“Anak” + Some Thoughts for Obscure Works
UPDATE: Thanks for the lead, dj! You may listen to a portion of “Anak/Musuko” in CDJapan, it’s track 9. Tracks 4 and 7 are also arranged by Kanno. And well, this is the traditional Kanno arrangement that I love, and I am really considering on purchasing this one on my next CDJ purchase.
Today marks the day that I found out that Kanno has rearranged the song “Anak” by Freddie Aguilar for Tokiko Kato in her album Tokiko Songs in the year 1991. This Filipino song has been translated in many languages and I didn’t think Kanno will have had something to do with one of its renditions. I can’t find the song to listen to anywhere though.
It’s also well worth to mention that there’s probably a whole lot of Kanno’s works out there that are not known, obscure, unconfirmed (Yamaha recording, anyone?), so much that it has despaired some of the most fervent collectors of anything she has worked on. And there is also a wealth of material that includes interviews, liner notes, and write-ups about her that haven’t been translated to English.
She herself tends to shy away from fan interaction, or at least, such is my impression. I would assume that fans would like her to at least keep a website or a blog where news is easily gathered from, and where questions could be easily rallied to. But if maintaining a blog would impact her music writing time, then it seems to me a meaningful trade-off.
Then again, the fandom has survived like this, so I guess it will just have to keep going on in the same fashion. Besides, I suppose it adds to her sense of mystery, and also serves as a challenge to her fanbase.
Now to find that rendition of “Anak”, a.k.a. in Japanese, “Musuko” …
December 24th, 2009 at 12:43 am
If you search for 菅野よう子 on the page you linked, there are 12 songs arranged by Yoko
Currently trying to listen to some of these…
December 24th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Kindly share it to everyone, Mai, once you’ve found it!
December 24th, 2009 at 3:26 am
This isn’t anything revelatory in terms of credits, but I’ve owned Wuyontana’s “Khorchin” album for a while and she thanks Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi. I always thought that was nice.
Neither of them play, but I assume it’s in regards to the NHK thing. The album was also recorded at Grandfunk.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:47 am
@Yy – seems like dj has had a head start of us, but I’m not sure if he owns the album. It’s indexed here though: http://dodue.free.fr/ykw/disco.php?theme=th01&search=Tokiko
@riepert – sure, I think there was someone who uploaded it to YouTube, but due to terms violations, it got deleted. So close!!!
@josh – ah, that’s interesting
Perhaps they helped her with… a bit of company while recording? 
December 24th, 2009 at 11:12 am
A Yoko Kanno arrangement of Anak?! SQUEE!
December 24th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
no sorry mai, i don’t have those albums
it seems you can find this track in the SRCL-5070/1 (or
MHCL-121/2 reedtition) best album
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=MHCL-121
maybe hard to find on the net though ^^
December 25th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Oh, she is the singer or the ending theme of Porco Rosso (also arranged by Yoko Kanno), I knew her name was familiar.
December 25th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
<3
December 25th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I’m really loving those songs, specially Anak, and I just heard the samples.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Dang. And I really wanted to hear it too.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Don’t worry, I’ll certainly get it some time next year
February 16th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I loved Anak! i don’t know if I like this version or not – the arrangement is lovely, but I’m not in love with the vocalist’s style.
Whoo I’ve missed out on a lot of posts, it seems