Just how gorgeous is Sachiko Kanenobu's "Misora"?

http://www.farsidemusic.com/acatalog/SACHIKO_KANENOBU.html

'Misora' was released during the Japanese 'folk boom' and featured seminal figures Happy End and Haruomi Hosono. Kanenobu was labeled the 'Japanese Joni Mitchell'. However, before the album was even released, she took off to America, not to return to the Japanese music scene until now. After getting married and having children, her music career remained on the backburner for the first six years she lived in America.

It was a meeting with science fiction writer, and author of 'Bladerunner' Philip K. Dick who first encouraged her to get back into music. After visiting her in New York and listening to and loving ‘Misora’, he encoraged her to start writing songs again. Dick sponsored her first American recordings, which she sung in English, but unfortunately he died soon after.

never heard a japanese take on folk before. that's crazy, but they nailed it

thanks for mentioning this

It's pretty nice.

That makes total, perfect sense. This is so exactly what I would picture him digging, knowing his Judee Sill fascination.

There really is something transcendant and entirely affecting with this record. I'm still trying to put my finger on it. It's likely the same ephemeral qualities you would associate with Sill and Joni Mitchell. Whispy folk mysticism with those interesting guitar chord voicings. Can't get enough of it.

is there anything else like this, recorded contemporaneously? like it's just such a nice sounding record with such a pleasing palette that, unless it's a total anomaly, it would be great to hear other people who were thinking along similar lines, sorta responding to joni & neil young records of the period etc. it's dumb to find sound-alikes when the songs make this, but i'm curious.

have you checked out Happy End?

ah, i hadn't, really; i know some of hosono's solo stuff that's way shinier, but yeah this sounds great. existing ilx thread useful, also. i know that one song. thanks.

^ some of the slower stuff by kim jung mi, from korea, ended up being the best solution to this i ever found, fwiw.

anyway misora is one of my favourite records, & it's always super frustrating to me that there isn't more of her work available, to see how she changed as time passed, & to see if there's anything else imbued with such a strong feeling as misora has. it sounds so open and seventies and breezy. i never knew about the comp of alt takes, live songs & rare work that came out in the '90s, & can't find anywhere selling it. this came up on youtube, which is amazing to me. there's a '90s record, & a couple of other more recent albums. she played misora live about five years ago, according to this article, which also includes this neat detail:

Surprisingly enough, it was science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who encouraged Kanenobu to return to music in the early ‘80s.
“Philip was a very good friend of ours and asked me to start singing again after he heard ‘Misora,’” said Kanenobu. “He really loved the album and wanted to produce another one for me.”
Dick served as executive producer for a single recorded in 1981, but died before he could realize his ambition to produce Sachiko’s comeback album.

has anyone heard anything she's done after misora?

Beautiful album - it's online at the moment:

https://youtu.be/spdkQbv3Ih0

There's some surprising info in Sachiko Kanenobu's AMG bio:

She formed a punk band, Culture Shock, and sang in English, their recordings sponsored by Dick until his untimely death in 1982. She separated from Williams the following year, though -- in 2009 -- would play a benefit on his behalf with Donna Grace Noyes (Williams' other ex-wife) and country songwriter Cindy Lee Berryhill (his then-current wife). In the late '80s and early '90s, Culture Shock toured Germany, releasing several albums there and building a following.

Rediscovered in Japan in the early '90s at the hands of Flipper's Guitar co-founder Kenji Ozawa, Misora was reissued to much acclaim, as well as a Japan-only disc of rarities and live performances, titled Toki Ni Makasete. Following her rediscovery, she released a Japan-only solo LPs in 1995 (It's Up to You) and 1999 (Sachiko).

As mentioned upthread, something about '70s recording technology really suits the sound of guitar and voice. What do you think it is?
(Feel free to avoid the word "warm".)

came across the album via the excellent LitA compilation Even a Tree Can Shed Tears
https://lightintheattic.net/products/even-a-tree-can-shed-tears-japanese-folk-rock-1969-1973

and it's blowing my mind right now

that are there albums out there like this that I haven't come across

and then you come across them and... it's magic

wish I understood the words

to answer thread question it's incredibly gorgeous

omg, never expected to be able to see her, but she's doing 3 East Coast dates, Philadelphia, Kingston and NYC, in early October. with Laraaji and Mind Maintenance (Josh Abrams)