Welp, here’s my most anticipated Japanese album of 2011. J-Pop siren Salyu boasts an absolutely attention-grabbing voice, able to transform what should have been ho-hum J-Pop into something special. Musical tinkerer Cornelius creates forward-thinking pastiches, having released a handful of excellent albums and putting together one of the best (and precise!) live shows around. Tokyo Hive reports the two artists have joined forces for an album called S(o)un(d)beams, which will explore “Salyu’s idea of using her voice as an instrument that creates a variety of sublimating sounds.”
Swag.
This isn’t just speculation either, the equivalent of me going “man, if Jordan and Olajuwon played on the same team that would be awesome!” This is some James-with-Wade realty, because Salyu (who will be going by “Salyu X Salyu” for this album due to the whole voice-exploration angle) has posted one song to her website and it’s definitely intriguing. Cornelius takes snippets of Salyu’s singing and arranges them into a rippling arrangement, each vocal placed with care – think “Fit Song.” Salyu, the main one at least, does what she usually does over the mash of wordless singing and piano… sing her guts out. This track would be an interesting experiment hinting at an equally potential-laden album without the final leg, wherein every element of the song circles into the center until they all converge into one whoosh of noise. Salyu starts sounding like Bjork and the whole thing seems like it could rip apart at any second. Then…peace. It’s a dizzying climax you really ought to listen to here.
Bonus video of last year’s excellent “新しいYES.”
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3J8dVlCUtM”]