mui zyu's reimagined version of 時の流れに身をまかせ (“Give Yourself to the Flow of Time”), originally released in 1986 by Teresa Teng.
mui zyu says, “Teresa Teng’s voice has been with me for as long as I can remember. My family collected her records, cassettes and CDs, and her vast discography is still our go-to for karaoke at family gatherings. Growing up, so many of the words exchanged between my mum and I were these lyrics, sung at the top of our lungs, on long drives through the suburbs. She recorded in so many languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Hokkien, Italian and Japanese, which has always been so inspiring to me. I wanted to put my Japanese lessons to use by bringing this all-time classic into the mui zyu world for a moment.”
The original song, composed by Takashi Miki with lyrics by Toyohisa Araki and Shen Chih, was a major hit upon release. In 1997, it was voted one of the greatest Japanese songs of all time in a nationwide survey conducted by Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. mui zyu continues, “I didn’t want to stray too far from the original. I borrowed an old DX7 from a friend and tried to recreate the palette of sounds. We transcribed the string parts, rearranged them slightly, and had our regular collaborator Coco Inman record them on violin at our studio. And of course, we changed the key, bringing it down two semitones which is what I do at karaoke, because I don’t quite have those Teng high notes in my lungs.”
