Ikuko Harada - Ima (2023) Hi-Res

Clammbon's vocalist and keyboardist Ikuko Harada has released her 4th solo album after 15 years since 2008. After her corona, she produced and recorded almost all of her songs at her home, based on her home recording that she started in earnest. The whole album has a private, intimate atmosphere. Movie "Aoi, Mori" (2020) Ending song "Aoi, Mori," Theater company Maam and Gypsy's stage "cocoon" (2022) Song in the play "Murikabushi" Theme song "Toumaadi" ~Chorus~", Shogakukan's mook book "Pepapuntas 006" (2022), content song "O-no-ma-to-pe" and other recent solo works. The new song "Ima Koko", which forms the core of the album, was co-composed with poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. In 2021, Harada and Tanigawa participated in the talk event "Words born from the color of darkness" held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation on the 10th anniversary of rei harakami's death. That day triggered Tanigawa to write a new poem based on Harada's suggestion, which took two years to complete. In addition to writing the lyrics, Tanigawa participated in the heart sounds, breathing sounds, and reading aloud, and in the ending part, she performed "intro" from the soundtrack of the planetarium "Yami no Iro", which was composed by rei harakami. being sampled. It is an eleven-and-a-half-minute long piece featuring voices from ages 0 to 91. Engineer Taiji Okuda understood Harada's musicality and sublimated it into a spacious sound. The mastering engineer is Heba Kadry, who also worked on Bjork's "Fossora" and serpentwithfeet's "Soil". The result is a quiet, narrative sound. Art direction is handled by Asuka Wakita, who worked with Harada on page creation for "Pepapuntas 006."