TRANS//LATION
"Trans//Lation" is the debut Japanese album from British recording artist Bentley Jones released on March 25th 2009. Jones is unique as he is the first ever British artist to have a Japanese-language album release. "TRANS//LATION" is a covers project combining both English and Japanese languages, with all English lyrics written by Jones himself.
Promotion
The song 素直になれたら ～FINAL NIGHT～ was released as a mobile digital single on March 4th 2009. It debuted on the Recochoku international daily chart at #7 and rose to #5 on March 8th despite very little promotion.
Jones visited Tokyo to promote the album as it was released. On the album's launch day Bentley made his Japanese television debut appearing on the show 'U LA LA' broadcast on the Tokyo MX network.
On March 27 2009 the song DEPARTURES was made available as a mobile ringtone.
Following the success of "FINAL NIGHT" a remix of the track was announced to appear on the forthcoming "Love House" compilation album.
Industry response
The album's first digital single - "FINAL NIGHT" - is an English rewrite of the Japanese original "Sunao ni naretara" originally performed by JUJU and Spontania. Jeff Miyahara - the original producer and one of the writers of "Sunao ni naretara" - liked Jones' version so much that not only did he give permission for the English rewrite, but offered to collaborate with Jones for his second album.
The song "Depend on you ~Depend on me~" is also an English rewrite, this time of the Japanese original "Depend on you" by Ayumi Hamasaki. Hamasaki personally contacted Jones' label expressing her support and approval of Jones' cover and his lyrics after reviewing the track.
Soon following the announcement of "TRANS//LATION", video-game publisher SEGA recruited Jones to perform a brand new song for the latest installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog video-game series: Sonic and the Black Knight. Jones has contributed various music to the series including the games Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Rivals, Shadow the Hedgehog as well as several albums including True Blue: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Tracklisting
The tracklist, according to EMI's product listing page, is as follows:
- 素直になれたら ～FINAL NIGHT～
- 強く儚い者たち
- 気分上々↑↑
- Don’t wanna cry
- 月光
- ドラマチック
- TRANS//LATION ～インタールード～
- DEPARTURES
- Depend on you ～Depend on me～
- WHITE LOVE
- 春 ～SPRING～
- GLAMOROUS SKY