Longing for the Shadow: Ryūkōka Recordings, 1921-1939, by Various Artists

Longing for the Shadow: Ryūkōka Recordings, 1921-1939

by Various Artists

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VUKARI Lovely singing and great music. I can really feel the emotion behind each song and how it's sung. The mix of east and west sounds is very inspiring. Long before we had wars we had each others music and were drawn to the sound. The music is beautiful.

Robert Bloemkolk Western music meets traditional Japanese folk and it works out quite incredible. Favorite track: Sad Gull.

big leg tender comp likely to turn ur vision black + white and frayed at the edges Favorite track: The Dream Is Short Lived.

TigerTorakio Although the collision of old and new in the interwar period was more or less universal, Japan’s experience has a special drama and poignancy, and these brittle shellac records manage to be intensely full of life and yearning even now, separated from us by a century. Favorite track: Asama Smoke.

orsonwiles It almost sounds like real 1920s Japanese people. Favorite track: Asama Smoke.

PadraigC I bought this cd before the first track was finished. An amazing album, it really does take you away to another time and place. Great production and the music itself is class. The vocal are truly brilliant. Favorite track: Akemi's Poems.

Jeff Economy / Snackpoint Charlie Radio thumbnail

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1.	Seki Taneko - Akemi's Poems 03:26	buy track
2.	Kusunoki Shigeo - Longing for the Shadow 03:35	buy track
3.	Yayoi Tanaka - Sad Gull 03:24	buy track
4.	Akasaka Koume - Please Forgive Me 03:12	buy track
5.	Ichimaru - If You Go Down the Tenryū 03:15	buy track
6.	Mitsuko Nemoto - Cosmos Elegy 02:45	buy track
7.	Ichirō Fujiyama - Tokyo Daughter 02:44	buy track
8.	Chiyako Sato - Skyscraper 03:10	buy track
9.	Yayoi Tanaka - The Dream Is Short Lived 03:05	buy track
10.	Ichirō Fujiyama & Masao Koga - Is Sake Tears or Sighs? 03:27	buy track
11.	Otomaru - Yoneyama Sanri 03:25	buy track
12.	Hamako Watanabe - I Don't Forget 03:13	buy track
13.	Akasaka Koume - Asama Smoke 03:40	buy track
14.	Yoshio Tabata - Farewell Ship 03:38	buy track
15.	Ichirō Fujiyama - Farewell Youth 02:46	buy track
16.	Kouta Katsutaro - Stand Up Tomorrow 03:16	buy track

about

Emerging during the early stages of the recording industry in Japan, the ryūkōka style adopted western classical, blues & jazz elements into traditional and classical Japanese music.

This collection of 1920s & 30s ryūkōka recordings follows on from the Kouta Katsutaro tape we put out a couple of years back, and further captures the hauntingly unique sound of a cultural merging that was starting to reflect itself via popular song, ahead of the widespread influence of western pop music during post-war US occupation.

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released June 25, 2021

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Death Is Not The End London, UK

Record label & NTS Radio show ~ gospel, blues, folk, soundsystems, pirate radio + various wormholes.

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Jun 11

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London, UK

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