![]() Composer Koji Ueno’s “Prélude Et Choral” is an orchestral instrumental that also lacks overt Christmas-ness, while Jun Togawa’s “Koutansetsu” (“Nativity” in Japanese, but “Christmas” in Chinese) is a digital synth-laden ballad.Īmong We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ synths, the natural percussion and acoustic guitars on French singer/songwriter/writer/actor Pierre Barouh’s “Ce Jour-Là” stand out it makes logical sense, though, as Barouh founded the Saravah label after which Yukihiro Takahashi named his 1977 debut solo LP. “Silver Paper Stars” is Moonriders’ fun but not overly goofy operatic Christmas rock track, while Miharu Koshi’s “Belle Tristesse” (“A Beautiful Sadness”) fits neatly alongside her (highly recommended) Yen albums Tutu and Parallelisme. 1983,” an immersive ambient piece whose only relation to Christmas is its title. ![]() However, don’t expect to hear Christmas standards or many jingling bells on We Wish You A Merry Christmas, a very distinctively Yen Records product. Japan has its own share of popular Christmas music, though one of the most enduring 80s Christmas hits is “king of city pop” Tatsuro Yamashita’s longing “Christmas Eve,” reissued every few years and viewed in the same vein as Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” Post-war adopted traditions include winter illuminations and a Christmas meal of KFC and strawberry shortcake, and Christmas Eve is a romantic holiday almost as important as Christmas itself. If it wasn’t for online databases like Discogs or RateYourMusic, it could very easily go unnoticed.Ĭhristmas in Japan differs from that in the West while it’s gradually become more secular worldwide, Christmas there has almost no religious affiliation (only about 1% of the population is Christian) and December 25th is still a school day. Vinyl pressings, while not terribly expensive, are far from ubiquitous when they do appear, they’re often in pristine condition (Japanese Wikipedia says it reached #57 on the Oricon LP Chart, a relatively modest peak considering the parties involved). Yukihiro Takahashi and his older brother Nobuyuki Takahashi (a music producer not to be confused with the filmmaker of the same name) are credited album producers, though some of the individual songs heavily carry Hosono’s fingerprints. Little is known about November 1983’s We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Hosono practically lived in his newly established LDK (Living-Dining-Kitchen) Studio (purportedly built because he spent too much time in Alfa’s Studio “A”), and his work outside YMO became increasingly textural and experimental (sometimes to its own detriment). Most of these releases weren’t straightforward pop Koshi rejected her idol beginnings in favor of oddball techno-kayo, while Inoyama Land and Interior released new age records before the genre fully exploded (three years after its initial Japanese release, Windham Hill more successfully reissued Interior’s Hosono-produced self-titled debut). ![]() Within the label’s first year, in addition to releasing Hosono and Takahashi’s own records Yen signed Miharu Koshi, former Plastics guitarist Hajime Tachibana, Testpattern, Inoyama Land, Jun Togawa, and Koji Ueno among others. After all, the chart-topping YMO disproved Alfa’s initial skepticism, and its members (especially Hosono) expertly balanced artsier ideas with commercial success. In 1982, Alfa Records founder Kunihiko Murai launched Yen Records, essentially a playground for Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi to sign and produce whoever they wanted. With exclusive material from Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, Miharu Koshi, Taeko Ohnuki, Moonriders, and others, it creatively rounds up the YMO orbit in a cohesive holiday listen. Uniquely deviating from the overplayed standard holiday music fare, Yen Records’ We Wish You A Merry Christmas is a Christmas LP actually worth your time, energy, and money.
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