CLICHÉ

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Released in 1982, CLICHÉ closes Taeko Ohnuki’s so-called European trilogy and pushes her music further away from conventional Japanese pop toward a more architectural, continental sound. The album was recorded between Tokyo and Paris, with Ryuichi Sakamoto handling the Tokyo arrangements and French arranger Jean Musy shaping the Paris sessions. That split gives the record a distinctive internal tension: some tracks feel cool, electronic, and precisely structured, while others carry a softer orchestral color. “Kuro no Claire,” “Shikisai Toshi,” and “Peter Rabbit to Watashi” show how naturally Ohnuki could combine delicate songwriting with arrangements that leave large amounts of space around the voice. Rather than relying on rhythm-section power, CLICHÉ often works through texture, silence, and harmonic detail. Even its poppier moments feel carefully framed rather than spontaneous. The result is one of the clearest examples of Ohnuki moving beyond the jazz-fusion roots of her earlier work and toward the refined art-pop language that would define much of her 1980s catalog.