Aile Alegria

LAVA "Aile Alegria" Commentary of Tracks by LAVA

001: Aile Alegria feat.Jeanne Bastos Before I got into the recordings, I received a request of producing an instrumental album, to be sold exclusively in cafes and in variety stores, and I suffered from the first step in the makings. "This isn't it " In the midst of many trials and errors, this song "Aile Alegria" suddenly fell upon me while I was on a train ride from Ikenoue to Eifukucho of the Inokashira Line---and guess what, in Portugal (I don't even know a single word in Portugal, but it felt like it was). While the melody was softly wrapping and pleasantly swaying me, I called many people to interrupt and start many things at once. Sleeve design is by Mr. Noboru Koyama, a designer managing the covers of albums such as Soul Bossa, etc. He designed using a picture of the sky dyed in beautiful colors, as if he knew how this song came about. I feel the strength of this natural-born melody growing strong and free in nature.		002: Vem Para Ficar feat.Wilma de Oiveira & Jeanne Bastos Wilma and Jeanne---two female Brazilian vocalists, the core of the album Aile Alegria. Appointing them as the voice and the chorus at once (and feeling how extravagant it was at the same), this song was made working fiercely on the Protools I recently bought, which just kept freezing the G4.

003: Ride On A Tube<To Meet Mr.Gus> feat.Mickael Harris This track is expressing my state of mind when I went to meet Mr. Gus, a label master of ReInforced---known for---, and asking him in a high-handed way to listen to my demo tracks, when I was in London about 2 nights ago. I tried to express how tense I was on my way to the record label---jumping on a subway after calling Mr. Gus on a public phone---by asking my friend Michael Harris, a graphic designer, to call out the names of the subway stations (he did good in thinking to express how nervous I might have been, since he himself have never done such a thing). The result of this high-handed presentation ended in Mr. Gus giving me few records, since what I made was different from the direction the record label was heading. But Mr. Gus was such a gentleman; I plan to go and visit him again, if I ever get a chance.		004: Sing feat.Wilma de Oliveira This song was composed after hearing the voice of Wilma. When we recorded her voice, I asked her to sing with the simple piano take that I played; the rhythm track was added afterwards. I like how the voice "leans" on the rhythm (it was something that just occurred from the method we used to record the track).

005: Moody Journey feat.Abou Diallo I remixed the track I made for the "cafes & variety store" album, and changed the way it expresses. Trumpet is by Mr. Yoshihito Fukumoto (ex. La Orquesta De La Ruz) I decided to use what he was playing as in practice, and not the real take. The phrases he play are so relaxed, so comfortable. Voice is by Abou, from Mali Republic of Western Africa. His French always seem to pleasantly take me to the place so far away.		006: Vem Para Ficar<f8 Spiritual remix> feat.Wilma de Oliveira The melody line sung in "Vem Para Ficar" is originally from what is sung in this track; this is the remix version of Track 002, with some flavor from the Track 002 added (I've remixed it since the melody in this track didn't seem to match well with the 002 version---it1s all complicated, you know). I named it "f8" because my home & studio is on the 8th floor. I had such a hard time making and coming up with the sound, like a voice of an alien from outer space, used in the intro.

007: 706Field Back in my childhood, I lived in a place called Ohkurayama <Kanagawa Prefecture>. There was a park called Ohkurayama Park, on top of the hill across from the train station; and there, for couple of times as I could only remember, I played catch with my older brother. This has been so clear in my memory, so I decided to put it into a song. The folk guitar appearing in a chorus is played by my brother himself---I've sampled them from my brother's album; it's like I'm playing catch with my brother, not with a ball this time, but with a sound <he is active as a fork lore musician in New York>. By the way, "706" is the street number of where the park was located.		008: Aile Alegria <2001 LAVA remix> feat.Jeanne Bastos Struggling to put together the pieces that fell right down on me, when I was riding on the Inokashira Line, I hastily invited Jeanne, whom I was only briefly acquainted at the time, and Australian pianist Sean Mackenzie, and composed a demo track together. I was so pleased with the take, and built it into new piece by blending the new flavor that was recorded in a studio. After the recording was done, Jeanne and Sean got married in Australia. They are having a baby soon, too. Alegria!

009: Dance In The Wind feat.Jerome"Jerry" Preston The first time I heard Jerry's voice was in a restaurant in Harumi, Tokyo. I was very pleased with his voice, so I quickly called out to him <my strong point> and when I realized, he was in a recording booth and singing with me, with his headset on. On the first demo track, it had my voice singing a temporary line. It sounded so discouraged, but it came out like this after Jerry sang; voice can give such a strong power to the track. There are many top professionals whom we still are not aware of. Things we see in our eyes aren't everything. TK from The Flying Angel helped me with the lyrics. Thank you.		010: Beach Your mind can even lose control sometimes, and can even fly into many different directions, when one is facing his PC thinking "no, not this," or "no, not that." Whole data of Beach was destroyed and disappeared, at the same time it was completed, by me. Fiercely scratching my head and screaming the hell out, this Beach was created after thinking over whether I should search for the exact same product, or should create with totally new different approach. I felt somehow possessed. Therefore, I clearly don't remember its process. All I remember is that I was reconstructing Kosmas Kapitza's conga that I secretly ( ! ) recorded couple of years back, and the words "back-up" floating all over the room.

The process of producing this album has taken 8 months period of time, counting from the "café & variety store" album. There are many things you can lose when you destroy something that is already completed, But I was able to obtain much "confidence." This album is supported by many talented and many beautiful, bright minds. I'm hoping that everyone's expectation, of wanting to produce something good, transform with sounds and rhythms to form "LAVA," and gradually flow throughout the world. I deeply thank all the people who participated and helped me in producing this album. And, let us sail on together, again. Increase PEACE!.............................................LAVA