Title: ここに愛がある (Koko ni Ai ga Aru, “There Is Love Here”)
Artist: Oi Baptist Church
Year: 1982
Genre: Choral
Type: Mixed gender
Happy New Year to all! I hope you’re enjoying yourselves. One thing I hope to do in the new year is find more obscure albums – those albums with little to no information on the net, those albums you buy out of curiosity, those albums that are sometimes like enigmas. On that note, today I’ll be sharing one of my favorite obscure albums from the collection.
What I managed to find in a used bookstore smack in the middle of the southern USA was a 2-record LP from a Japanese Baptist church. Contained within were both classic religious songs as well as original songs composed by church members. This was a real treat to find: since choirs are often religious or church-affiliated in nature, and Japan is a predominantly secular nation, it’s not something you’d expect to just find laying around. As per the purpose of this blog, I’ve only ripped the music that was performed by the church’s child members.
The children range in age from pre-schoolers to elementary schoolers, accompanied by a piano and, on a few songs, the angklung. I think there’s a refreshing charm to their voices that’s missing in more professional choirs – my favorite moment on the album is in the first track where you can hear a boy cough within the first ten seconds.
Vinyl Kids 