Art rock band KAO=S will release their new album AMRITA on March 21st.
AMRITA will contain six tracks, three of which are reworked versions of previously released songs Sakura kaoru, Ogre of the Cherry Tree and MAIMU. The other three tracks are new songs titled Sekai no asa, AMRITA and SAJIN.
Album producer Kenji Nakai has worked with bands including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and X JAPAN. The album cover was photographed by Mikio Ariga, the official photographer of The Rolling Stones.
The music video for the album's lead track AMRITA was published on YouTube on March 3rd. The video was directed by Tomoo Noda, who has worked on videos for GACKT and L'Arc~en~Ciel.
AMRITA will be released on March 20th at KAO=S' show in Tokyo and will be released on March 21st on iTunes, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, KKBOX and more. The music video and album were able to be made thanks to the crowd funding efforts of KAO=S' backers on Indiegogo and Japanese crowd funding site Motion Gallery in July 2017.
With the retirement of shamisenist Jack from the band, Shuji and Kaori have worked to create a new, unique KAO=S sound for AMRITA. The album includes various ethnic musical instruments such as the tabla (India), erhu (China), morin khuu (Mongol), djembe (Africa) and dulcimer. This has given rise to KAO=S' new multinational and organic sound.
