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大阪市∈Don▫Quijote
This composition originated from my very first field recording in 2024, which took place in Osaka, specifically in the Don Quijote shopping center. The composition features small elements that I recorded on the fifth floor of this wholesale store, which is bizarre to Europeans and is known for its huge oval Ferris wheel. It was the first shopping center I visited in Japan. I recorded mainly the sounds of advertisements for electronic products, because I found them to be the most authentic and "musically penetrating." I recorded many tracks on site, but in the end I used only a few of them and bet on the beat and chimes in the song - which gradually shifts into something that resembles a shamisen and ends with the words "Everything begins in Osaka's Don Quijote". However, the literal title of the single is "Osaka in Don Quijote," which depicts Osaka's enduring connection with this store in particular.
Now a few words about the cover. The image on the single cover is one of a series of my so-called "masks," which are faces composed in the "Arcimboldo style" from various objects related to the theme of the song. Here, specifically, there are elements not only of a department store, but also of Don Quixote de la Mancha himself, as a character from the novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Specifically, there are elements such as part of the propeller of the famous windmill and a human eye. However, most of the elements are related to the store: a beard, the moon with the small inscription "NEIL ARMSTRONG DID NOT CONQUER THE MOON" (this inscription has no meaning in the context of the song), part of the famous Ferris wheel, the store's mascot, and the store's logo. The other parts were meant to emphasize how funky and freaky the whole store is. At my sister's request, I placed a dinosaur named "Eustreptospondylus" with her collar on the cover. The Ferris wheel is being eaten by some strange "caterpillar" and instead of one eye, it has a fish tank with a fish.
