"Stem", also known by its Japanese translated title is a song written by Japanese singer

Ringo Sheena , known by her stage name , is a Japanese singer, songwriter and musician. She is also the founder and lead vocalist of the band Tokyo Jihen. She describes herself as "". She was ranked number 36 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians compiled ...

and released in several versions.

Background

It was first released as a single in 2003, as as her 8th single and it was released on January 22, 2003 by

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Whe ...

Virgin Music Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

. The single version is sung in English, and was orchestrated by

Toshiyuki Mori Toshiyuki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Toshiyuki can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *敏幸, "agile, happiness" *敏行, "agile, go" *敏之, "agile, of" *敏志, "ag ...

. The B-sides "Meisai" and "Ishiki" were arranged by Bakeneko Killer, a production team Sheena and Inoue formed.

Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist professionally known by the mononym . Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.The number depends on such things ...

, the prominent photographer, took the

album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...

. The version featured on the album ''

Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana , also known as ''Kalk Samen Chestnut Flower'' and ''Chlorine Semen Chestnut Flower'', is the third studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Ringo Sheena, released on February 23, 2003, on Toshiba EMI / Virgin Music. The album's lead single was ...

'', , is sung in Japanese and arranged by Bakeneko Killer. A further version found on the vinyl edition of ''Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana'' called , featured the album arrangement with English lyrics. It was also featured on the film ''

Casshern ''Casshan'', also known in Japan as , is an anime series created by Tatsunoko Productions founder Tatsuo Yoshida in 1973. The ''Casshern'' franchise also includes a 1993 original video animation titled '' Casshan: Robot Hunter'', and a 2004 ...

s official album '' Our Last Day: Casshern Official Album''. An English language version of "Stem" also appears on Sheena's 2007 soundtrack ''

Heisei Fūzoku , also known as ''Japanese Manners'', is a studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Ringo Sheena and conductor and violinist Neko Saitō, released on February 21, 2007. The vinyl record version and the DVD "Daiginjou" were released on April 25, ...

'', orchestrated by

Neko Saito , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese violinist, conductor, composer and music arranger. Saito is the leader of the Saito Neko Quartet, and is known for his many collaborations with musician Ringo Sheena. Biography Saito began playi ...

. The song was used as the theme song for Sheena's short film , released in January 2003. It was also the theme song for the

stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Pla ...

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

'' that was based on the film, which was held at the Sunshine Theater from July 5 to July 11 at Tokyo, and at the Theater Drama City from July 24 to July 25 in Osaka.

Track listing

Personnel

M2 / :

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 ...

* Conductor: Goto Yuichiro M1, 3 / :

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

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 ...

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 ...

: Ringo Sheena *

Electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

(

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

Ryosuke Nagaoka , is a Japanese musician, and singer and guitar player for the band Petrolz. Under the stage name , he was the second guitarist for Ringo Sheena's band Tokyo Jihen from 2005 until 2012. In 2013, Nagoka joined the band Gokumontō Ikka, a project i ...

( Ukigumo) *

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 ...

: Ahito Inazawa (from ''

Vola and the Oriental Machine Vola and the Oriental Machine (also known as Vola) is a four-member Japanese rock band formed by Number Girl and ex-Zazen Boys drummer Ahito Inazawa in 2005. The group is named after the soccer team Vola F.C., which was also the name of the short ...

'', ''ex-

Number Girl was a rock band formed in Fukuoka, Japan in August, 1995 by guitarist and vocalist Shutoku Mukai. They first disbanded in 2002 following bassist Kentaro Nakao's departure from the band. Number Girl played fast, guitar-driven rock similar to th ...

'') * Electric

bass guitars 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 s ...

Contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

: Hitoshi Watanabe *

Shinobue The ''shinobue'' (kanji: 篠笛; also called ''takebue'' (kanji: 竹笛) in the context of Japanese traditional arts) is a Japanese transverse flute or fue that has a high-pitched sound. It is found in hayashi and nagauta ensembles, and plays ...

: Hideyo Takakuwa *

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

: Tab Zombie (from ''

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions Soil & "Pimp" Sessions (stylised as SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS) is a Japanese club jazz sextet who formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2001. They are known for their energetic live performances, having coined the term "death jazz" to describe their music. Histor ...

'')

Music video cast

Kuki (STEM) * Actress - ''Kaede Katsuragi'':

Koyuki , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese model and actress. She rose to fame in the drama '' Kimi wa Petto'' with Jun Matsumoto and gained huge popularity, as well as the hit film ''The Last Samurai''. Career Actor career Koyuki appeared ...

(actress) * Student aspiring novelist - ''Amagi'': Kentaro Kobayashi (actor) * Detective - ''Komagata'': Nao Omori (actor) * A woman: Ringo Sheena Meisai * Maid & singer: Ringo Sheena * Student: Kazuki Yamaguchi (Toshiba-EMI director) * Aristocrat: Ryosuke Nagaoka * Aristocrat: Ahito Inazawa * Aristocrat: Neko Saito * Aristocrat: Hitoshi Watanabe * Aristocrat: Atsuhide Tsukuda (music planning company BEA) * Fake Ringo Sheena: Keiko Yokomachi (actress)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stem (Ringo Sheena song) Ringo Sheena songs 2003 singles 2003 songs Japanese film songs Songs written by Ringo Sheena English-language Japanese songs Japanese-language songs