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This is a pre-release single from "Café Après-midi Meets Studio Ghibli," a compilation of newly recorded Ghibli song covers featuring 12 super-talented artists, themed around "the happiness of afternoon coffee," supervised and selected by Toru Hashimoto (SUBURBIA), with artwork by Jiro Fujita (FJD) and mastering by Calm!

The Ghibli song performed by Nobuyuki Nakajima, a rare musician/pianist who has composed music for numerous Japanese films, television dramas, anime, and advertisements, and who is now based in Paris after meeting Jane Birkin, and also works as a music director for orchestras and productions around the world, is a cover of Aoi Teshima's "Sayonara no Natsu," the theme song from Goro Miyazaki's 2011 film "From Up on Poppy Hill."

In this version, the poignant melody and tense orchestral arrangement of the original composition by Koichi Sakata are deliberately performed as a piano solo. The tempo is slower than the original, and the simple yet meaningful touch of each note evokes a wonderful feeling of strange tenderness amidst the tension. The solitary and melancholic sound world, which immerses the listener and makes the performer's figure seem to emerge, is a noble and exquisite gift from a superb keyboardist. It is heavenly music that gently seeps into the heart.

Artist Profile

  • Nobuyuki Nakajima

    As a composer/pianist, he works in a variety of fields, including film music, jazz, pops, advertising music, and classical music. He has worked on the soundtracks for the NHK Taiga drama "Yae no Sakura," the films "No Longer Human" and "The Mourner," the anime "Tamayura," the dramas "Beautiful Slow Life (NHK)," "Tokyo Trials (Netflix/NHK main theme)," and "Misdiagnosis (WOWOW)." He has also worked on advertising music for "Let's Go Kyoto! / Spring "Juurinji" edition" (JR Central), "Honsho "Wasabi no Hanashi" edition" (SB Foods), and others. He has also worked as a composer/arranger/pianist on the works of artists such as Hatakeyama Miyuki, Kikuchi Naruyoshi/Pepe Tormento Ascaral, and Calm. In 2011, after meeting Jane Birkin when she came to Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake, he participated in her world tour "Via Japan" (2011-2013, 80 performances worldwide) as music director, arranger and pianist. In 2016, he also participated as music director, arranger and pianist in the Canadian world premiere (performed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra) of the orchestral project "Birkin / Gainsbourg Le Symphonique," which was the culmination of Jane Birkin's activities. The concert will be held in about 80 performances around the world from 2016 to 2022, and will perform with orchestras in various places such as London, Paris, Lyon, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Warsaw, and will also have a successful performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC. In 2017, he will move to Paris. Since then, he has been involved as a music director (orchestral arranger and pianist) in orchestral works such as "DANDY SYMPHONIQUE" by legendary French singer Alain Chamfort (2021, Lyon National Symphony Orchestra), "Piaf Symphonique" (2019, Nice Opera Symphony Orchestra), an orchestral arrangement of Edith Piaf's famous song, and "AZNAVOUR 100 ANS" (2024, Nice Opera Symphony Orchestra), an orchestral work commemorating the 100th anniversary of Charles Aznavour's birth. In recent years, he has traveled between France and Japan and worked on music for "8K Musee d'Orsay (NHK)", the drama "Run Beyond the Wind (NHK)", and corporate short movies such as "STRAIGHT PATH" and "Shiromuku" (both Toray) in the field of advertising music. He has released solo albums such as "Ete Palma", "Melancholia", and "Falling Flowers". Additionally, the music he has worked on for films and TV dramas has been released on CD and digital formats.

    Artist page

    Nobuyuki Nakajimaの他のリリース

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