A summer soundtrack should transport listeners to a sonic resort, somewhere they can imagine the sound of waves gently crashing into the shore, electronic organ melodies drifting by like an ocean breeze and Latin percussion pushing it all forward. The 1989 album “Karibu no Yume: Light Fusion Fantasy” provides exactly that.
In the years since its release, the 10-song set has developed a cult following among jazz fusion fans and those coming to older Japanese music via city pop. And the album’s profile is only rising this summer. Record Collector magazine included the full-length on its “Fusion Best 100” list at No. 43, and the album will be reissued as a CD and record on July 24.
For Yuka Noda, the artist behind “Karibu no Yume,” it stands as her only solo album and a summation of her musical interests from Japan’s economic bubble era, a time of carefree extravagance.