Tracks
01 - 20 years ago
02 - butterfly
03 - snow bird
04 - spring has come!!!
piana05 - winter sleep06 - hid and seek
07 - voice
08 - monster
09 - april
10 - blue bell
11 - after 20 years
Piana－《Snow Bird》
日本發行首張個人專輯《Snow Bird》，從創作、錄音到製作幾乎一手包辦，她純熟運用計算機音樂軟體，輕巧地讓電子化的聲音如蝴蝶般在歌聲四周拍動著翅膀，或是重疊、延長迴響，留白或是打斷旋律的行進，加上她脆弱、甜美、空靈的嗓音唱出內省的少女獨白，令人一聽難忘。雖有著偶像歌手般亮麗外型，卻跳脫乍聽之下的粉紅色日本少女“流行”歌謠窠臼，音樂獨特而清新。
「感覺像是孩童素描簿或日記的美妙歌曲明顯有些懷舊感傷，並渲染力極強地勾勒出情緒上時而淚汪汪，時而喜悅、憂懼的童真世界……讓人聯想到Pop-Off Tuesday和Cocteau Twins最令人怦然心動的漂浮、純真sampladelia風格。」－The Wire
「流行音樂（或說，Piana的流行音樂）意在傳達情感……而就這方面Snow Bird有多成功呢？大多時候，非常成功。聽每一首歌時，我都能驚鴻一瞥地體驗到這位年輕女性細膩、柔美的心。」－Stylus Magazine
Piana－《Snow Bird》
Review/專輯評論
2003年發行了首張專輯《雪之鳥》(Snow Bird)，以清澈而童稚的嗓音驚艷樂壇，加雜鋼琴、電子聲效編織出彷似《席格若斯》(Sigur Ros)與《Mum》這類北國樂團的冷冽歌謠。
今年新專輯《朝生暮死》(Ephemeral)維持過往音樂精神更顯沉穩，抒情至極的曲調背後的電子編曲富濃郁爆發力，詩意的詞藻穿透聽者心靈，似乎能將每首歌詞單翻而成為一幅極具想像力的畫面。第五首《小女孩的詩》教人深陷悲傷而難以抽離。寫著：「紅色襯衫飄動著，聞著陽光的味道，從後方看著遠方的你，細想十年後的你。也許你不會變，風吹過你那悲傷的眼，教我想起了初遇的那一天。你說：『可以幫我個忙嗎？不要從我身邊溜走』…
開場的「失去」(Something is lost)副歌有華麗迷幻的迭音，清澈的吉他與管風琴把戀人道別時的不捨徹底傳達，第八首「月與提琴」(Moon and Cello)堪稱是整張專輯中歌詞最少的，卻也是意境最美的一曲，開場的電子聲效猶如把北國的《Mum》請到面前來，蒼白悽美的音象滲入了我記憶深處，我開始記得沒有你的楚苦。
淺淺的傷痛琴音與如泣似訴的提琴聲，與Piana出世的歌聲搭成出無法言喻的音樂景致，適合一個人，靜靜地，在雨夜或雪夜，隔離一切塵囂之外，回歸到你羽翼尚未被折斷的天國之日。 （摘自網路）
"Ephemeral" takes Piana's sound into a new, more acoustic, terrain. Shedding some of the glitch aesthetics that made "Snow Bird" a genre-defying micro-pop release, "Ephemeral" shows Piana's strength as a songwriter and arranger, and a master of her electronic and acoustic art. A recent interview conducted with Piana describes the thought processes behind "Ephemeral"
"Ephemeral" is much more acoustic than electronic this time, more pop and less experimental. Why did you choose to do this? How do you view this album different from "Snow Bird"?
Piana: Most of the songs on Snow Bird I created sound, noise and structure first and lyrics came up to me after. For this album, I wrote songs with lyrics first and added atomospheric sound later. Many gentle songs are created this time that I didn't want to put noise or glitcy edits much, More I wanted to use musical instruments like cello and violins to leave the emotional feelings.
Tracklist/曲目列表
1. Something Is Lost
2. Early In Summer
3. Beside Me
4. Color of Breeze
5. Little Girl Poems
6. Muse
7. Mother's Love
8. Moon and Cello
9. Beginning
Snow Bird + Ephemeral
Re-press back in stock! Japanese pop, fragile melodies, Cocteau Twins:esque beauty, laptopisms and Satie-like piano chords
Happy (HAP001)
After the success with this record, Taylor Deupree at 12K/Happy decided to re-press and so people, we have a hot new 2nd edition of CDs that landed today.
