Inspiration, name-free
Taeko Onuki
Late-70s japanese city pop from the 1980s: jazz voiced piano, flute counter-melody, chamber string pads, melancholic and intimate in feel. A name-free Suno recipe that reproduces the signature sound without tripping the artist-name filter.
Style: City Pop · Related styles: City Pop AOR, City Pop Funk, J-Pop, Korean City Pop Revival
History
Taeko Onuki sings city pop with a cool, clear and slightly distant voice, and her records moved steadily from breezy soft rock toward jazz and then European elegance. In 1973 she formed Sugar Babe with Tatsuro Yamashita and Kunio Muramatsu, a band that found little success at the time but is now seen as a seed of the whole city pop sound. Her solo debut Grey Skies (1976) kept close to that band's style. Sunshower (1977) was the turning point, a sophisticated blend of pop and jazz fusion with Ryuichi Sakamoto among the arrangers, and decades later it found a large new audience abroad. Mignonne (1978) aimed for a more commercial pop direction but sold poorly. Around 1980 to 1982 she recorded what is often called her Europe trilogy, Romantique, Aventure and Cliche, adding electronic textures and a French and film-music flavour. She kept working with Sakamoto for years afterwards. Her songs are marked by precise, understated phrasing, sophisticated chord changes and a calm, urban melancholy.
The recipe
Opening the recipe…