Casiopea (album)

Casiopea is the debut studio album by Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea, released on May 25, 1979 by Alfa Records.

Casiopea
Studio album by Casiopea
Released	May 25, 1979
Recorded	December 1978–March 1979
Studio	Studio A, Tokyo Power Station, New York City
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	36:28
Label	Alfa
Producer	Kunihiko Murai Syoro Kawazoe
Casiopea chronology
Casiopea (1979) Super Flight (1979)

Recording and production

The album was recorded between December 1978 and March 1979 in Japan. It is the first album released by the group since their debut performance on EastWest '77.^{[citation needed]}

Notable American jazz musicians, The Brecker Brothers and David Sanborn, contributed to the album.

Cover art

The cover depicts two race cars battling on a circuit, possibly Fuji Speedway's hairpin turn.^{[1][better source needed]} The cars are late-1970s Group 6 sports prototypes from the Japanese Fuji Grand Champion Series, most likely a Lola T290 -Mazda^[2] and a March 74S^[3] from the 1978^[4] and 1979^[5] championships, respectively.^{[6][better source needed]}

While the cover itself featuring two race cars is used extensively on all currently existing releases (including the 2021 clear orange vinyl reissue), there was the original cover (and the first pressing) featuring a picture of the band standing with pills falling in front of them, with different pictures on the insert (the insert notes remained the same as later pressings) and a red circular cover art with yellow numbers on the left (the 1980 reissue pressing features the same picture as the 1st pressing but with different circular cover art, this time featuring an Alfa Records logo on the right).^[7]

The album is one of Casiopea's most famous, being their most streamed album on Spotify.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

All tracks were written and arranged by Issei Noro, except for horn arrangements by Jun Fukamachi and string arrangements by Hiroki Inui.

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Time Limit"	3:07
2.	"Tears of the Star"	4:32
3.	"Space Road"	5:14
4.	"Midnight Rendezvous"	5:20
Total length:		18:13

Side B

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Far Away"	3:55
2.	"Swallow"	4:24
3.	"Dream Hill"	5:39
4.	"Black Joke"	4:17
Total length:		18:15

Credits

Casiopea

• Issei Noro – Yamaha SG2000 electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals on "Dream Hill"
• Minoru Mukaiya – Fender Rhodes piano, acoustic piano, synthesizers, Yamaha Electone electronic organ, vibraphone
• Tetsuo Sakurai – 1974 Natural Finish Fender Jazz Bass bass guitar
• Takashi Sasaki – Drums

Additional musicians

• Randy Brecker – trumpet on "Time Limit" and "Black Joke"
• Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone on "Time Limit," "Tears of the Star," and "Black Joke"
• David Sanborn – alto saxophone on "Time Limit" and "Black Joke"
• "Tomato Strings" ensemble – strings

Production and design Executive producer – Kunihiko Murai, Syoro Kawazoe Producer – Shinji Sawada, Kazusuke Obi Recording engineer – Al Schmitt, Norio Yoshizawa, Yasuhiko Terada Assistant engineer – Mitsuo Koike Recording engineer – Neil Dorfsman

Assistant engineer – James Farber Mixing engineer – Yasuhiko Terada Art Direction & Design – ALPHABET (nh ad system) Photographer – Shigeru Wada Illustrator – Toshikuni Okubo Remastering engineer – Kouji Suzuki (2016)

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog	note
Japan	May 25, 1979	Alfa Records	30 cm LP	ALR-6017	stereo
	December 21, 1986		12 cm CD	32XA-104
	March 21, 1992			ALCA-271
	June 29, 1994			ALCA-9001
	July 23, 1998			ALCA-9196
	May 31, 2000	Toshiba EMI	remastered 12 cm CD	TOCT-24364	LP paper jacket
	December 19, 2001	Village Records		VRCL-2201	DSD, LP paper jacket
	January 17, 2002			VRCL-2221	DSD
	May 27, 2009	Sony Music Direct		MHCL-20003	DSD, Blu-spec CD, LP paper jacket
	February 3, 2016		Music download	1076209054	iTunes Store[8]
				4582290414218	mora AAC-LC 320 kbit/s[9]
				A1003862605	Recochoku AAC 128/320 kbit/s[10]
				B01B5AQMDC	Amazon.com[11]
				Bp5pyuaz4lfka3vcvx5ough23ra	Google Play Music[12]
	July 27, 2016			4582290418575	mora DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[13]
				smj4582290418575	e-onkyo DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[14]
				11180	HD-music DSD 2.8 MHz/1bit[15]
				4582290418568	mora FLAC 96.0 kHz/24bit[16]
				A1004668200	Recochoku FLAC 96.0 kHz/24bit[17]
				smj4582290418568	e-onkyo FLAC 96 kHz 24bit[18]
				11170	HD-music FLAC 96 kHz/24bit[19]
	November 10, 2016			5ShaVOG8QHOltyWh5ZCxuB	Spotify[20]

See also

• 1979 in Japanese music