"Stem", also known by its Japanese translated title is a song written by Japanese singer Ringo Sheena and released in several versions.

Background

It was first released as a single in 2003, as as her 8th single and it was released on January 22, 2003 by Toshiba EMI / Virgin Music. The single version is sung in English, and was orchestrated by

Toshiyuki Mori Toshiyuki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Toshiyuki can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *敏幸, "agile, happiness" *敏行, "agile, go" *敏之, "agile, of" *敏志, "ag ...

. The B-sides "Meisai" and "Ishiki" were arranged by Bakeneko Killer, a production team Sheena and Inoue formed. Nobuyoshi Araki, the prominent photographer, took the

album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...

. The version featured on the album '' Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana'', , is sung in Japanese and arranged by Bakeneko Killer. A further version found on the vinyl edition of ''Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana'' called , featured the album arrangement with English lyrics. It was also featured on the film '' Cassherns official album '' Our Last Day: Casshern Official Album''. An English language version of "Stem" also appears on Sheena's 2007 soundtrack '' Heisei Fūzoku'', orchestrated by Neko Saito. The song was used as the theme song for Sheena's short film , released in January 2003. It was also the theme song for the

stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Pla ...

'' Lens'' that was based on the film, which was held at the Sunshine Theater from July 5 to July 11 at Tokyo, and at the Theater Drama City from July 24 to July 25 in Osaka.

Track listing

Personnel

M2 / : orchestra *

Conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

: Goto Yuichiro M1, 3 / :

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

* Vocals, Percussion: Ringo Sheena * Electric guitars ( Fender Telecaster): Ryosuke Nagaoka ( Ukigumo) *

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

: Ahito Inazawa (from ''

Vola and the Oriental Machine Vola and the Oriental Machine (also known as Vola) is a four-member Japanese rock band formed by Number Girl and ex- Zazen Boys drummer Ahito Inazawa in 2005. The group is named after the soccer team Vola F.C., which was also the name of the sh ...

'', ''ex- Number Girl'') * Electric bass guitars,

Contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

: Hitoshi Watanabe * Shinobue: Hideyo Takakuwa * Violin: Neko Saito *

Didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

: Tab Zombie (from '' Soil & "Pimp" Sessions'')

Music video cast

Kuki (STEM) * Actress - ''Kaede Katsuragi'':

Koyuki , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese model and actress. She rose to fame in the drama '' Kimi wa Petto'' with Jun Matsumoto and gained huge popularity, as well as the hit film ''The Last Samurai''. Career Actor career Koyuki appeared ...

(actress) * Student aspiring novelist - ''Amagi'': Kentaro Kobayashi (actor) * Detective - ''Komagata'': Nao Omori (actor) * A woman: Ringo Sheena Meisai * Maid & singer: Ringo Sheena * Student: Kazuki Yamaguchi (Toshiba-EMI director) * Aristocrat: Ryosuke Nagaoka * Aristocrat: Ahito Inazawa * Aristocrat: Neko Saito * Aristocrat: Hitoshi Watanabe * Aristocrat: Atsuhide Tsukuda (music planning company BEA) * Fake Ringo Sheena: Keiko Yokomachi (actress)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stem (Ringo Sheena song) Ringo Sheena songs 2003 singles 2003 songs Japanese film songs Songs written by Ringo Sheena English-language Japanese songs Japanese-language songs