A Qui Avec Gabriel / Tori Kudo Enka Mood Collection Volume 2

Enka Mood Collection. Split 10 inch LP ltd to 210, comes in a silkscreened gatefold cover with obi (white, brick red or yellow), insert + postcards... Liner notes by Alan Cummings. Second in the enka collection series after Jojo Hiroshige & Shiraishi Tamio, this split LP features À Qui Avec Gabriel and Tori Kudo. À Qui Avec Gabriel is an accordion player based in Tokyo who opened her discography with "Utsuho" on John Zorn's label Tzadik in 2001 (featuring Haino Keiji as a guest musician). Since she has collaborated with Makoto Kawabata, Majutsu No Niwa, Mico to name a few. Her stylistic palette is eclectic, drawing on shades of jaunty european folk music, the elegant minimalism of Erik Satie, and uniquely lighthearted melancholia. Here for the first time on record she left her accordion Gabriel for a piano and a seat and proves she's found her own voice as an expressive singer. The other side features Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Noise with his wife Reiko Kudo) who has a revered status in the Japanese underground since the late 70's (Taco, Guys N'Dolls, Fushitsusha...) but this time he brings listeners into the heart of an amazing and feverish karaoke house with his friends. For those who didn't know it before, maybe for the very first time they are going to discover Tori Kudo as an inimitable & unforgettable singer & crooner, as a true lover of popular songs.