AKIRA KOSEMURA

MOMENTARY : Memories of the Beginning (CD+DVD)

Regular price $20.00
An admiration towards the ideal what is linked unconsciously to human being’s roots, as seen in anima/animus archetype.
Capture it as one fateful encounter of a man and a woman, and sublimate a couple’s life moments into music.
Akira Kosemura releases sixth original album after five years.

In this five years, Akira Kosemura attempted to compose music with the “memories of the beginning” what lies deep inside him. He captures this concept as a fateful encounter of a man and a woman, and sublimate “moments of life” into this creation of a fantasy album.
The listeners will be guided into the story of this album with each song written with various piano melodies arrangement continuously. It is a new fantasy drama composed with music.
As a story-teller, various guest vocalists were featured: Nagi Yanagi, Devendra Banhart, nikiie, lasah, and shaylee. Although it is a most ambitious and challenging work the artist has ever created, but the music played throughout in this album provides the special worldview with finely honed aesthetic sense, and will invite listeners into a story. This newly born masterpiece is filled with beautiful premonition and pure impressions.

Guest Musicians
guitar: muneki takasaka
contrabass: yasutaka okada
percussions: izumi misawa
violin: mika shirasawa
violin: mari asai
viola: madoka kurii
violoncello: haruka hitomi
violoncello: maiko satoh
drums: shota mizuguchi

liner notes: hitoshi kurimoto

recording, mixing, mastering engineer: hiroshi iguchi
studio coordination: keigo sonoda (pastoral sound)
sales promotion: kazumitsu yoshida
liner notes: hitoshi kurimoto
art direction, artwork, photo, design: shin kikuchi
production management: schole inc.

Akira Kosemura (he/him) is a composer and pianist hailing from Tokyo, Japan. He is a prolific artist, constantly releasing solo albums and composing music for films, TV drama, games, stage, and commercial music.
Akira founded his own label Schole Records early on after his solo album It's on Everything released in 2007 while he was still in school. In 2017 and 2018 Akira's music was ranked in Spotify's "Most Played Japanese Artists/Songs Top 10", and his works have been highly acclaimed on media around the world, including US music media Pitchfork, Australian newspaper THE AGE, French public broadcast FIP, and Canadian public broadcast Ici Musique.
Akira's major score works include Fragments of The Last Will by Takahisa Zeze, the Cannes 2020 featured film True Mothers (Asa Ga Kuru) directed by Naomi Kawase, Hollywood produced drama series Love Is__, the Nintendo Switch game Jack Jeanne produced by Sui Ishida, the TBS drama series Chugakusei Nikki, the contemporary ballet piece MANON, and the Japan Pavilion in Milano EXPO. His music pieces were also featured in the Amazon original movie Jonas Brothers' CHASING HAPPINESS, the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion awarded director Audrey Diwan's debut film Mais vous etes fous (Losing It), and the Toho movie Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare.
In recent years, he has worked on projects in different media such as SK-II STUDIO's documentary The Center Lane (featuring Rikako Ikee), directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, the runway music for a collection from apparel brand TAKAHIROMIYASHITA The Soloist., as well as music for LA MER BLUE HEART, LAND ROVER, and L'OCCITANE. Akira has also co-produced a song with American musician Devendra Banhart.
In addition to his versatility and diverse portfolio, Akira has been working on a world scale. In 2022 he signed a contract with prestigious Decca Records, and the EP Pause (almost equal to) Play was released worldwide. Akira's music was also sampled in John Legend's song "The Other Ones feat. Rhapsody" included in his new album Legend Act I & II. And Akira's first major album SEASONS was released on Decca Records (UMG) on June 30, 2023.

“It feels impossible to get tired of, circumscribed and boundless at once.”
by Pitchfork

“Fantastic stuff.”
by Gilles Peterson

“Peaceful, evocative music”
by Fact Magazine