Phoenix by System 7
System 7 take their unique and personalized psychedelic techno style to a new and higher level on their album PHOENIX.
System 7’s project is inspired by the manga graphic novel series 'Phoenix' by Tezuka Osamu - one of the founding fathers of Japanese manga culture. The project grew from a meeting a few years ago between System 7’s Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy and Tezuka’s daughter Rumiko Tezuka who has her own techno label Music Robita in Japan. Rumiko suggested that System 7’s sound would fit perfectly with her father’s Phoenix stories and his universal message. The resulting album release is a collaboration between Music Robita and System 7’s own label A-Wave.
This project has led to an ongoing collaboration between System 7 and Japanese animation team Mood Magic – including manga animators famous internationally for work on 'Animatrix' – which has resulted initially in a superb promotional video clip for the first track on the album Hinotori. 'Honitori' in Japanese means literally 'Bird of Fire'. The clip uses 21st century Japanese manga animation techniques to transform the original Tezuka images in ways that work perfectly with System 7’s music track. This video has been endorsed by Tezuka Productions.
The Phoenix music portrays, in a variety of ways, travel through time and space, life, death and rebirth, with each track inspired by characters or images from the books. System 7 have also worked on these tracks with a number of musical collaborators including Jam el Mar (of Jam and Spoon), Son Kite, Eat Static, Slack Baba, Daevid Allen of Gong and Mito from the Japanese band Clammbon.
Tracklist
| 1. | Hinotori | 5:46 |
| 2. | Space Bird | 7:17 |
| 3. | Scramble | 8:14 |
| 4. | Masato Eternity | 7:17 |
| 5. | Song For The Phoenix | 7:52 |
| 6. | Strange Beings | 5:52 |
| 7. | Chihiro 61298 | 10:35 |
| 8. | Makimura - Space Pilot | 7:18 |
| 9. | Wolf-Head | 7:58 |
| 10. | Chihiro 61298 (Robita Bells Mix) | 9:05 |
Videos
Credits
Album produced by Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy
Tracks 2 & 4 are collaborations with Jam El Mar
Track 3 is a collaboration with Slack Baba
Track 6 is a collaboration with Daevid Allen
Tracks 7 & 10 are collaborations with Son Kite
Track 8 is a collaboration with Mito
Track 9 is a collaboration with Eat Static
All tracks mixed by Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy at A Wave Studio, Notting Hill, London in July 2007, apart from track 7 mixed by Son Kite at High Hat Studio, Malmo, Sweden, in June 2007.
Mastered by Mike Marsh at The Exchange, London
Tracks 1 & 5 written by Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy
Tracks 2 & 4 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and Jam El Mar
Track 3 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and Jonathan Smith
Track 6 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and Daevid Allen
Tracks 7 & 10 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson
Track 8 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and Mito
Track 9 written by Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton
Tracks 1, 5 & 6 published by Stage Three Music
Tracks 2 & 4 published by Stage Three Music / Edition All Star II
Tracks 3, 8 & 9 published by Stage Three Music / copyright control
Tracks 7 & 10 published by Stage Three Music / Minds on Fire
Ⓟ and © 2007 A-Wave.com Ltd
Artwork design by Shigeki Ando, using a Space Bird image by Osamu Tezuka
www.facebook.com/System7page
License
All rights reserved.
SYSTEM 7’s Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy have had a strong influence on the birth of psychedelic dance music and it’s journey up to the present, forging a unique and bang up-to-date identity on the genre map, in a space where techno, progressive and trance meet - and with the added element of Steve's highly specialised techno guitar.