Afterglow of the Shadow Lantern

Afterglow of the Shadow Lantern is a mid tempo city pop track that portrays a late summer night when a woman lights a revolving shadow lantern given by someone she will never see again and watches the shadows circle the wall to the very end.
A paper lantern drawn from the back of the closet, last summer rising on the tatami, one small flame from a struck match, cut paper vanes casting a horse and a row of trees across the wall, and the single extra turn the afterglow draws once the light goes out create a quiet nocturnal scene where the residue of a passed season lingers.

Performed by the fictional AI singer Akemi, the song captures the emotions of adulthood that knows the same heat will never turn again, yet still lights the lantern once each summer and closes the ending with her own fingers.
Inspired by the late 1970s to early 1980s Japanese new music and city pop, the track reimagines that era lyrical subtlety through images of late summer nights, cut paper shadows, and the scent of a year gone by.

Even after she pinches the wick and lets the light die, the leftover heat keeps the vanes turning for one last round before the wall goes dark.
Without letting the words that it was still turning become a voice, she pinches the wick out with wet fingers and closes it herself, watching the afterglow of a finished summer without chasing it.
Produced by nanayon music.