Izumi Kobayashi

is a Japanese musician, record producer, and business executive. Originally working for a funk band at a US military base, she formed the band ASOCA and won the '76 Best Keyboardist award, and she performed as a keyboardist for other musicians and bands. Working for CBS/Sony, she released several solo albums, either with the Mimie-Chan Super Band and its later iteration Izumi Kobayashi & Flying Mimi Band or solely with her own name. She also worked as a composer for Japanese media, including "Lum's Love Song" (the theme song for the Urusei Yatsura anime), and hosted TV Tokyo late-night show Rock in Japan. She later moved to London in 1985 and worked as a record producer and industry executive in Europe, serving as president of Cisco Records London.

Biography Early life and career Izumi Kobayashi, a native of Funabashi, was born on 25 March 1957. She began taking piano lessons at the age of ten. She earned her first professional gig after performing at a Funabashi dance hall, and learning to play the Yamaha Electone, started securing performance gigs at restaurants, clubs, and similar venues. and she performed "I, I, You & AI", the theme song of Urusei Yatsura: Only You; she had been signed to the anime's producer Kitty Records. She had decided to work in Europe at the advice of Holger Hiller, who later produced her 1989 album I-Ki.

Despite being busy working in Europe, Kobayashi still worked with Japanese media, serving as composer for the dramas Waru (1992) and (1999). Chris Ingalls of PopMatters called it an "eclectic mini-epic [which] bridges the gap between Prince-inspired funk and vintage synth-heavy Thomas Dolby". In November 2020, she held a concert at Blues Alley Japan in Meguro as part of Takashi Ikegami's City Pop Connection concert series; this was the first time in over three decades she had performed her own songs in Japan alongside her band.

Kobayashi has a son with Hiller, musician Ken Kobayashi.

Discography Albums

Filmography Year Title Role(s) 1980 Ganbare!! Tabuchi-kun!! Composer 1983 Urusei Yatsura: Only You Composer (with Masamichi Amano, Fumitaka Anzai, and Kōji Nishimura)