佐佐木直子(Naoko Sasaki)，1976年出生于日本盛冈市，98年与Minamo的吉他手岩下裕一郎合组card skepper，2003年在日本发行首张个人专辑《Snow bird》。

从创作、录音到制作几乎一手包办，她纯熟运用电脑音乐软件，轻巧地让电子化的声音如蝴蝶般在歌声四周拍动着翅膀，或是重叠、延长回响，留白或是打断旋律的行进，加上她脆弱、甜美、空灵的嗓音唱出内省的少女独白，令人一听倾心。虽有着偶像歌手般亮丽外型，却跳脱乍听之下的粉红色日本少女“流行”歌谣窠臼，音乐独特而清新。Snow Bird是银白世界中，隔很久才悄然落下的一片雪花。

Piana－《Snow Bird》

Artist: Piana/Title: Snow Bird/Cat#: cubic music 12

Tracks:

01 - 20 years ago

02 - butterfly

03 - snow bird

04 - spring has come!!!

05 - winter sleep

06 - hid and seek

07 - voice

08 - monster

09 - april

10 - blue bell

11 - after 20 years

Piana－《Snow Bird》

日本发行首张个人专辑《Snow Bird》，从创作、录音到制作几乎一手包办，她纯熟运用计算机音乐软件，轻巧地让电子化的声音如蝴蝶般在歌声四周拍动着翅膀，或是重叠、延长回响，留白或是打断旋律的行进，加上她脆弱、甜美、空灵的嗓音唱出内省的少女独白，令人一听难忘。虽有着偶像歌手般亮丽外型，却跳脱乍听之下的粉红色日本少女“流行”歌谣窠臼，音乐独特而清新。

「感觉像是孩童素描簿或日记的美妙歌曲明显有些怀旧感伤，并渲染力极强地勾勒出情绪上时而泪汪汪，时而喜悦、忧惧的童真世界……让人联想到Pop-Off Tuesday和Cocteau Twins最令人怦然心动的漂浮、纯真sampladelia风格。」－The Wire

「流行音乐（或说，Piana的流行音乐）意在传达情感……而就这方面Snow Bird有多成功呢？大多时候，非常成功。听每一首歌时，我都能惊鸿一瞥地体验到这位年轻女性细腻、柔美的心。」－Stylus Magazine

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Review/专辑评论

佐佐木直子以Piana为化名，2003年发行了首张专辑《雪之鸟》(Snow Bird)，以清澈而童稚的嗓音惊艳乐坛，加杂钢琴、电子声效编织出彷似《席格若斯》(Sigur Ros)与《Mum》这类北国乐团的冷冽歌谣。

今年新专辑《朝生暮死》(Ephemeral)维持过往音乐精神更显沉稳，抒情至极的曲调背后的电子编曲富浓郁爆发力，诗意的词藻穿透听者心灵，似乎能将每首歌词单翻而成为一幅极具想像力的画面。第五首《小女孩的诗》教人深陷悲伤而难以抽离。写著：「红色衬衫飘动著，闻著阳光的味道，从后方看著远方的你，细想十年后的你。也许你不会变，风吹过你那悲伤的眼，教我想起了初遇的那一天。你说：『可以帮我个忙吗？不要从我身边溜走』…

开场的「失去」(Something is lost)副歌有华丽迷幻的迭音，清澈的吉他与管风琴把恋人道别时的不舍彻底传达，第八首「月与提琴」(Moon and Cello)堪称是整张专辑中歌词最少的，却也是意境最美的一曲，开场的电子声效犹如把北国的《Mum》请到面前来，苍白凄美的音象渗入了我记忆深处，我开始记得没有你的楚苦。

浅浅的伤痛琴音与如泣似诉的提琴声，与Piana出世的歌声搭成出无法言喻的音乐景致，适合一个人，静静地，在雨夜或雪夜，隔离一切尘嚣之外，回归到你羽翼尚未被折断的天国之日。 （摘自网络）

"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)

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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." //

"...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

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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