World-famous ocarina player from Belgium, Tom Vanopphem announced that he will be teaming up with UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN with an official cover album of Bittersweet, September 22. Tom Vanopphem, who is an ocarina player from Belgium, loves Japan and Japanese culture.  He has become popular on social media by playing requested songs with the ocarina.  Speaking fluent Japanese, he has been attracting many followers.  The number of his TikTok followers counts over 330,000. 

After playing the ocarina around the world, Italy, Australia, Belgium, Greece, China, Taiwan, and Japan, he decided to stay in Japan where the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which Vanopphem is a fan of was born. It gave him an opportunity to get to know the ocarina.  The Japanese culture, economic strength, people’s kindness were additional factors that made him stay.

Vanopphem will releases his major label debut album, Bittersweet, which is a cover album from the band, DREAMS COME TRUE. The ocarina’s sensitive and lyrical sound perfectly matches with the melodies created by the extraordinary melody maker duo, Miwa Yoshida and Masato Nakamura, and enhances the beauty of the songs.

The album consists of ten masterpieces of DREAMS COME TRUE, “Mirai Yosouzu II”, “Suki, Kiminishika Kikoenai”, “Memai”, etc.  In addition, as a bonus track, “Green Hill Zone” from the game SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is included, which was composed by Masato Nakamura. Recently it was played at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.  This is actually the song that introduced DREAMS COME TRUE to Vanopphem. Vanopphem plays three octaves with triple ocarina, not the ordinary single ocarina. His ocarina makes you hear the words.  This album is a must-listen for music fans all over the world.

As we look forward to the upcoming release be sure to check out his cover of the popular track “Homura” along with the pre-order links for Bittersweet below!

Standard edition 

Tom Vanopphem「Bittersweet」

1. Mirai Yosouzu II   

2. Kiminishika Kikoenai   

3. Memai   

4. Suki   

5. Mikazuki   

6. Kohakuno Tsuki   

7. Oyasumino Uta   

8. NOCTURNE 001   

9. SNOW DANCE   

10. ETERNITY   

11. Green Hill Zone