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Calendar Calendar
Ayano Tsuji
Calendar Calendar
Genre: International Music
 

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Ayano Tsuji
Title: Calendar Calendar
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Jvc Victor
Release Date: 11/28/2005
Album Type: Import
Genre: International Music
Style: Far East & Asia
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
 

CD Reviews

One of Japan's best kept musical secrets...
ewomack | MN USA | 02/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"A recent National Public Radio spot brought the rather obscure Japanese singer/songwriter Ayano Tsuji (?????) to the attention of many listeners across the Pacific (numerous curioso blogs lit up with her name in the weeks following the broadcast). With her unassuming persona and tiny ukelele, Tsuji stands as a slight anomaly in the relatively homogenous world of JPOP. In fact, it's probably not fair to call her music "JPOP". Her more tenor than soprano voice floats over lush arrangements - that include a surprisingly wide variety of instrumentation - with delicate ukelele strumming as their foundation. Her ukelele may come across as a cheap gimmick at first, but Tsuji chose the instrument, sometimes unfairly derided as a toy in the west, for purely practical reasons. She apparently couldn't wrap her small hands around a guitar neck. And it wasn't as unusual of a choice as it may seem. In Japan the ukelele, spurred on by a recent fascination with Hawaiian culture, is almost everywhere. But Tsuji does not play "Hawaiian" music. She plays intricately layered pop songs with lyrics about lost love and pain. And though the music remains accessible to anyone, her lyrics remain inaccessible to those without knowlegde of Japanese. Unlike many JPOP groups (including two of the most popular, Morning Musume and Puffy Amiyumi), Tsuji does not use english words in her songs. And english translations of her lyrics haven't sprung up in droves, either. If she obtains a following in the United States, this will very likely change. But in the end the music, beautifully punctuated by Tsuji's smooth vocals, speaks for itself.



"Calendar Calendar" is Tsuji's latest release (it came out in Japan last November). And it explores new ground. Apart from Tsuji's ukelele, it contains one song with distorted guitar, collaborations with western producers (including a former member of Smashing Pumpkins), and an overall similar feeling to her previous releases (compare with her 2003 album "????"). But Tsuji's trademark melancholy shines through on most of the songs. The album offers no disappointments. From the fun and happy skippy opener, "??", to the painfully beautiful and violin studded "????", to the addictingly catchy "????" and the distorted driving "Shiny Day" (an engish anomaly in title only) to the soothingly singable "????" the album delivers twelve melodic wonders of pop. Each song also has a month assigned to it. These months roll from April (4?) to May (3?) which puts the emphasis on spring (and "the cruellest month" of April). The CD booklet is even arranged like a mini calendar with numerous pictures of Tsuji in the garb of various seasons. But an elucidation of the concept that likely runs through the album probably requires a deeper familarity with Japanese language and culture.



Tsuji had a hit in 2002 with the theme song to Studio Ghibli's "The Cat Returns" ("????"). Apparently she's had no others and hasn't really amassed any substantial fan base in her own country. A clip on the internet exists of her playing in what looks like a small bar to a crowd of only a few dozen people. Not only that, the recent NPR piece unabashedly clams that "she's not a star". If that's the case, then Tsuji definitely stands as one of Japan's best kept musical secrets."