You know, there’s something strangely meditative about filling out a Discogs credit list. I find it so, because you feel like you contributed to artists getting their proper accreditation and also you getting a fuller picture of how something got made. So, when I finished populating Maria Kawamura’s 「春の夢」 – サンクタス – (or Spring Dream – Sanctus, as it’s more commonly known) album page, I felt a sense of clarity. I can finally explain it.
Few Japanese artists embody their work much like Maria does. Gifted with a phenomenal voice, one that could (if she wanted to) sing arias in operas or accompany classical concerts, she graced us with it in various anime, soundtracks, and solo works. However, that’s not all her voice is known for.
A native of Setagaya, Tokyo, it was there that a young Maria (born Shigeyo Kawamura) fell in love with acting and theater. By the time Maria graduated out of highschool she was invited by the iconic Japanese anime studio, Toei, to their acting school. It was there that she took on the opportunity to get into voice acting, debuting at the age of 21 (?) in their Aura Battler Dunbine and also doing small roles in live-action TV dramas.
At first, it was Maria Kawamura’s acting chops that spirited her into notoriety, with speaking roles in huge films like Mega Zone and Mobile Suit Gundam. However, it was around 1986’s when Maria rekindled a love with manga creator Mamoru Nagano (who helped design mecha for Gundam and was her long-time neighbor), fell in love, and their encounter changed the trajectory of one important part of her career (one that would eventually lead to their marriage).
As a singer, Maria had contributed songs and vocals to various “image” soundtracks. When Mamoru heard that Maria had a little treasure trove of original demos and songs she’s written, he invited her to do something special with them. Why not lead with her as the solo artist composing music for an “image album”?
Maria would work Mamoru creating music for what would come her first release, Mamoru Nagano’s Super Nova. It was in her debut that one could sense, or experience, Maria’s own musical influence. It was the influence of prog, folk, and world music, converging on futuristic tones and sound. It was her illustrious voice projecting a kind of “fairy” magic on the decidedly leftfield music. While others in Japan, at that time, had their creativity emanating from a small orbit, Maria’s appeared shifty, in the neofolk vein of Kate Bush. Live performances were done in cosplay giving an air of theatricality to her original panoramic songs.
Wonderful works like 1987’s「GREEN AND GOLD」コミックスイメージアルバム (another image album for Mamoru’s The Five Stories) and Canary did not dispel the notion that Maria could tackle songs that feature multiple layers of styles and influences. The former album featured a surprisingly searing blend of neofolk and neoprog while the latter release was a quite stately, more graceful, neoclassical slice of pop music, in league with artists like Zabadak, Yoko Ueno, and others, that perfectly fit Maria’s overall aesthetic.
What I love about 1991’s 春の夢」 – サンクタス is that it finds Maria maturing into her own as a songwriter, one with compositions that are uniquely hers. In Sanctus, Maria’s music (for once) centers more distinctly around the influence of Japan, its people and its environment. In other albums, for all intents and purposes, she was “playing” a role and inhabiting other characters through music – on this one, it’s her through and through.
Working with great sessions Hamza El Din, Prendas Hegoda, Takashi Tsunoda, and Keiji Azami – all masters of “world music” – Maria’s music went toward a more organic direction, touching on trans-continental fantasy world. Lyrically, if one can suss it, a sort of avant-gothic sensibility slides in, with seemingly innocent wordplay evolving into slightly sinister asides. Fleshing out Maria’s experiments would be other brilliant thinkers like Haruomi Hosono, Yoichiro Yoshikawa, and Tatsuya Honda, creating this fourth world where the eons-old music of Japan mutates with other traditions.
“Planet Blue” kicks off the album with a gorgeous, windswept, flight of musical fancy, where featherweight dream pop lives in a sweet sea of sound. It’s pure ear candy, that is rightfully noted in the liner notes, that should be heard booming from a good pair of speakers. It’s Maria’s imaginative way of projecting springtime, and its all-encompassing feeling, that powers the whole album. It’s that urge to explore “passion”, in all its forms, that drives wildly imaginative songs like “夜明けの星の光” (The Starlight Of Dawn) that aided by Kuniaki Haishima mix ambient music, oratorio, folk, and environmental sound – conjuring otherworldly music, unlike anything she’s done before.
Hosono-san’s entry to Maria Kawamura’s world comes courtesy of their “月夜の子猫” (Moonlight Kitten) a song that serves as a prediction for his future work in Love, Peace & Trance. Inspired by ambient house music, Carnatic music, and deeply groovy R&B, once again we get to hear and imbibe in a different fantasy world that’s on the periphery. Spoken word songs like “月光樹” (Moonlight Tree) tap into kankyō ongaku mutating it with all sorts of alien blues, creating (yet again) another mystery of music, that’s quite astonishing to listen to. If Maria was putting on another mask, perhaps it was a symbolic subversion of a hannya mask, showing the potential ferocity hidden in tenderness.
For me, I always go back to a song like album highlight, “春の夢-Sanctus-”, songs that take their time to unravel and fully envelop, leading the listener through a looking glass of musical memory. Where Maria once necessitated a film or a story to express herself, here, Maria’s music is the panorama and kaleidoscope, bridging that gap between love, devotion, and surrender, crafting a self-empowering song out of devoted, selfless, communion. It’s quite a spiritual thing that Hamza El Din meditates on afterward on, “ウシャスの娘” (Daughters Of Usha). In the end, this bit of the album is a dreamy way to wind down and a great point to leave you, kind reader, to spirit out the rest of this record on your own.