''enigma'' is the eleventh solo studio album by Japanese guitarist

Tak Matsumoto is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist and main composer of the Rock music, rock duo B'z, the List of best-selling music artists in Japan, best-selling music act in their native Japan. He also ...

, of B'z. It is mostly an instrumental album (except for the title track, its reprise, "Drifting", "Hopes", "Under the Sun" and "#1090 ~Million Dreams~") and it was released by

Being Inc. Being Incorporated, d.b.a. Being Giza Group, is a Japanese private entertainment conglomerate based in Tokyo's Roppongi district, founded on November 1, 1978 by musician Daiko Nagato. Being Inc. and its subsidiaries are the main supplier of the ...

on April 27, 2016 in Japan. The album debuted at #4 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

weekly album chart and at #18 on the ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine '' Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway compa ...

'' album chart. Matsumoto first mentioned an upcoming solo effort during Wowow's live coverage of the

2016 Grammy Awards The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 2 ...

, in which he was a guest. "Vermillion Palace" and "Mystic Journey" are the opening and ending themes of

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television JORX-DTV, branded as is the flagship station of the Japan News Network (JNN), owned-and-operated by , a subsidiary of JNN's owner, TBS Holdings. It operates in the Kantō region and broadcasts its content nationally through TBS-JNN Network ...

's show '' The WORLD Heritage'', respectively. "Ups and Downs" is the theme to an

Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

exhibition in the Bunkamura Museum in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Track listing

Limited edition bonus CD & DVD/CD & blu-ray

All tracks taken from Tak Matsumoto ''LIVE 2014 -New Horizon-''. # "Take 5" # "BLUE" # "Hana" # "Tokyo Night" # "Shattered Glass" # "Gakuseigai no Kissaten" # "Island of peace" # "That's Cool" # "Tsuki no Akari" # "Reason to be..." # "GO FURTHER" # "#1090" # "The Moment" # "Rodeo Blues"

Personnel

- guitars on all tracks, arrangements

Session members

* Mark Renk – vocals on tracks 1, 6, 8, 9 and 14 *

Joey McCoy Omega Tribe (Japanese language, Japanese: ; sometimes stylized as Ωmega Tribe) was a Japanese soft rock and city pop project that was led by producer Koichi Fujita, with the bands being handled by industry veterans Tetsuji Hayashi, Tsunehiro Iz ...

– rap vocals on "#1090 ~Million Dreams~" *

Greta Karen Greta may refer to: *Greta (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name Places * Greta Bridge, village in County Durham, England * Greta, New South Wales, town in Australia ** Greta railway station ** Greta Army Camp, form ...

– chorus on "#1090 ~Million Dreams~" * Sean Hurley – bass on all tracks except 1, 3, 13 and 15;

wood bass Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

on 14 *

Juan Alderete Juan Alderete de la Peña (born September 5, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the longtime bassist of Racer X, the Mars Volta and Marilyn Manson. Biography Alderete was born in Los Angeles, California the fourth of five children. ...

– bass on "Vermillion Palace" and "Step to Heaven" * Barry Sparks – bass on "Mystic Journey" *

Travis Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorde ...

– bass on "#1090 ~Million Dreams~" *

Jeff Babko Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

– organ on tracks 3, 8 and 10,; Rhodes piano on "Roppongi Noise" *

Akira Onozuka Akira may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Akira'' (franchise), a Japanese cyberpunk franchise ** ''Akira'' (manga), a 1980s cyberpunk manga by Katsuhiro Otomo ** ''Akira'' (1988 film), an anime film adaptation of the manga ** ''Akira'' (vide ...

– Rhodes piano on "The Voyage", piano on "Under the Sun" and "Mystic Journey" *

Jason Sutter Jason Sutter is an American musician and drummer based in Los Angeles, California. He is currently the drummer for Cher. A well versed drummer, having studied and performed extensively across multiple genres, Sutter is most widely recognized wit ...

– drums on all tracks except 1, 5, 10, 11, 13 and 15 *

Brian Tichy Brian Tichy (born August 18, 1968) is an American musician, best known as having been the drummer for Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Foreigner, Sass Jordan, and Ozzy Osbourne. He was the drummer of Whitesnake from 2010 to 2013. His surname means ''si ...

– drums on tracks 1, 5, 10 and 11 *

Shane Gaalaas Shane Gaalaas (born August 8, 1967) is a Canadian-born drummer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter best known for his long running affiliation with Japanese rock superstars B'z, whom he joined in 2002, and his extensive work with guitar virtuos ...

– drums on "Mystic Journey" and "#1090 ~Million Dreams~" * Hiroko Ishikawa with Lime Ladies Orchestra – strings on tracks 2, 6, 7 and 13 * Jimmy Z Zavala – harp on "Dream Drive" * Greg Vail – tenor saxophone solo on "Rock the Rock", "Dream Drive" and "Roppongi Noise" * Watanabe Fire – saxophone on "Rock the Rock" and "Dream Drive" * Kaoru Sakuma and Osamu Ueishi – trumpet on "Rock the Rock" and "Dream Drive" * Azusa Tojo – trombone on "Rock the Rock" and "Dream Drive"

References

External links

Enigma
at B'z official website {{Authority control 2016 albums Being Inc. albums Instrumental albums Tak Matsumoto albums