J-Pop singer reveals album info
One of our favourite new J-Pop artists Yun*chi has certainly had a busy year. Following on from 2 mini-album releases and her UK performance debut at Hyper Japan in July earlier this year, Yun*chi now has an album scheduled for release in 2014.
We were quite struck by Yun*chi when she arrived on the scene with the wonderful ‘Reverb*’, whose upbeat, melodic approach was a breath of fresh air at a time when, arguably, a lot of J-Pop was sounding a little derivative and tired. Yun*chi’s song titles also became notable for the use of an asterix ‘*’ next to them, an endearing gesture which not surprisingly led to the title of her debut album.
2012 saw the release of Yun*chi, the Japanese singer’s eponymous mini-album, which featured collaborations with Vocaloid producers Kz (livetune) and U-Ske – and was the release that featured ‘Reverb*’. The follow-up release, ‘Shake you*’ was cut from the same cloth with more of the bright and airy tunes that ‘Reverb*’ had paved the way for. Yun*chi’s appearance at Hyper Japan in the summer gained her new fans and included the intriguing aspect of Yun*chi’s collaboration with one of the UK’s own idol outfits Irokokoro Project. That venture manifested in the form of ‘waon*’ – a word which is used to describe harmonies in music but, as our interview with Beth from Irokokoro Project suggested, “is also fitting in the sense that it is like creating harmony not only in music, but also between Japan, and other countries in the World as we sing together in one language”.
‘waon*’ was included as the bonus track on Yun*chi’s most recent release ‘Your song*’ whose pv and promotional campaign seemed to emphasise Yun*chi’s diminutive stature by posing her next to a huge facsimile of the CD…
‘Your song*’ appears as the end theme to new anime series Log Horizon, whose story revolves around a fantasy role-playing game that crashes, trapping players inside. The track fizzes along with a subtle energy and offers up a perfect showcase for Yun*chi’s distinctive vocal style.
Yun*chi has been careful enough not to release too much too soon, yet has managed to remain in the public eye throughout the course of the year. She wisely side-stepped our question about a possible album release when we interviewed her back in July, but now she’s announced that her first full-length album titled Asterix* will be released in the earlier part of 2014.
A teaser video has been issued for the album, although complete track details are unavailable at this time. However, new song ‘Perfect days*’ (culled from a CM for Sakai Ayana) is used for the backing music.
Asterix* is due for release on 5th February 2014
