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HIROYUKI NAMBA

Crossover Prog • Japan


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Hiroyuki Namba picture
Hiroyuki Namba biography
Namba was born on September 9, 1953 in Sugamo of Tokyo into a musical family: his father played jazz organ and accordion while his mother was a singer. He started to learn playing the piano in 1957. His band career started in 1967, making his first band with friends.

After graduating from Gakushuin University in 1973 he began working as professional musician and released his first solo album, "Sense of Wonder" in 1978. Over the years he has released albums under both his own name and as "Sense of Wonder", so both should be taken as being by Hiroyuki. He has also been a member of jazz-rock bands A.P.J., Kenso, ExhiVision and Yajyu Ohkoku, as well as the heavy prog band Nuovo Immigrato.

He came to international prominence when he provided the soundtrack for "Dallos" (1983), the first Anime original video animation. Since then he has provided soundtracks for other animations as well, such as "Armitage II", "Armitage III" and "Burn Up W". In 1988 he became an instructor at the Tokyo College of Music, and has continued working in film and TV, as well as producing music for other artists and writing award winning science fiction. If that isn't enough he is still active as keyboard player in multiple outfits and releasing albums in various guises.

biography provided by kev rowland, yam yam and heavily edited by Marty McFly

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HIROYUKI NAMBA discography


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HIROYUKI NAMBA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

2.08 | 6 ratings
Sense Of Wonder
1979
2.17 | 5 ratings
Party Tonight
1981
3.75 | 4 ratings
飛行船の上のシンセサイザー弾き (Hikōsen No Ue No Synthesizer Hiki)
1982
3.09 | 4 ratings
Le Charme Discret De La Bourgeoisie
1985
3.00 | 2 ratings
The Celestial Globe Of Mr. 'N'
1986

HIROYUKI NAMBA Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

HIROYUKI NAMBA Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

HIROYUKI NAMBA Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
Falcom "NAMBA" Collection
1992
0.00 | 0 ratings
2001: A Wonder Odyssey
2001
0.00 | 0 ratings
Golden Best
2008

HIROYUKI NAMBA Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

HIROYUKI NAMBA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Le Charme Discret De La Bourgeoisie by NAMBA , HIROYUKI album cover Studio Album, 1985
3.09 | 4 ratings

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Le Charme Discret De La Bourgeoisie
Hiroyuki Namba Crossover Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

3 stars Heading to the mid-80's, the works of Namba were somewhat hard to categorize in terms of solo or band efforts.During the 1983-85 period he seems to have given emphasis to his regular efforts with Sense of Wonder, still he returned with the album ''Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie'' in 1985, released on the Air label under his own name.The main trio were again Kazuyuki Komuro on bass and Toru Soru on drums with no less than 7 musicians guesting on this one, among them was Jazz Fusion veteran Kazumi Watanabe, playing the acoustic guitar.

It appears that there was some fashion among Japanese Prog in the 80's bands to release works with epic or French titles (same thing happened with Mugen).Namba settled in a highly symphonic style with this album, which is still flavored by his love for poppy and romantic vocals, but stands out in terms of orchestrations and grandieur.We would like this work to be a bit more progressive, complex or bombastic, but even as it is ''Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie'' contains excellent moments of delicate, ethereal Symphonic Rock.Yes, it's fairly synth-driven with the supportive bass and drum parts, but this is not Neo Prog, it's more like a less emphatic version of MUGEN with an obvious Classical nature in the dreamy orchestral passages, there is even an appearance of Nakanishi Toshihiro's strings quartet in the album, which make the music come close to THE ENID's standards.Namba did not fully escape from the sound of his first few albums and certain tracks contain light Pop and AOR vibes, sounding too sweet overall.But his symphonic stuff is pretty excellent, just listen to ''Fantome d'opera'', which comes like a cross between GERARD and TERU'S SYMPHONIA, eventually some very bombastic Symph Prog with tremendous organ and synth twists and a few great guitar moves.The rest of these kind of pieces are rather melancholic/romantic arrangements, somewhere between MUGEN and DON AIREY's atmospheres, pretty cool and well-played.

