ahead of his time. By spotlighting the deep poetry of J-ME and Latasha Natasha Diggs, this 1994 album anticipated by years the introspective hip-hop diva trend popularized by Lauryn Hill.

The unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono has put his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as a session player, producer, and auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit later in his career. Hosono made his professional debut in 1969 as a member of Apryl Fool, whose heavy psychedelia was somewhat at odds with his influences, which leaned towards the rootsy sounds of Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield. The latter was one of the main inspirations for his next group, Happy End, whose unique blend of West Coast sounds with Japanese lyrics proved to be highly influential over the course of three albums.

"/04" was released in 2004. "/05" was released in 2005. These two works have been re-released as a 2-CD set with the latest remastering. This is a self-cover album that features a number of Ryuichi Sakamoto classics, including movie theme songs, commercial songs, solo works, and YMO songs, performed mainly on the piano. It can truly be called Ryuichi Sakamoto's best album performed on the piano!

A compilation album of songs provided by musicians from Japan and abroad as a memorial work to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Micro Ambient Music” (music that brings silence using non-instrumental sounds).