‘Linda Carriere,’ Album Produced by Music Legend Haruomi Hosono, Released After 47-year Wait

By Chikako Minami / Japan News Staff Writer

12:00 JST, September 27, 2024

A long-awaited solo album by American singer Linda Carriere, produced by Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono, was released by Sony Music Labels Inc. in July, 47 years after the album was recorded.

Eponymously titled “Linda Carriere,” the album consists of 10 songs. It was recorded in 1977 by Alfa Records, a Japanese music production firm, but no copies were ever officially sold.

Hosono, who composed several of the tracks for the album, debuted in 1969 and is known for having been a member of influential bands Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).

Songwriting credits on the album include Japanese artists Tatsuro Yamashita, Akiko Yano, Minako Yoshida and Hiroshi Sato, who all went on to become big names. Poet and author James Ragan wrote the songs’ lyrics.

Recording took place in Japan, and backing musicians included the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, a composer who performed with Hosono in YMO.

“The album was created by Alfa’s all-stars at the time,” said Charles Mikami, current president of the production firm, now called Alfa Music, Inc.

Carriere started her career as a singer at a club in Los Angeles. People at Alfa apparently heard her singing and selected her for an album. It was supposed to be her debut album.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Alfa was creating many works that would later be dubbed “city pop” in Japan and that now draw worldwide interest, and it had planned to break into the global market with the album. However, it got negative feedback from a U.S. record company that was supposed to handle the album’s sales and promotion in the country. Plans for distribution were put off.

Later, Carriere made her debut as a member of rhythm and blues band Dynasty in the United States.

As the artists who made the album became more well-known in Japan, there were calls for the album to be released, but it never made it to market.

A new plan to sell the album emerged around 2020, after Alfa became part of the Sony Music group.

People at Alfa tried to get in touch with Carriere but did not have her contact information. Mikami began to search for the singer with other staff, and in the spring of 2023 they found someone on social media they thought might be her. After “pen pal-like” exchanges online between the person and Mikami, he was able to confirm that he was indeed talking to Carriere.

According to Mikami, who went to New Orleans to meet her that year, she remembered the album clearly and agreed to its release. Alfa contacted Ragan through his official website, and he said he would be glad to see the album released.

The mixing of the songs was never finished, so mixing engineer Goh Hotoda put the final touch on the tracks in consultation with Hosono.

Satoshi Makita from Sony Music Labels, who was also involved in the album’s production, said the goal was “to make the album not sound old when people hear it now, but also keep the cutting-edge sounds of 1977.”

Hotoda used Michael Jackson’s album “Off the Wall,” released in 1979, as a reference and interviewed mixing engineers who knew what recording conditions were like in the 1970s so he could reproduce the sound of that time.

“We wanted to keep that voice of the young Carriere and the way musicians sounded at the time, and to preserve the atmosphere of the era on the record,” said Makita.

The album might be called pop, but it also has a soul feel to it. The style of individual songwriters can be felt in songs such as Yano’s “Laid Back Mad or Mellow,” with its bouncy melody. Hosono made full use of Carriere’s lyrical and warm voice in “Child on an Angel’s Arm.” Yamashita composed “Love Celebration,” which he also covered on his own album later.

“I really want people to listen to this album now,” commented Hosono, who stressed the polished quality of the songs, performances and vocals. “I think this album is one of the gems of the 1970s, or something like a hidden treasure.”

Mikami said the essence of Japanese music is “contained in this album.” “I think now is the time to attract interest from overseas,” he added.

The album is available globally on streaming services. CDs are on sale in Japan and LPs in Japan and the United States.