End and Beginning

This is the first album that Nobie, a vocalist who has won the admiration of Africa's greatest jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke and Brazilian music treasure Toninho Horta, and Baba Takayoshi, a much sought after 'first call' guitarist in the Japanese jazz world, have collaborated on.
They also collaborated on one track on 'Bénin - Rio - Tokyo', which demonstrates Nobie's innate sense of rhythm and extraordinary expressiveness in singing, and Baba's guitar, which utilises space and depth, is an excellent match.
Seven of the 11 songs on this album are original compositions by the duo, all with lyrics in Japanese, and the album opens with Nobie's multiple vocal recordings of 'Introduction', followed by the title track 'Owari to Hajimari (End and bigenning)', a light-hearted song of deep love, and Gonzaguinha's cover songs 'É' and 'Feliz'. The album runs through a consistent but diverse worldview up to the alternative-flavoured 'Eardrums'.
This album should be listened to by many adults who love music.