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LP
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KEPLARREV 017LP
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2003 album by Tujiko Noriko on vinyl for the first time, featuring new artwork. Edition of 500 copies with black poly-lined inners, and download featuring eight tracks. Keplar presents the first-ever vinyl edition of the 2003 album From Tokyo to Naiagara by Tujiko Noriko. This reissue with new artwork by Joji Koyama is an abridged version of the album as Tomlab label owner Tom Steinle and producer Aki Onda had originally intended to publish it alongside the original CD version. Written by the France-based Tujiko while she still lived in Japan, From Tokyo to Naiagara followed up on her two seminal Mego albums and marked a turning point in both the artist's career and personal life. Tujiko worked primarily with a Yamaha synthesizer and an MPC sampler while also incorporating contributions by other musicians such as Onda, Riow Arai, and Sakana Hosomi into the pieces. Sometimes approaching an IDM and clicks'n'cuts-style production or working with trip-hop and hip-hop beats while using conventional song structures in the most unconventional of ways, the album showcases her multifaceted influences and skills as a singer and musician to full effect. Tujiko describes producing it in close collaboration with Onda, who would relocate to New York City shortly after, as "quite Tokyo and very local." This music is looking back while moving forward. It is probably no surprise that its reissue too evokes tender memories of Onda and Steinle in Tujiko, while also reminding her of what lies ahead. Influenced in equal parts by the experience of strolling through previously unknown Tokyoite back alleys and thinking about the paths not (yet) taken, From Tokyo to Naiagara is precisely that: the perfect travel companion for a journey that leads its listeners from past to future.
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2CD
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EMEGO 307CD
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In the early days of MEGO prior to its transformation into Editions MEGO, a most unexpected release appeared amongst the radical roster. Out of all the twisted hard drive activity from PITA, General Magic, Farmers Manual, etc. appeared a very different kind of release. One made from a computer, but one with a softer atmosphere, cloud-like in sonic shape and even containing discernible melodies. This was the debut release from Japanese artist Tujiko Noriko which not only launched her career to a larger audience but opened the doors of Editions Mego to a broader range of experimental musical forms. Noriko's particular synthesis of electronic abstraction, melody, voice, and atmosphere has few peers as sound gently circles her mystical words morphing into a succession of emotive aural experiments framed as songs. Noriko's evolution since her debut Mego release has seen further solo works alongside collaborations as well as a shift into cinema, both acting and as director. On Crépuscule, one can hear the influence the film medium has had on her music as visual insignia are invoked in the evocative audio at hand. Instrumental interludes further conjure a film landscape alongside the titles which also reiterate the cinematic form. This is synthetic music with a deep human presence. The mind of a human captured wandering the fantastic realms of the internal sphere is exquisitely rendered through machines which usually prompt one to disfigure such humanistic tendencies. The warmth, serenity, and dream-like environment that Noriko conjures from her tools is what makes her such a unique and outstanding artist and Crépuscule is an epic testament to these powers. The title Crépuscule perfectly encapsulates the somnambulant nature of the music where the nocturnal shifts evoke a broad sense of calm. Crépuscule I features a selection of shorter "songs" whilst Crépuscule II allows more room for these songs/moods to breathe with only three songs running at broader longer duration. Crépuscule allows the listener to view the world through Noriko's eyes. With her cunning ability to humanize machines a world of calm wonder is allowed to take focus in the frame. Double-CD version comes in heavy cardboard mini-gatefold; edition of 300.
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CD
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EMEGO 201CD
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The aptly named My Ghost Comes Back witnesses the return of Tujiko Noriko after a hiatus, exploring worlds beyond those we regularly inhabit. The results of these travels provided the formula for this, her most accomplished record to date. As rich in ambition as it is skewered in its melodic stance, My Ghost Comes Back is a decidedly more acoustic affair in which a host of guest musicians incorporate mandolin, viola, musical saw, optigan and other such wares into the exotic environment where her unique songwriting now resides. Furthering an exploration of unorthodox arrangements, rhythm and melody, Noriko concocts engaging pop explosions where flickering electronics, staggered rhythms, and shimmering vocals all dance on a plateau of melancholic ecstasy. "My Heart Isn't Only Mine" launches proceedings as a slow-burning landscape of electronics, organ and subdued vocal arrangements which unfold over 14+ minutes, delicately setting the scene for a new kind of record. "Give Me Your Hands" and "Minty You" exude a joyous warmth as pop perfection extends into the ether. "Through the Rain" is a deeply-moving example of just how far Tujiko's craft has evolved with its repetitive keyboard line, melodic development and a striking, ecstatic chorus. Having spent time to refine her means of traversing the line between pop and experimentation, My Ghost Comes Back presents itself as an ecstatic experience. One which encourages repeated listens as a means of unravelling the subtle sonic tapestry within.
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CD
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EMEGO 078CD
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This is Osaka's Tujiko Noriko's third-full length release for Editions Mego. While still maintaining her trademark version of experimental Japanese pop, on Solo the edges have been polished with some of Noriko's most accomplished works. In part due to the mixing skills of Gerhard Potuznik and Tyme (from Mas). One could even say a work of great maturity. Noriko herself best describes the record this way: "Making music was like I drive and drive looking for a place where there is nobody. I would arrive there, wow cool, I get out of the car quickly. Then I happily dance, sing, doing a mini-party alone. Doing a solo show alone in a big green field. There is a lake, the sun, a train, an airplane, the city, a forest, camera, second sight & everything in the field, etc. Anyway, it's nice when it's working well. I had forgotten this way of enjoying for a while. Last year, after some collaboration albums, I remembered I wanted to have this feeling again."
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CD
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EMEGO 047CD
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2006 reissued/remastered version of this 2001 international debut album, with new artwork and bonus tracks. This was Tujiko Noriko's first international release (after the limited Japan-only release Make Up and Soldier). The initial response was one of surprise that such a record could be released on Mego (at the time the label was pigeonholed as a label dealing exclusively in "laptop music," whatever that is). Despite this, the overall reaction was very positive, although Brainwashed decided to declare the whole thing "Bullshit bullshit BULLSHIT!!!" and that Noriko didn't actually exist. Well, sorry to break the news, but she does, and she has since made albums for Mego, Tomlab and Room40 as well as collaborations with Aoki Tokomasa, Port Radium and Lionel Fernandez, plus performing her brilliant songs for French theatre group DACM and making a film (Sand and Mini Hawaii). Shojo Toshi+ contains some of Tujiko Noriko's most accomplished songs such as "White Film," "Machi No Kakera" and "Differencia." These are beautifully abstracted pop songs and arrangements intertwined with shards and splinters of alienated sound, all building up to that voice. In places pure melancholy reigns, in others blistering beats come charging through the speakers. This reissued edition is skillfully remastered by Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon). It contains, as a bonus, the tracks previously released on the long out-of-print I Forgot The Title 12" vinyl, and has new artwork.
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