Kentaro Haneda, Others – Yokohama Fantasia

FLAC | CUE | LOG

ORCHESTRAL | JAZZ | INSTRUMENTAL

FLAC (https://mega.nz/#!YIh2HL6S!lTA1vlzLOSD2CWMs7umf1kbUJCueVFQHLkgp860_fkM)

When I first saw this album in one of my yahoo auctions searches, I knew that I had to grab it and share with you all. It’s absurdly obscure, beyond reason, because this album was planned as a promotional cd to advertise the charms of the city of Yokohama. Music as a medium to attract visitors from all around the world to Yokohama.

Kentaro Haneda was contracted as a music supervisor and mastermind to mold this album. His role here as a composer is reduced, only composed three tracks as you can see in the vgmdb page, but his contributions are top-notch as always and the title track is quintessential Haneken. The bulk of the album consists of popular and traditional songs arranged in a variety of styles, most of them in instrumental fashion. Kotaro Nakagawa takes charge of most of the arrangements, with additional help of Takayuki Hattori and Kousuke Yamashita (one of the earliest examples of him as orchestral arranger in the music industry), so the music quality is assured with these people in charge.

The track order proposes a journey to different locations and seasons of Yokohama: green hills in the spring, funny strolls on the beach in the summer, sentimental port visits in the autumn and ultra cool late night jazz shows in the winter. All of this and more you can experience through this singular album. By the way, the last track is a recording of the steam whistles that sound every New Year’s Eve at the Yokohama Port, a tradition that happened again a few days ago.

Don’t miss the boat.