Tokyo's Coolest Sound

Nagoya-based unit Lullatone has already been around for 20 years (when counting their early days)! It seems like it was the right time to revisit their vast repertory, as does this 52-song album of almost 2½ hours. All songs were newly recorded with just simply piano, turning them into BGM perfect for any other situation of daily life. It's available digitally or also a nice-priced 2-CD set (even directly at Bandcamp, with cheap shipping fees).

Official info:

"Music for Museum Gift Shops" finds Nagoya, Japan-based band Lullatone revisiting songs from their adventurous 20 year-long career on solo piano.

The melodies in these 52 songs shine in the new subtle, simple renditions. The innocence of past albums is illustrated here with intimate recordings - a kind of cozy minimalism that is warm and familiar. This is Lullatone all grown up - at home, with two kids, helping them with their homework - making music that sounds like an informal, unaffected take on classical music. Homemade classical - for fans of Erik Satie but in a better mood, a more naive Goldmund or Hauschka, or maybe even a Wes Anderson soundtrack if the whole film was set in a light-soaked living room.

Recently Lullatone has been hired to soundtrack films and TV. But, for this project they wanted to make more personal soundtracks for riding a bike to the library, making a late breakfast on a weekend afternoon, studying another language, or browsing through books in a museum gift shop.

Lullatone can next be seen in Tokyo opening for I Am Robot And Proud, on May 16 at Shibuya O-Nest (details here), or closer to home at the "Mori, Michi, Ichiba 2019" festival on June 1st at Laguna Beach & Lagunasia in Aichi pref.

Lullatone "Music for Museum Gift Shops"

Disc 1
1. trying something again again (piano version)
2. my second favorite song in the world (piano version)
3. an ode to eaten snowflakes (piano version)
4. a blanket of snow spotted from under the blankets in bed (piano version)
5. morning coffee (piano version)
6. fleeting years (piano version)
7. an older couple holding hands (piano version)
8. icicles melting (piano version)
9. for all the forgotten resolutions (piano version)
10. wake up wake up (piano version)
11. another word for productivity (piano version)
12. waking up on a picnic blanket (piano version)
13. going to buy some strawberries (piano version)
14. second day of school (piano version)
15. sad grass (piano version)
16. the biggest pile of leaves you have ever seen (piano version)
17. thursday inverse (piano version)
18. gathering sticks for a nest (piano version)
19. afternoon nap for pets (piano version)
20. a runaway kite (piano version)
21. origami tulips (piano version)
22. wet grass (piano version)
23. starlight (piano version)
24. make believe melody (piano version)
25. we're better than this, were better than this (piano version)
26. little by little (piano version)
27. checking things off of a to-do list early in the morning (piano version)
28. umbrella (piano version)

Disc 2
1. good morning melody (piano version)
2. race against the sunset (piano version)
3. the kind of song you make up in your head when you are bored (piano version)
4. fireflies and lightning bugs (piano version)
5. the existential dilemma of a melting ice cream cone (piano version)
6. perfectly organized cleaning supplies (piano version)
7. still feeling the waves when you go to bed (piano version)
8. September Affective Disorder (piano version)
9. a picture of your grandparents when they were young (piano version)
10. falling asleep with a book on your chest (piano version)
11. growing up (piano version)
12. every little moment (piano version)
13. stars on the ceiling of a planetarium (piano version)
14. floating away (piano version)
15. leaves falling (piano version)
16. here comes the sweater weather (piano version)
17. adventure music for migrating birds (piano version)
18. finding a leaf in your girlfriend's hair (piano version)
19. an awkward dinner conversation at a family gathering (piano version)
20. a curtain dancing in the wind (piano version)
21. how to tie a scarf (piano version)
22. prelude for a single snowflake under a streetlight, falling like a star (piano version)
23. a slow waltz (piano version)
24. a little song about snowdrops (piano version)

lulla-label LULLA010
Out now (3/22), ¥2200 (excl. 10% tax)
Order: Bandcamp, CDJapan, Amazon, HMV, Tower Records ^†, , Spotify, Amazon MP3 Japan, Amazon MP3 U.S.
† Tower Records ships directly within Japan only. International orders are available via WorldShopping.

"a curtain dancing in the wind (piano version)"

"finding a leaf in your girlfriend's hair (piano version)"

"falling asleep with a book on your chest (piano version)"