Happy is Taylor Deupree's imprint devoted to the exploration of unconventional japanese pop music. This is Happy's first record, the beautiful "Snow Bird", an album by Naoko Sasaki aka PIANA, with songs that have a touch of introspection, melancholy, and play out as a girl’s monologue. The sounds are gentle, jarring and, at times, funny. "Snow Bird" offers a unique blend of modern electronic production techniques and pop sensibilities. Naoko’s vocals float dreamlike over cropped percussion, and melodic, digital micro-structures - her voice perfectly suited for telling her subtle stories, like she does on her guest appearance on MOKIRA's "FFT Pop". Yuichiro Iwashita (Minamo) provides guitar and Yasuya plays clarinet on track 11. This acoustic instrumentation is a beautiful contrast to Naoko’s electronic compositions.
ARTIST INFORMATION:
Born in 1976, Piana is Naoko Sasaki, living in Morioka, Japan. Her musical activity began with Card
Skepper, a collaboration with guitarist Yuichiro Iwashita who is now one half of the electro acoustic unit Minamo (cubic music, quakebasket, apestaartje, 360 records). Through participation on albums and live performances with World’s End Girlfriend, she has been fascinating many people with her delicate, cute and unique voice and musical talent as Piana.
TRACK LIST:
1. 20 Years Ago
2. Butterfl y
3. Snow Bird
4. Spring Has Come!!!
5. Winter Sleep
6. Hide and Seek
7. Voice
8. Monster
9. April
10. Blue Bell
11. After 20 Years
SELECTED REVIEWS:
"On this debut from Naoko Sasaki, alias Piana, connections are forged between the seemingly disparate fields of glitch processing and coy J-Pop. Coming across as a child’s sketchbook or diary, there is a palapable sense of nostalgia in these lovely songs, powerful and moving evocations of a kid’s world that vary from the tearful to the joyful to the fearful. Basing her fragile melodies on slow motion Satie-like chord patterns, employing piano, organ, occasional broken beats and beautifully measured guitar from Yuichiro Iwashita, Sasaki then destabalises the music by adding a low key firework display of static pops and hisses which serves as a brilliantly effective metaphor for a child’s sense of wonder, distress, excitement and anxiety. The songs recall both the unsettling, naive sampladelica of Pop - Off Tuesday and Cocteau Twins at their heartstopping best." // THE WIRE (UK)
"....griper tag om mig från första ton. En del har jämfört Pianas musik som en korsning av Erik Saties vackra pianostycken, smakfullt ihopfogade av spillror av knaster och sprak, och även om jag kanske inte hittar konkreta spår av sekelskiftes-musikern så förstår jag vilken atmosfär och vilket tillstånd skribenterna befunnit sig i när de hört Piana, vars album är en trevlig förening av den typ av popmusik och elektronik som Friendly Noise förespråkar. Två av albumets inledande spår – "Butterfly" och "Snow Bird" – är sidorna hos den skönsjungande Sasaki som framträder starkast i den sparsmakade elektroniska pool som piano-slingorna badar i. I till exempel "Butterfly" multi-plicerar hon sin röst så att de framstår som suddiga ljuddimmor, ungefär som ett screengazing extrakt av Slowdives "Shine". Lika fint är titelspåret där Satie kanske gör sig mest påmind, om man nu – vilket jag knappt klarar av – kan slita sig från de hypnotiska, upphackade fågelsamplingarna som behagligt smälter in i ljudbilden på ett Differnetskt sätt." // Kristoffer Lecander, Twisterella (SE)
2 Snow Bird + Ephemeral
"Ett alldeles utsökt stycke filmisk, småskalig och ja; japansk popmusik. Fylld av sådana där harmonier som glider in i sinnet utan att man riktigt lägger märke till det. Exotiskt, men ändå varmt och välkomnande." // Musiklandet.se
"...Let me begin with the voice. I haven’t heard a voice like hers in a long time — at least, not since I first heard the main character of Hayao Miyazaki’s Whisper of the Heart sing (in Japanese) John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads.” Not only is it high and squeaky, but it’s also fresh, innocent, and completely stripped of pretension. I say this even though she’s singing in Japanese (the liner notes on the album are in Japanese, too, though you can find translations on the Happy web site)... Sasaki’s simple, honest voice is crucial here because her music is extremely complicated. There are crazy rhythms, backwards melodies, bleeps and blips, and other assorted weird noises sprinkled throughout these eleven songs." // STYLUS MAGAZINE (US)
"Piana has a sad whimsy to her sound, on songs like “Blue Bell”, she releases her vocals in soft bursts over tinkling bells and a breezy flute in a song spaced with glacial holes between the instruments. Snow Bird is pure massage and melt, the aural equivalent of watching water glide across stone. This is an album designed for thinking quietude, a fetal position soundtrack buoyed by Sasaki’s hair stroking nuzzle of a voice." // INDIEWORKSHOP (US)
This item is filed under::
- Electronica/Techno/Electro
- Indie/Rock/Pop/Folky
Snow Bird + Ephemeral
BACK IN STOCK. Startling, original and lush Japanese experimental pop. Warmly recommended!
