Shizuka (band)

In an interview from 2001, Shizuka Miura claimed that she had accumulated a lot of lyrical content as she used to write poems, but she had no experience composing music.[lower-alpha 8] In that, Shizuka was influenced by Maki Miura[lower-alpha 3] (a veteran underground guitarist from acts like Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés) after seeing him writing songs, which led her to gradually learn how to compose music.[lower-alpha 9] Then, in circa 1992, Shizuka started creating music[lower-alpha 1] by adapting her poetry and composed three songs: "The Burial of a Shooting Star" (流れ星の埋葬, Nagareboshi no Maisō), "Pandora's Box" (パンドラの匣, Pandora no Hako), and "Fault" (あやまち, Ayamachi).[lower-alpha 10] Later on, she staged three live performances, which included "renting venues, singing, playing, etc"; all this was "done by Shizuka alone".[lower-alpha 2] The third time she performed, Maki was invited to attend the concert and told having had positive impressions of her presentation, which culminated in Shizuka and Maki forming a musical duo.[lower-alpha 4]

Around 1993, Fushitsusha drummer Jun Kosugi joined them.[lower-alpha 5] In circa September 1993, the trio appeared in the Tokyo Flashback 3 (a various artists compilation album released by PSF Records) with the song "Glass Ribbon Unraveled" (ほどかれた娥羅子のリボン, Hodokareta Gara-shi no Ribon).[13] Also in about that year, bassist Tomoya Hirata joined the group. With this formation, Shizuka performed at live house Manda-La2 in Tokyo on 8 November 1993. On 12 August 1994, they played at Japan's Studio AMS. Both performances were self-released in circa 1995 on the Hi8 videocassette format with the title Shizuka (静香); it was later remastered by music producer Tetsuya Tanaka and reissued in Japan on the DVD-Video format by his label Fra, Inc. in December 2009, titled Hikyoku no Seiseki: Live at Manda-La2 1993 & Studio Ams 1994.[14]

On 22 November 1994, Shizuka's debut and only studio album, Heavenly Persona (天界のペルソナ, Tenkai no Perusona), was released in Japan by PSF Records.[15][16][17][10] It was conceptualized by Shizuka Miura and dedicated to Japanese dollmaker Katan Amano.[lower-alpha 11][lower-alpha 13]

Musically, Heavenly Persona opens with a harsh-noise psychedelic jam led by Maki Miura's distorted guitar, but soon after the album introduces the atmospheric, traditional folk style of the band guided by Shizuka's chant-inspired, plaintive vocals, and Maki's "gently plucked guitar". The album features piano by Ichirou Nagahara and cello by Takeharu Hayakawa that enhance the overall sound produced by the "simplistic arrangements of guitar and voice".[4] This release also presents Shizuka's characteristic music contrast on the initially serene, melancholic melodies that develop into crescendos led by Maki's psychedelic solos.[17]

The album received positive criticisms by Mason Jones, who noted that Shizuka's vocals can be perceived as imperfect, but that "its imperfections perhaps add an emotional edge which an overly-polished voice would eliminate".[17] Describing the album, Steven Lowenthal and Peter Kolovos wrote on NPR that Heavenly Persona "features some of the most straightforward—yet equally magical—music within the PSF catalog".[15]

In 1995, Shizuka's first CD live album, Live Shizuka, was released in the United States by New Yorker record label Persona Non Grata.[18][2][8] On this album's booklet, Shizuka Miura was credited for the vocals and guitar, Maki Miura[19] for the guitar and for his musical assistance, Jun Kosugi for the drums, Tomoya Hirata for the bass, and Amano Onkyo Giken for the recording engineering.[20]

Also in 1995, Shizuka appeared in the compilation album of various artists Tokyo Flashback 4, released by PSF Records. It is the album's sixth track, named "A Song for the World Left Behind" (世に残す歌, Yo ni Nokosu Uta).[21] In the music production of this song, "the arrangement was completed in the first take", contrasting the band's usual creative process, which was to initially "listen to Shizuka singing the lyrics, jam together", and only then "arrange the song".[lower-alpha 14] For this piece, Shizuka Miura said she used texts from the Japanese epic poem Hotsuma Tsutae as lyrics to "complete the song".[lower-alpha 15]

Maki Miura told Shizuka's first bass player "couldn't keep up with" the band members' pace, having Maki himself to write the songs bass lines. He also said it became a major problem for the band, since its members were "used to completing the arrangement in the [recording] studio". Sometime after the release of Heavenly Persona in 1994, singer Shizuka, Maki and Jun met Japanese musician Tetsuya Mugishima, also known as "Seven". Tetsuya, as a musician, originally was a guitarist, but, according to Maki, "when he was a bass player, he was very competent and able to write a very beautiful bass line"; as so, Shizuka members invited him to be the bassist on the group, formally establishing the band with Seven's joining.[lower-alpha 6][7]

In 1995, with Seven, the band did three live performances in Japan.[7][3] One was at live venue ShowBoat in Kōenjikita on 20 July 1995. Another was at live venue Namba Bears in City of Osaka on 10 September 1995. Both performances were recorded and later released on the CD format in 2000 and 2008, respectively.[22][23] After those three live shows, Seven, and soon afterwards Jun Kosugi, left the band[7] for "personal reasons". This led to many lineup changes and to a decline in the group's activities. Despite these events, Maki said they had "never disbanded", and that "we always felt that the original members were the best, so we were waiting for them to come back".[lower-alpha 16]

Sometime between 1995 and 1997, Mason Jones organized a tour in the United States for the band. There were shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles.[2][8] They went twice to a local radio station, one of which was a live performance.[lower-alpha 17] From the core members, only Shizuka and Maki participated in this tour; both told having positive experiences with the audience in the USA,[3] with Shizuka adding that "there were many [Shizuka] fans in San Francisco".[lower-alpha 18]

