• Onigiri Records is a specialist record store which opened on rue Chevreul this summer, in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon.

  • Part of a niche market, Japanese electronic vinyl music, Nils Helwig's store quickly found its audience of enthusiasts.

  • Reasonably priced references, pop-rock classics and imported collectibles are available at this cozy record store where you can also have a coffee.

“With the Japanese, nothing seems easy at first listening, but there is a huge taste for coming back to it,” exclaims Nils Helwig, holding up a vinyl of Miharu Koshi, a cult Japanese pop singer from the 1980s. The friendly Onigiri Records record store is still surprised by the success of his store, which opened this summer on rue Chevreul, in the 7th arrondissement. It must be said that electronic record stores remained a niche market in Lyon: the specialist Emile Records having closed at the start of the pandemic, Nils Helwig bought back his stock to satisfy a teenage dream.

“I was an acoustician in a building design office, then I had enough and I went to live in Japan for two years with my partner,” he explains. “When I returned to Lyon, I had this project in mind ever since I listened to vinyls, which I mix in bars, and I got started. "Onigiri Records wanted to bring together his two passions, electronic music and Japan," and I said to myself that I should not be the only one who is passionate about it ". Well seen.

In bins full of Japanese references, his clients of all ages delve into funk and disco from the 1970s as well as typically Japanese city pop of the 1980s. Imports, of course, but at reasonable prices: a double vinyl Tokyo Glow costs 25 euros, for example.

The splendid pressings of the soundtracks of Ghibli studios films, signed Joe Hisaishi, are rather reserved for collectors.

And to satisfy all tastes, Onigiri offers classics that go like hot cakes: Abba and Creedence Clearwater Revival have been on the rise in recent days.

A younger and more feminine audience than expected

While the vinyl audience is mostly male, Nils Helwig is pleasantly surprised to have as many clients as there are clients. And a lot of teenagers, J-Pop fans but not only: “14 year old kids come to my house with whole lists of city pop, Japanese funk that they discovered on Spotify and on YouTube. At the beginning, the record stores were afraid of this competition, whereas it is very prescriber. When we like what we listen to online, we sometimes come to buy the vinyl, so that makes our work rather easier. »A small terrace café at the back of the shop invites you to extend the exchanges between music geeks. So much so, the record store laughs, that he meets “lots of people who are more expert than me, so I'm learning all the time! "

His bestsellers, besides the indestructible Ryuichi Sakamoto, are the records of Tatsuro Yamashita, the Wamono compilations, the album

Cat

by jazzman Hiroshi Suzuki, the soundtracks of video games like

Ghost in the Shell

and

Street Fighter

, the hip- hop de Nujabes… Finally, there are only onigiri that you cannot find here, these triangles of rice covered with a sheet of seaweed very common in Japan.

Although: a smiling onigiri serves as the boutique's mascot, designed by the Lyon-based Yay graphic design studio.

And that too is pop.

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Economy

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  • Lyon

  • Electronic music

  • Vinyl

  • Japan

  • Society

  • Disk

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