Yen Town Band: Montage (Vinyl)

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of director Shunji Iwai’s legendary 1996 film "Swallowtail", the film has been newly remastered in 4K under Iwai’s complete supervision and upgraded with Dolby Atmos. The remastered edition, "Swallowtail 4K Remaster" will be released nationwide in Japan. In conjunction with this milestone, the iconic album “MONTAGE” by YEN TOWN BAND—the fictional band formed within the film—is being reissued on vinyl.

Produced by Takeshi Kobayashi, who served as the film’s music director, and fronted by Chara, who portrayed the band’s vocalist Glico, YEN TOWN BAND made a real-world debut in 1996 with the single “Swallowtail Butterfly ~Ai no Uta~” and the album “MONTAGE,” both of which became major chart-topping hits.

“MONTAGE” was previously remastered in 2015 by mastering engineer John Davis at Metropolis Studios to commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary. For this new edition, Metropolis Studios’ renowned engineer Stuart Hawkes has employed half-speed mastering, a technique in which both playback and cutting lathe rotation are slowed to half speed. This allows the vinyl to reproduce exceptionally extended high and low frequencies—surpassing conventional cutting methods and delivering an analog listening experience unattainable through digital streaming, high-resolution audio, or CD formats.