is a song recorded by Japanese singer Misia for her tenth studio album, ''

Soul Quest ''Soul Quest'' (stylized as ''SOUL QUEST'') is the tenth studio album by Japanese singer Misia. It was released on July 27, 2011, through Ariola Japan. The album yielded three official singles, the digital exclusives " Edge of This World" and " Lif ...

''. It was released as the album's lead single by Ariola Japan on May 25, 2011. "Kioku" is the theme song to the EX drama series ''Iryū Sōsa'', starring

Takaya Kamikawa is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. Biography Kamikawa was born in Hachioji, Tokyo in 1965. He graduated from Hachioji-Kita high school in Tokyo. While studying economics in Chuo University, he acted in a minor theatrical group whi ...

Background and release

"Kioku" is Misia's first single in nearly a year and a half, since " Hoshi no Yō ni..." (2009). The single includes a duet between Misia and JP, titled "Kono Mama de Tonight", as well as a cover of the 1967

Frankie Valli Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. ...

song " Can't Take My Eyes Off You". The first pressing of the physical release features a remix of "

Maware Maware "Maware Maware" (lit. "Spin, Spin", stylized as "MAWARE MAWARE" in Japan) is a song recorded by Japanese singer Misia featuring Muro and JP, credited under the pseudonym M2J, and French-Cameroonian singer Francis Jocky. The song was released thr ...

" as bonus track.

Composition

"Kioku" was co-written by Misia and

Gorō Matsui is a Japanese lyricist born 11 December 1957 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, though he considers Tokyo to be his hometown. Beginning with participation in the Yamaha Popular Song Contests, he made his debut writing the lyrics for the 1981 Chage and As ...

, composed by Korean composer and record producer BZ4U and produced by

Shirō Sagisu is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer. With a career spanning over 40 years (beginning in the late 1970s), he is best known for his works as a record producer for acts including various choir members Mike Wyzgowski, Misia, Satoshi ...

. The song is composed in the key of B-flat major and set to a common time tempo of 65 beats per minute. Misia's vocals span from F₃ to E₅ in modal voice, and up to G₅ in head voice. TV Asashi producer Yumiko Miwa tasked Misia to write a song that would convey "hope and sympathy". Misia penned the lyrics to "Kioku" shortly following the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, and she describes thinking of recent events while writing the song.

Critical reception

CDJournal critics describe the song as a "majestic and beautiful" piano ballad with an orchestral arrangement. Misia received acclaim for the "presence" of her vocal performance, with critics noting "Kioku" as an example of Misia "showing herself at her best", and for writing lyrics with a strong message.

Music video

The music video for "Kioku" was directed by Electrotnik. It premiered on May 11, 2011 on Space Shower TV. The video features a collection of pictures of "fond memories", some submitted by fans through an online submission campaign set up by Misia's team. A picture of an infant Misia surrounded by her older brother and sister can be seen near the end of the video. A doll made of papier-mâché, animated in stop motion, also appears throughout the video.

Chart performance

"Kioku" entered the daily

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

at number 14, where it also peaked. The single debuted at number 21 on the weekly Oricon Singles Chart, with 6,000 copies sold. It charted for four weeks and sold a reported total of 8,000 copies during its run.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Personnel *

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

– Misia * Songwriting – Misia,

, BZ4U *

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

–

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

– Yasuharu Nakanishi *

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

– Eiji Shimamura *

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

– Takayuki Hijikata *

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

– Yasuo Tomikura *

Flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

– Jonathan Snowden *

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

s – Richard Watkins, Nigel Black *

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

– The London Studio Orchestra *

Soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

–

Catherine Bott Catherine Bott (born 11 September 1952) is a British soprano and a Baroque specialist. She has also pursued a broadcasting career. Following her studies at The King's High School For Girls and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with Arthur Rec ...

Alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

– Deborah Miles-Johnson *

Tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

– Andrew Busher *

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

– Michael George *

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

– Masahiro Kawaguchi, Shirō Sagisu, Philip Bagenal, Rupert Coulson * Mixing – Eiji Uchinuma * Mastering – Herb Powers Jr.

Charts

Release history

References

External links

''Kioku''
on Rhythmedia's official website {{authority control 2011 singles 2011 songs Misia songs Songs written by Misia Songs with lyrics by Gorō Matsui Songs written by Shirō Sagisu Song recordings produced by Shirō Sagisu Japanese television drama theme songs Ariola Japan singles