The album is a follow-up to Ringo Sheena’s successful second album Shōso Strip and cover album . The album was due to be entitled Fushigi, Waizatsu, Ekisentorikku at first. However, Sheena decided to change the title because she overheard the male staff's chats and she thought their story to be interesting. They told that the smell of semen resembled the smell of chlorine, or the smell of the chestnut flowers. She thought that the nuance of word "semen" was beautiful, and adopted it as the title. The 2001 single "Mayonaka Wa Junketsu" was to have been included on this album along with one of the single's b-sides, "Aisaika no Choushoku". However, plans were changed after it was deemed they did not match the album. It was the first time for Sheena to produce her own album herself. The album was produced in about one year longer than the period of production of the past two albums. Sheena didn’t record a band all at once as had been done in her previous albums, but recorded one instrument at a time using overdubbing and multitracking. She used not only the rock band ensemble but also the various musical instruments such as folk instruments from Japan and other regions, string instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, as well as music sequencer and orchestra. In order to reduce budgets, she used her own Macintosh computer and cheap recording equipment, and composed and edited the songs herself using computer software, while sometimes exchanging the arranged songs with Uni Inoue. She recorded one musical instrument in one room of her house while recording the ensemble parts in another room. Seiji Kameda who had been involved in the production and arrangement of her previous two studio albums did not participate in this work. Instead, Sheena arranged this album with audio engineer Uni Inoue. Toshiyuki Mori orchestrated each of the recorded songs and arranged the whole "Yattsuke Shigoto". In 2003, musician Takao Tajima of the band Original Love covered the song "Okonomi de" on his tour "Odoru Taiyo" Tour.
Reception
Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana was ranked second in CNN International Asia's list of "the 2000s' most under-appreciated Japanese music of the last decade" on December 22, 2009. Sheena also received a mention in The Guardian as one of Japan's artists who "deserve to be seen and heard in the west" in 2010. By May 2020, the album was ranked 8th overall by a Japanese artist and ranked 534th overall in the all-time album list on Rate Your Music.
Track listing
All tracks written by Ringo Sheena; all tracks arranged by Sheena and Uni Inoue, except "Rush Job" by Toshiyuki Mori, and "Fig Flower" by Ukigumo.
Credits and personnel
All English translation and pronunciation guidance: Robbie Clark
