Eri Nobuchika
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is a Japanese singer-songwriter, under the Fearless Records label on Sony Music Associated Records. She currently resides in Tokyo.


Biography


Early years

Nobuchika's professional career began at an open Sony Music audition. She sent in her demo tape but forgot to include her address. The president of the audition wanted to contact her, and after asking for her through a few calls to Fukuoka post offices, he finally got hold of Nobuchika. Through the audition, she attracted the interest of
Shinichi Osawa , also known by his stage name Mondo Grosso, is a Japanese musician, DJ, record producer and composer. Over the course of his career, he has worked in genres ranging from acid jazz to house, with strong influences of underground club music, th ...
. She received numerous label offers, but ultimately signed with Sony Music, and teamed up with Osawa. With Nobuchika on his label, Fearless Records, Osawa would go on primarily to produce her music as he did with fellow label artist
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
.


2004–2006: Debut and ''nobuchikaeri''

After finishing high school at the age of 19, Eri started work on her debut single, "Lights", which was released on December 8, 2004. The single features the title song, as well as an acoustic version and a karaoke version. The B-track, "I hear the music in my soul", shows off Shinichi Osawa's underground club music background with Nobuchika providing a few vocals. "Lights" was the theme song of the Japanese film "深紅" (''Shinku'', or "The Deep Red") and the ending theme song for the anime
FLAG A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...
. The song was also featured on Q Entertainment's
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...
game Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (and its remake
Lumines Remastered (pronounced as "Loo-min-ess") is a 2004 Puzzle video game, puzzle game developed by Q Entertainment and published for the PlayStation Portable by Bandai in Japan and by Ubisoft elsewhere. The gameplay tasks players to arrange descending two-col ...
), along with "I hear the music in my soul." Many overseas fans discovered Eri through the game and it also helped launch her career in Japan. Months later, on April 6, 2005, Nobuchika's second single, "Voice" was released. The song carries a Latin atmosphere with the use of Spanish guitars and carries more of Osawa's club sound. Along with the title song are a studio live version, a karaoke version, and a remix of "I hear the music in my soul." On
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...
's Top 100 chart, the single reached a peak of No. 94 and stayed on the charts for 3 weeks. On June 29, 2005, "Sketch for Summer" was released, a very different genre compared to the previous singles. It was a mellow ballad with some hints of jazz. The single comes with a studio live version, a karaoke version, and a remix of "Voice." The music video was the first to show Nobuchika in color, rather than black and white. The single scored even lower on Oricon. It charted at No. 175 for just one week. Eri's fourth single, "鼓動" (''Kodou'', meaning "heartbeat") was released on December 7, 2005, another ballad containing elements of acid jazz, with Eri accompanied by piano and horns. The song appeared in a TV commercial for the mobilecast mLink. "Kodou" is accompanied by a remix, a karaoke version, and a remix of "Sketch for Summer". The single was re-released two weeks later, replacing the karaoke version with an instrumental version with no background vocals. Her debut album, "nobuchikaeri," was released on December 21, 2005. It contained her four singles, as well as "I hear the music in my soul," and five new tracks. One of the tracks was Nobuchika's first recorded entirely in English. "Yume no Kakera" and "SING A SONG" were released as her first DVD single on March 1, 2006. The video for "Yume no Kakera" was created by Studio 4C, who also created animations for
The Animatrix is a 2003 adult animated science fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. The anime compiles nine animated short films, detailing the backstory of ''The Matrix'' film series, in addition to providing side stories that expand the uni ...
. A 7-track album of remixes titled "nobuchikaeri.rx" was released on May 10, 2006. The album includes remixes of Nobuchika's singles by artists such as
Röyksopp Röyksopp () a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of childhood friends Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland who formed Röyksopp during the Bergen Wave. After experimenting with different Electronic Mu ...
,
Akufen Marc Leclair (born August 13, 1966), better known by his stage name Akufen, is a Canadians, Canadian electronic musician. His music is electronic music that is often described as minimal house, minimal techno, glitch (music), glitch, or microhouse ...
, and more. Nobuchika was featured in a radio program on the now-defunct bi-weekly Sony Music Japan vodcast "the swallowtail radio," in which she talked about her career, and read messages from fans.


2006 to present: Independent work and ''Hands''

After the release of ''nobuchikaeri.rx'' and Shinichi Osawa's move to
Avex Trax is a record label owned by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Inc. The label was launched in September 1990, and was the first label by the Group. History Two years after Max Matsuura began a career distributing studio albums from othe ...
in 2006, Nobuchika went into a lengthy hiatus with no releases. An update on her blog told of a studio recording in Okinawa during the summer; this was eventually revealed as her collaboration with NAOTO, the leader of Japanese band
Orange Range is a Japanese rock band known for their strong Okinawan identity. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The band left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own ...
, in his solo project, delofamilia. delofamilia's first album, ''quiet life'', was released on December 5, 2007, featuring Nobuchika and
AIR An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
as guest vocalists, although Eri appears on the majority of the songs singing in mostly English and some Japanese. Nobuchika, NAOTO, and AIR all shared lyric-writing duties for the album. In April 2009, Nobuchika announced that her second album, "Hands," would be released on June 3, 2009, more than three years after her debut album. Nobuchika also launched her
mixi is an online Japanese social networking service. It was founded in 1999 and is owned by Mixi, Inc. (). As of September 2012, Mixi had about 14 million monthly active users, with about 8.6 million of those on smartphones. Mixi, Inc. was founded ...
account and a
Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
page with song samples, along with a live concert on release day to coincide with the new album. The album is to be distributed through independent record label Daiki Sound, and it contains eight tracks produced and written by a variety of artists, such as DSK from Port of Notes, The Company, Yuu Sakai, and Ryuichiro Yamaki.


Discography


Studio albums


Remix albums


Singles


Promotional singles


Notes


References


External links

*
Official website
*
Official Sony Music Website
*
Eri's personal blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nobuchika Eri 1985 births Living people Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists Singers from Fukuoka 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers