, stylized as ''COBALT HOUR'', is

Yumi Arai , nicknamed , is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and pianist. Generally the writer of both the lyrics and the music in her songs, she is renowned for her idiosyncratic voice and live performances, and is one of the most prominent figures ...

's third studio album, released on June 20, 1975 by Toshiba EMI/Express (now part of

EMI Music Japan , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. When ...

). The album was also distributed by

Alfa Records , originally a publisher known as Alfa Music Ltd. and later succeeded by record company Alfa Music Inc., was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records ...

for a period of time, as Alfa also held ancillary rights to this and the other LPs Arai released during the time Alfa was still a publishing company; those rights later reverted to EMI Japan in 1994-thereabouts, when EMI regained distribution of Alfa's catalogue except for the artists who were published by Alfa and were distributed by other labels (and later retained most of it, including Arai's first 4 LPs hose rights she had managed to buy before Alfa was sold to Sony while the rest, the catalogue from when Alfa was a recording label and the bulk of the catalogue from when it was a publishing company, went with

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

, including session player Haruomi Hosono's future work both as a solo musician and as part of

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...

). On April 26, 2000, the recording was

digitally remastered Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

for re-release on CD by Bernie Grundman. Internet sales of the album began March 10, 2005. The album cover was illustrated by

Pater Sato was a Japanese artist who created airbrush art for magazines. His birth name was Yoshinori Sato. A selection of Sato's work is on display and for sale at the Pater Sato shop in Harajuku. Some examples of Pater Sato's work from past art auction ...

. Though Arai's nickname "Yuming" is written on the cover, it is clear that the "g" was added later.

Track list

*Lyrics and arrangement by Yumi Arai, edited by Masataka Matsutoya.

Performers

* Haruomi Hosono: electric bass * Shigeru Suzuki: electric and acoustic guitar * Tatsuo Hayashi: drums *

Masataka Matsutoya is a Japanese arranger, composer, music producer, and motor journalist. He currently resides in Setagaya, Tokyo. He is a graduate of Keio Senior High School and Keio University (literature department). His wife is singer-songwriter, composer, an ...

: piano, Fender guitar,

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

* Nobuo Saito: percussion * Koichi Matsuda: harmonica * Aisuke Matsutoya:

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

* Tadayuki Harada: baritone saxophone * Teruyoshi Fukushima and Kunitoshi Shinohara: trumpet * Eiji Arai and his fellows:

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

* Yoshihisa Tamano and his fellows: strings * Yasuhiro Yamada, Junji Hayakashi, Soma Mitsuru: flute * Mikiko Imamichi:

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

* Hi-Fi Set, Minako Yoshida, Taeko Onuki, Tatsuro Yamashita, Kayoko Ishu: backing vocals

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1975 albums Yumi Matsutoya albums EMI Music Japan albums Alfa Records albums {{Japan-album-stub