Shang Shang Typhoon

Artist

A band that grew out of 'Kouryu & Himawari Sisters', formed by Kouryu in Yokosuka in 1980, and took its current name in 1986. They made their major debut on EPIC/SONY in 1990 with the album 'Shang Shang Typhoon', playing a self-styled stateless music that folds sanshin-banjo and other folk instruments and Okinawan scales into twin female vocals. For Studio Ghibli's 1994 film 'Pom Poko' directed by Isao Takahata, they provided the ending 'Itsudemo Dareka ga' (written and composed by Kouryu, arranged by the band) and 'Asia no Kono Machi de', positioned as the film's love theme (lyrics by Kouryu, music by Yoko Ino, arrangement by the band with Ryojiro Furusawa). 'Itsudemo Dareka ga' had first appeared in 1993 as the theme of the film 'Yonigeya Honpo 2'. Their distinctive blend of Asian folk traditions brings warmth and quiet melancholy to the tale of tanuki living through a changing age.