This is a slightly-off topic post about recent and frequent SAWA collaborator,
Hisashi Nawata.
He's been working behind the scenes with artists a lot the past few of years, and seems to becoming more and more prominent.
Originally, he mostly collaborated with m-flo's VERBAL (some arranging on
Visionair, BoA's
BUMP! BUMP!, Sowelu's
NEVER) and Taku (Sowelu's
MATERIAL WORLD, Ami Suzuki's
Reincarnation) producing for other artists, but he's been branching out and producing on his own.
Last year he worked on thumping, ethereal track for Shibasaki Kou called
パラレルワールド・リーディング (Parallel World Reading) from her album
CIRCLE CYCLE. This month, he produced her new single
Strength, which SAWA recently
gushed about on her twitter. He's also producing Shibasaki Kou's yet to be released single
ANOTHER WORLD, out this summer.
Of course, he also created SAWA's
あいにいくよ back in 2010, but now has also collaborated with her for a track for Nozomi which has yet to be released (as well as another song titled
Diamond Days.)
He's been performing on keys for SAWA's live band off and on, and they've been in and out of the studio recently... I personally love his work, he gives everything this glossy, synthy feel, and hope he works with SAWA much more in the not too distant future.
The tracks named are really just the tip of all the artists he's worked with. For a total list, check out his
site.
Check out his
twitter as well.
The unit is comprised of instrumentalist Kamiya Junpei, vocalist/songwriter Higashikawa Akiko as well as various other guest artists. SAWA's writing is featured on the track "Where to?", and the album is out on the fourth of April.
