Bleep

Japanese jazz singer and cult icon Maki Asakawa released dozens of albums and worked with musicians like Ryuichi Sakamoto before her death in 2010 aged 67. This new retrospective collects some of Asakawa’s work from the 1970s, revealing a smoky, noirish style that recalls Nico and Scott Walker as well as Nina Simone and Billie Holliday. The compilation comes with some thorough notes by Alan Cummings, as well as photographs by Hitoshi Jin Tamura that convey Asakawa’s distinctive visual personality.