Casiopea (album)

Casiopea
Studio album by Casiopea
Released	May 25, 1979
Recorded	Studio "A", Shibaura, Tokyo from December 1978 to March 1979. Power Station Studio, N.Y. on February 10, 1979
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	36:28
Label	Alfa Records ALR-6017
Producer	Kunihiko Murai, Syoro Kawazoe
Casiopea chronology
Casiopea (1979) Super Flight (1979)

Casiopea is the debut album of the jazz fusion group Casiopea which was recorded between 1978-1979 and released later that year. The album showed two racecars racing each other on a raceway.

Recorded between December 1978 and March 1979 in Japan, "Casiopea" is Casiopea's self-titled debut album. The album includes the participation of some notable contemporary jazz players as David Sanborn on the saxophone, giving a special touch to Issei Noro's compositions. Tunes like Black Joke are part of the multiple performances and variances along Casiopea's career.

This album was recorded on LP in 1979 as ALR-6017 and years later in 1986 on CD under the 32XA-104 catalog numbers, being the first editions on both LP and CD.

Track listing

All tracks were written and arranged by Issei Noro except horn arranged by Jun Fukamachi and strings arranged by Hiroki Inui.

Side A
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Time Limit"	3:07
2.	"Tears of the Star"	4:32
3.	"Space Road"	5:14
4.	"Midnight Rendezvous"	5:20
Total length:		18:13

Side B
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Far Away"	3:55
2.	"Swallow"	4:24
3.	"Dream Hill"	5:39
4.	"Black Joke"	4:17
Total length:		18:15

Personnel

CASIOPEA are

Issei Noro - Electric guitar (Yamaha SG2000), Acoustic guitar, vocals

Minoru Mukaiya - Fender Rhodes electric piano, Acoustic piano, synthesizers, Yamaha electone, vibraphone

Tetsuo Sakurai - Bass guitar (Fender Jazz Bass)

Takashi Sasaki - Drums

HORNS

• Randy Brecker - Trumpet
• Michael Brecker - Tenor saxophone
• David Sanborn - Alto saxophone

STRINGS

• "Tomato" strings

Production

• Kunihiko Murai - Executive Producer
• Syoro Kawazoe - Executive Producer
• Shinji Sawada - Producer
• Kazusuke Obi - Producer
• Al Schmitt - Recording engineer
• Norio Yoshizawa - Recording engineer
• Yasuhiko Terada - Recording engineer
• Mitsuo Koike - Assistant engineer
• Neil Dorfsman - Recording engineer
• James Farber - Assistant engineer
• Yasuhiko Terada - Mixing engineer

• Art Direction & Design - ALPHABET (nh ad system)
• Photographer - Shigeru Wada
• Illustrator - Toshikuni Okubo

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog	note
Japan	May 25, 1979	Alfa Records	30cmLP	ALR-6017	stereo
	December 21, 1986		12cmCD	32XA-104
	March 21, 1992			ALCA-271
	June 29, 1994			ALCA-9001
	July 23, 1998			ALCA-9196
	May 31, 2000	Toshiba EMI	remastered 12cmCD	TOCT-24364	LP paper jacket
	December 19, 2001	Village Records		VRCL-2201	DSD, LP paper jacket
	January 17, 2002			VRCL-2221	DSD
	May 27, 2009	Sony Music Direct		MHCL-20003	DSD, Blu-spec CD, LP paper jacket

References

External links

• CASIOPEA –CASIOPEA at Discogs