Running Round is a collection of live and studio recordings from the 1990s by Brian Cullen and Tomonori Shimizu.
I met Tomonori in 1991 shortly after I first came to Japan when I went to see his Irish music band play at Nagoya Port. After his gig, I went up to say hello and immediately Tomonori wanted to jam, so I started playing a song that I had recently written called Running Round. We have been jamming on and off for the 30 years since then and we are still running round, so it seems like an apt name for this collection!
Disc 1 has 12 songs that we recorded at a studio called Vial Sound in about 1994. We released eight of the songs on a cassette album called Lady Don’t Cry. Recently, I discovered the original master of the recording and realized that we had actually recorded 17 songs. These are all simple arrangements with Tomonori playing piano and guitar. The sound is a bit effected for my taste now, but it captures the era well.
Disc 2 has ten songs that we recorded sitting around a stereo mic or on a very simple home recorder sometime in the 1990s. They are full of glitches and imperfections, but they capture us in a much more relaxed and fun mood.
It was fun to put together Running Round as a memory from the 1990s and a connection back to that time, and I hope you enjoy listening to it in that same spirit.
Listen to Running Round on your favourite streaming service or on YouTube.
