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LP
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CC 007LP
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$30.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/16/2024
2024 repress. "During the 1990s, Shizuka self-released a series of four cassettes, barely heard by anyone outside of their inner circle. Culling together live recordings and home demos, these served as companions to the scant amount of proper Shizuka releases at the time (including the recently reissued Heavenly Persona). Concentric Circles is now presents the third and most anomalous cassette from Shizuka, simply titled III, on vinyl for the first time in an edition of 500 copies. Formed by guitarist and singer Shizuka Miura, alongside husband Maki Miura, who'd previously played with both Les Rallizes Dénudés and Fushitsusha, the group known as Shizuka started in the early '90s with Jun Kosugi (also of Fushitsusha) on drums, and a revolving cast of bass players, including J.J. Junko, whose sole recorded appearance with the band is here on III. Devoid of any of their trademark noise and bombast, III feel distinct from their studio and live albums of the era, largely due to its fragility; haunted and spare, the songs revolve around Shizuka Miura's gentle, unforced sighs, and Maki's flickering, flinty guitar. The first side of the album features four songs which will be well-known to Shizuka fans from previous recordings, but the drastically understated renditions here are particularly moving for their quietude and intimacy. The second half of III consists of a side-long duo session, just Shizuka and Maki Miura together at home, circling around the simplest two-chord motif for twenty minutes, Shizuka singing the most heavenly melody, strung through the sky of this lengthy improvisation. It's an astonishingly beautiful performance, one that stills time through its becalmed repetition, pointing towards the endless forever. In this respect, it feels like an ultimate extension of Opal's early recordings, Big Star's third or even Galaxie 500's quietest moments. III lifts the darkness away, allowing for a softer, more-gentle Shizuka to shine through, bringing with it a side to the band that most never knew existed. A lovely discovery if there ever was one."
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2LP
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BE 015LP
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"On September 6th, 1993, I felt a stranger's presence flow through me. 'The end of material civilization is near. Man will soon transcend the physical realm. But when this day comes, many souls will be lost forever,' she announced and then swiftly disappeared. She has since visited me occasionally, and with her help I've witnessed stars align to form a cross, and a golden country filled with waves of tremendous rapture. She says I have a divine duty to impart through my music a sense of the waves of delight I have experienced, even if I can only reach one other person." --Shizuka, 7/23/94
Reissue, originally released in 1994. Few artists have left behind a legacy as enigmatic and captivating as Shizuka Miura. Amidst the Tokyo underground, she was a spectral figure, creating ghostly, childlike dolls and writing haunting, other-worldly songs. She formed Shizuka in 1992 with Maki Miura, known for his staggering guitar work in legendary groups Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés. Their music bloomed with a fragile, yet explosive mystical power; an atmospheric alchemy of psychedelic rock, folk and noise with Shizuka's ethereal vocals invoking loneliness, yearning and dark providence. Since her passing in 2010, the group has steadily gathered a cult following. Black Editions presents their sole studio album, 1994's Heavenly Persona, a monumental, transcendent work originally issued by P.S.F. Japan on CD in 1994; Now newly remastered and in its first ever vinyl edition on double-LP with a laser etched fourth side. Presented in a deluxe tip-on tri-fold jacket with ink pigment foil stamping, gloss film laminate finish and printed inner sleeves and mounted booklet. It includes her extensive, heart wrenching final interview, translated for the first time to English alongside high-resolution archival images.
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