Ayano Tsuji with Kaze Ni Naru
Like any good hipster following the latest fads, I got myself a ukulele for Christmas, since I found a non-cheap, good-quality one at a mall I frequent.
Of course that first bit is a LIE. You don’t find me hanging out at Cubao X, thank you.
But yes, I did get a ukulele, and while I was going through ukulele musicians, I found Ayano Tsuji in the Wikipedia roster. Right-clicked, searched with Youtube, and I then remembered seeing one of her videos before, but was not so impressed. The hard facts sunk in this time, though: here’s a spectacled Japanese pop singer, ukulele player, with records of undeniably pretty simple, but nonetheless very pretty, songs. This was a welcome breather, because I was just watching Jake Shimabukuro videos a few minutes before making this music discovery.
Let me cite some notable credits:
- Her Kaze Ni Naru is the theme song of Studio Ghibli’s The Cat Returns.
- NPR took notice of her back in 2006, which includes a short audio feature.