On 15 July 1996, Shizuka had its song "Bloodstained Blossom" (血まみれの華, Chimamire no Hana), which was taken from Shizuka's album Heavenly Persona, released in the United Kingdom in the compilation album Tokyo Invasion! Volume 1: Cosmic Kurushi Monsters by Virgin Records.[24]

On 22 April 1997, Shizuka's song "Kimi no Sora" (君の空) was released in the compilation album Land of the Rising Noise, Vol. 2 in the United States by independent record label Charnel Music, owned by Mason Jones. The cover art of this various artists album features a doll made by Shizuka Miura.[25][8]

In 2000, the group reunited with the previous established members: Shizuka, Maki, Jun, and Seven. In that year, they released a live album recorded in 1995 during a 40-minute performance in a Tokyo nightclub, titled Tokyo Underground 20, Jul '95,[7] which was published in the United States by the American label Last Visible Dog. As Shizuka's previous albums, Tokyo Underground '95[lower-alpha 19] maintains the band's melancholic and contrasting music style, with Shizuka's chanted vocals, and Maki's psychedelic guitar solos. Nevertheless, this album has some different characteristics in relation to other Shizuka releases: it starts with a 1-minute recording of a previous live PA; and, as described by Eclipse Records, the "disc gives off a slightly different 'in a nightclub' aura to Shizuka's zoned-out balladry".[8]

In circa October or November 2001, the band was invited by The Wire magazine to play at the Le Weekend festival, in Stirling, Scotland.[lower-alpha 20] In this way, Shizuka was scheduled to play at 19:30 on 25 April 2002 at the Tolbooth, a music venue that had just restarted its activities following a £6m refurbishment.[26] As the date approached, Shizuka Miura, Maki Miura, Jun Kosugi, and Kazuhide Yamaji flew their way to the United Kingdom. There, they faced some issues: Maki had stomach related health issues; and immigration wise to get into Scotland as Shizuka members were suspected to be other than musicians who would perform at the Le Weekend. Nevertheless, the band made it to the Tolbooth "with a last-minute appearance", and become the first artist to perform in the 2002 edition of that festival.[27][28][29] Gavin Laird, bassist and vocalist of Telstar Ponies, documented the experience on the band’s website and wrote about Shizuka challenges and performance.[27]

The Tolbooth, a venue of art and music in Stirling, Scotland.

I think it’s unlikely that this year I’ll catch a more inspiringly disparate co-headline as Shizuka and the David S Ware Quartet. I’ve been waiting to see Shizuka for something like seven years. So their appearance on the first night of the festival seems nothing short of miraculous to me. This not least because of the combined forces of some dunderheads at immigration who wouldn’t believe they were who they said they were when entering the country and a stomach complaint striking guitarist Maki Miura. Indeed, Miura hypes the pre-gig nerves for everyone with a last-minute appearance at the venue and a seemingly interminable rearrangement of his effects pedals before he’s ready to play. When they do finally launch into their set they look scared as hell but produce exactly the beautiful spindly psychedelic sound I’d anticipated. Miura is one of my all-time guitar heroes (ha! can you tell?) and he doesn’t disappoint me. He plays beautiful simple lines but fills them with an emotional intensity that puts the lard brained mundanity of almost all currently lauded guitar music to shame.[27]

— Gavin Laird

On 25 April 2008, a performance by Shizuka from September 1995 at Namba Bears was released in Japan by PSF Records as a live album, titled Traditional Aesthetics (伝承美学, Denshō Bigaku).[6][11] As characteristics of Shizuka's musical style, the songs in Traditional Aesthetics are simple, featuring a slow rhythm guided by Shizuka's plaintive, chanted, and out of tune vocals in contrast to crescendos featuring Maki's psychedelic guitar solos. Elegies are a theme in the lyrics of Traditional Aesthetics.[16]

Members in this recording are Shizuka (vocals and guitar), Maki (lead guitar), Jun (drums), and Seven (bass).[6]

On circa 31 January 2010, Shizuka Miura died, marking the end of her group. As a tribute to Shizuka, a concert of the band performing at ShowBoat on 30 December 2008 was released on the DVD-video format by PSF Records on 25 April 2010: Endless Dream (終わりのない夢, Owari no Nai Yume). Describing the album, the PSF website published:[5]

As ever, the focus is upon Shizuka's delicate, uncanny vocals and tremulous sense of timing which meld with the overwhelmingly emotive white-hot nebulae of ex-Fushitsusha axeman Maki Miura's guitar. [...] At their best, the Shizuka group were one of the distinctively original voices in the Japanese psych scene.[5]

Members in Owari no Nai Yume are Shizuka (vocals, guitar), Maki (lead guitar), Kazuhide Yamaji (bass), and Katsumi Honjo (drums).[5]

On 24 May 2017, a live recording from March 2009 at Kameido Hardcore of the song "Lunatic Pearl" (気の真珠, Ki no Shinju) was included on a various artists compilation, Tokyo Flashback: P.S.F. — Psychedelic Speed Freaks, by Super Fuji Discs; the compilation was also later reissued by Black Editions records in 2019.[30]

In February 2018, the Bandcamp Daily published that the American label Black Editions will reissue a remastered version of Heavenly Persona, having been the music producer Kris Lapke "enlisted to remaster" it.[31]

Since 2019, a new Shizuka live album, titled Paradise of Delusion (妄想の楽園, Mousou no Rakuen), has been announced to be released by the French label An’archives. This pre-announced album, to be released on the double-sided vinyl format, has a total of 8 tracks taken from a previously unreleased live recording in 2001.[32]