Somewhere in the same universe as Pizzicato Five but with a slightly more eccentric orbit, Takako Minekawa practiced a more overtly electronic form of pop music that, as time went on, also became more ethereal and narcotic. Minekawa’s early work, of which a helium-voiced cover of “Drive My Car” is somewhat typical, plays heavily to the cute Japanese pop ingenue stereotype. But by the time of Cloudy Cloud Calculator, a good four years into her music career, Minekawa had embarked on a sound that, while still upbeat and bouncy, resembled Kraftwerk more than Puffy AmiYumi.

“Fantastic Voyage” is a cut off Fun9, the album she released a year later. By this point, Minekawa had smoothed out the more staccato, blip-bleepy elements, thanks partially to production work by future husband Cornelius and DJ Me DJ You. “Fantastic Voyage” is the IMAX experience to Cloudy Cloud Calculator’s fifteen-inch rabbit-ear TV. It’s a fully realized dreamscape, peppered with fairy-tale samples referring to rare medicinal plants and magical forests. Oddly compelling and hypnotic, “Fantastic Voyage” may very well be Minekawa’s high point: a perfect amalgam of all her prior tendencies, arranged just so to create an otherworldly sort of experience.

After her marriage to Keigo Oyamada, aka Cornelius, in 2000, Minekawa seems to practically disappear. There’s a handwritten message on her site from 2002, but since it’s in Japanese I can’t make heads or tails of it. A farewell retirement note? A promise of more to come in the future? A grocery list? If only there were more clues.