Happy (HAP003) | *BESTSELLER!*
"Bäst just nu" // NÖJESGUIDEN (SE)
"Ömsint och avskalat gör japanska Piana (Naoko Sasaki) en oemotståndligt vacker musik på nya skivan Ephemeral." // Rated 5/6 in SvD (SE)
We are very proud to offer you "Ephemeral", the new album by Morioka, Japan's Naoko Sasaki, otherwise known as Piana. Following 2003's critically acclaimed "Snow Bird".
"Ephemeral" takes Piana's sound into a new, more acoustic, terrain. Shedding some of the glitch aesthetics that made "Snow Bird" a genre-defying micro-pop release, "Ephemeral" shows Piana's strength as a songwriter and arranger, and a master of her electronic and acoustic art. A recent interview conducted with Piana describes the thought processes behind "Ephemeral":
"Ephemeral" is much more acoustic than electronic this time, more pop and less experimental. Why did you choose to do this? How do you view this album different from "Snow Bird"?
Piana: Most of the songs on Snow Bird I created sound, noise and structure first and lyrics came up to me after. For this album, I wrote songs with lyrics first and added atomospheric sound later. Many gentle songs are created this time that I didn't want to put noise or glitcy edits much, More I wanted to use musical instruments like cello and violins to leave the emotional feelings.
About lyrics, "Snow Bird" is an abstract poetry which is expressed the imaginative inner feelings of a little girl's past, present, and future times. "Ephemeral" is not about one person's fantasy world but a suite of a frail love story of long-past childhood. I've locked up the never-coming-back times in this album.
Do you have any musical influences for this record?
Piana: I am not really inspired from other music, I would say more from novels, poetries, or movies. Haruki Murakami is the writer I get the most influence on my music. If I hadn't have met his works, I might not have been able to come up with my music.
It is clear that despite her success with her first release, Piana was not content to simply release another "Snow Bird". The lengths she went to create a more mature and developed, yet unquestionably-Piana, album, are evident in the production, composition, and creativity of "Ephemeral". A bold, yet important statement about her seriousness as an artist.
Joined this time by Yuichiro Iwashita (Minamo) on guitar, Seigen Tokuzawa on cello, and Gen Saito and Sawayka Kuwabara on violin, "Ephemeral" casts serious acoustic musicianship against a modern electronic framework. The dreamy yet melancholy, powerful yet fragile sound of Piana's music mixed with her angelic Cocteau Twins:esque voice rounds out an expertly produced album that, sounding like no one else, effortlessly floats her to the top of her craft.
Tracklisting:
1. Something is lost
2. Early in summer
3. Beside me
4. Color of breeze
5. Little girl poems
6. Muse
7. Mother’s love
8. Moon and cello
9. Beginning
This item is filed under::
- Indie/Rock/Pop/Folky
2007年的第三張專輯
「Eternal Castle」由日本音樂廠牌Noble發行，
如同前張專輯，弦樂部分非常優秀，Seigen Tokuzawa的大提琴、Gen Saito與Mio Okamura
的小提琴搭建起令人感到異樣平靜的音響世界。Piana的歌聲依舊有著洗淨人心的效果，可
以聽得出來，她內心裡的小女孩已經轉變為成熟女子，昔日的稚嫩羞澀已漸漸散去，顯得
自信、從容而穩定，Piana已完成從實驗電子到飄渺美聲的蛻變。
聆聽「Eternal Castle」里"Norway"、"Two of Us"、"Beyond the Season"這些歌曲時
，不禁浮現起一個畫面，身著白色衣裳的Piana，雙手如翅膀般張開，在耀眼陽光照射下，
鞋子撩撥起飛舞的葉片。儘管，她在音樂里持續捕捉憂傷與心碎，專注地凝視世界，仍帶
著一抹柔和而源源不滅的光輝，讓人記取美好的事物，對未來保持希望。
曲目 · · · · · ·
1. With the Sea 海と
2. Norway ノルウェ
3. Two of Us ふたり
4. Snowflakes 冬の花
5. Ancient Note 太陽
6. Hydrangea あじさい
7. Beyond the Season 時がたてば
8. Prayer 優しい歌