Japanese Symphonic Rock from the mighty 80's, a bit stripped down to what prog fans are used to regarding bands from the country.Could be classified somewhere between THE ENID and DON AIREY.Nice, elegant and recommended music.

 Party Tonight by NAMBA , HIROYUKI album cover Studio Album, 1981
2.17 | 5 ratings

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Party Tonight
Hiroyuki Namba Crossover Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

2 stars While Namba continued to release solo albums through the 80's, he also established the Sense of Wonder act in 1981, so there's a bit of confusion around his personal and band albums, as most of them included the basic core of Sense of Wonder.Like on the 81' second Namba effort ''Party tonight'', where bassist Tanabe Motto and drummers Soru Toru (ex-Crosswind) and Aoyama Jun are involved, all future members of Sense of Wonder.Hamaguchi Motoya, who previously played with Yonin-Bayashi, also appears in the album, which was released on Air Records.

After a very weak debut and with such a misleading, cheerful title, ''Party tonight'' could have been easily another dradeful work in Namba's discography.But this is partly true, because in some tracks of the album Namba shows his skills as an accomplished keyboardist eventually to come up with a keyboard-based style with symphonic tendencies, not far from KEITH EMERSON or RICK WAKEMAN.So, half about of ''Party tonight'' is a decent effort, mostly based on synthesizers and piano, but Namba also uses an organ quite often to deliver strong, instrumental performances with Classical interludes, Electronic touches and quirky moves from technical playing to more melodious themes.I really can't say the same about the vocal tracks, which hurt the level of the album.As with many Japanese works of the 80's, the lyrics come partly in English and partly in Japanese (even during the same track) and the music is syrupy Pop Rock with lots of funky lines and a ballad-like mood.Absolutely hillarious material with an unacceptable value for Namba's quality as a musician.I wish he could have sticked with the style of the opening cuts, moreover the pieces with the electric guitars in evidence have a very bombastic style akin to GERARD, extremely pompous Symphonic Rock with a few Hard Rock touches, well-played and full of passion.

''Party tonight'' sounds like an improvement compared to Namba's debut album, but the extremely uneven offering between symphonic arrangements and poppy tunes does not make it an essential release.Pitty, because the instrumental tracks are pretty nice.Recommended mainly to collectors, too limited decent material to push my recommendation further...2.5 stars.

 Sense Of Wonder by NAMBA , HIROYUKI album cover Studio Album, 1979
2.08 | 6 ratings

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Sense Of Wonder
Hiroyuki Namba Crossover Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

2 stars Veteran Japanese composer born in Tokyo in 1953 and growing up in a music family, where he learned to play the piano as a kid.Entering the high school Namba came in touch with Psychedelic and Progressive Rock and formed his first band.His listenings became wider while growing up, including Jazz and Bossa Nova and in early-70s he became a member of the group Kaneko Mari & Bux Bunny.After three studio and a live album with them he pursued a solo career, recording his first personal album ''Sense of wonder'' in 1979 for King Records' branch label Seven Seas.

Hard to classify, this early Namba effort sounds as a compilation of his endless influences and inspirations as a young composer and musician, although most of the tracks are built around a pop enviroment.There are traces of his future as an arranger of music for video games and animes in a pair of dreamy Electronic pieces with floating synthesizers and slight JEAN-MICHEL JARRE hints, but the majority of this album follows a poppy vein with childish vocals and an amateur production, having a quite humurous choir of female voices and easy-going beat tunes.During the second half jazzy and Soul influences come in evidence, although these are also performed in a very Loungle mood with light electric guitars and calm piano and organ lines.A couple of mediocre Hard Rockers (with English lyrics) just proove the confusion in Namba's early steps in discography and make ''Sense of wonder'' even more incohesive.

Namba's later albums are much better than his debut, which is very incosistent and below average Art Pop.Only for collectors and lovers of Japanese music in general.

Thanks to marty mcfly for the artist addition.

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