Kokia Infinity Akiko: Balance
| Kokia Infinity Akiko: Balance | ||||
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| Studio album by Kokia | ||||
| Released | March 18, 2009 (Japan) May 26, 2009 (North America) May 20, 2009 (Europe) |
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| Recorded | 2008-2009 | |||
| Genre | J-pop, neoclassical (dark wave), folk | |||
| Length | 1:00:01 | |||
| Label | Victor Entertainment, Wasabi Records | |||
| Producer | Kokia | |||
| Kokia chronology | ||||
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| Additional covers | ||||
2CD set cover
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Kokia Infinity Akiko: Balance (stylised as KOKIA∞AKIKO ～balance～) is Kokia's ninth equal studio album, released simultaneously with Akiko Infinity Kokia: Balance in March 2009.
Two songs from the album feature on Kokia's greatest hits collection Coquillage: The Best Collection II: "Dōke" and "Kono Mune no Kurushimi ga Itooshii Hodo ni Ikite."
To promote the albums, Kokia embarked on her first world tour, Infinity. The tour, beginning in April in Japan, went for two months, with Kokia visiting Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Poland.
When Kokia wrote music throughout her career, she began to notice a division in her song-writing when she wanted to write songs about herself. There was a difference between songs written as "Kokia" (the musician), and "Akiko" (the person herself). Kokia described the simultaneously released album concept as "two different existences that live off of each other."
While Akiko Infinity Kokia is more intimate, Kokia Infinity Akiko deals with larger concepts.
The song "Infinity" is featured on both albums although the arrangements of the song on the two discs are completely different. The version on this album was described "a magnificent arrangement, like running through meadows," as opposed to the intimate tender sound of the Akiko Infinity Kokia version.
The bulk of the album recording took place between December 2008 and early February 2009. Between December 15–17, Kokia recorded five tracks in single takes backed with studio musicians.
While some of the songs on the album were written specifically for it, many of them are older, unpublished songs. On the 6th of January, Kokia replaced three older songs originally intended for the albums with newer tracks she had written.
"Dōke" was originally performed in 2002, and "Kono Mune no Kurushimi ga Itooshii Hodo ni Ikite" was performed at Kokia's special Akiko Yoshida Hikigatari Live: Piano to Akisuke concert in late 2004. "Usaghi" at the neoclassically themed Kokia 2006 Keep Moving concert in November 2006. Kokia wrote "Hana Utage" on March the 13th, 2007, after performing a concert at Minamihokke-ji in Takatori, Nara. "Hoshikuzu no Vocalize" was written on November the 23rd, 2008, after thinking about her grandparents (her grandmother had died several days before, and her grandfather earlier in 2006).
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Wikipedia