I am pleased to announce that this summer, Minuano are reissuing their 2019 full-length album Butterfly Dream (蝶になる夢を見た) on both CD and vinyl.

The album is scheduled to be re-released in August 2025. Pre-orders for both the LP and the CD+LP Bundle are now available on Shopify and Bandcamp. Do note that these pre-orders are only open until April 29. The Bundle comes with a bonus postcard, and the CD includes a 24bit/96k audio download code. (A CD-only pre-order link will become available in late July.)

Following Love Logic, Fruits Mechanical, and Spring Lovers, this is the fourth collaboration between me and Minuano. Yes, you guessed it: once again, both editions of this re-release will feature English translations of all lyrics on the album.

On a purely personal note, I am very glad we managed to give this treatment to Butterfly Dream as well, simply because for me this album in particular is Minuano’s greatest masterpiece yet. Hopefully my translation of the words can help you discover yet another side to appreciate about this collection of songs. As always, my intention was to take the absolutely beautiful Japanese lyrics and render them into English with the utmost respect, and happily Ogata Takero was there to guide me every step of the way to help us achieve just that. And now it is done.

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Following the reissue of Love Logic and Fruits Mechanical, Minuano are soon re-releasing their long out of print second album: the fan-favorite Spring Lovers (ある春の恋人) from 2010.

This re-release will be coming out on vinyl and CD in March/April 2025.

Pre-orders are now live at Shopify and Bandcamp. Please note that pre-orders for both the LP and the LP+CD Bundle are only open from November 15 to 29, 2024. Because this is a limited edition pressing, it is highly recommended that you put in a pre-order if you want to be sure to attain a vinyl copy. (A link for CD-only pre-orders will be made available in March 2025.)

But no matter if you are going for the CD or the LP (or both), something that you will find in both editions of this release are my English translations of the lyrics.

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Minuano‘s new album Fruits Mechanical -reimagined works- (機械仕掛けの果実 -再構築音源集-) is set to be released on August 21.

You can now pre-order the CD on Shopify or Bandcamp.

Featuring brand new arrangements—or “reimaginations,” as one might say—the album consists of songs written between 2009 and 2019. These are in essence reinterpretations of nine songs from all-new angles by Minuano mastermind Ogata Takero. Of course, the album also features Sakakibara Kaori (Lamp) on vocals.

Just as with the 2023 re-release of Love Logic, the physical version of the album will include English translations for all of the lyrics. Once again, the Japanese and English lyrics are presented in the booklet side-by-side. (See here for an example from Love Logic‘s booklet.)

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I’m very excited to announce the CD reissue of Minuano‘s first album, Love Logic, on August 22, featuring English lyrics of all songs on the album.

This special reissue is available on Shopify and Bandcamp.

The lyrics were translated by yours truly, and I had the pleasure of spending hours upon hours thoroughly discussing them with Minuano’s main architect and songwriter Ogata Takero, painstakingly going through each and every line to make sure the English lyrics would accurately portray the original vision of the beautiful Japanese lyrics.

Now, just in case you weren’t previously familiar with Love Logic…

Minuano’s debut album, first released in 2009, features influences from MPB, soft rock, jazz, and city pop, reshaping them into a unique soundscape blending romance and ennui, with the whispered vocals of Sakakibara Kaori (Lamp) as the icing on this cake of aural tapestry.

“Lemon Elegy,” a fleeting fusion of the vibrancy of Brazilian jazz and the sentimentality of Japanese lyricism. “Soleil,” with its MPB-esque key changes and a sense of melancholy towards a summer nearing its end. The bossa nova of “A Mischievous Wind,” also featuring vocalist Nagai Yusuke (Lamp). The scaled-down soft rock piece “Rain-Colored Diary” which truly makes one see the raindrops…

A total of 10 songs, capturing in vivid detail these fragments of a world in motion.

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