77 is a musical alias of Nana Futagawa, the daughter of Junko Futagawa, who manages the band Boredoms and is associated with Yamatsuka Eye. Nana was just an infant in 1998 when her parents and Eye decided to feature her on a split single with Boredoms. Junko recorded Nana's voice, including her baby talk and gargling sounds, which were released as "Super 77" on the A-side. The B-side featured Boredoms' composition "Super Sky," a tribute to the Electric Light Orchestra's song "Mr. Blue Sky," which had inspired Eye during his high school years. This track was an early version of "Go!!!!!," an hour-long composition that was released on CD in December 1995.
The concept that electronic music, particularly soothing and ambient pieces, can be beneficial for infants—especially in aiding their sleep—is a long-standing one, dating back to the early days of electronica. One of the most notable studies on this topic was conducted in the mid-1960s by Raymond Scott, an American electronic and synthesizer pioneer. He produced the "Soothing Sounds For Baby" mono LP series for Epic Records, which consisted of three volumes specifically composed for babies aged 1 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, and 12 to 18 months. This early ambient collection has since gained a cult following and was reissued in a comprehensive 3xCD/LP box set by Basta in 1999.
Artists from the experimental music scene have also acknowledged infants as a potential audience for abstract and ambient sounds, reflecting on Scott's pioneering contributions to "baby music." In 2001, a humorous tribute collection was released by Badaboom Gramophone magazine, featuring dedications and remixes by various electronic artists including Cex, Bogdan Raczynski, Marumari, Arovane, and Casino Versus Japan. In 2005, Staubgold released a compilation of tracks specifically composed for a 0+ audience, showcasing works by Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Lawrence, Yuichiro Fujimoto, Guido Möbius, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Oren Ambarchi, Asa-Chang & Junray, Nobukazu Takemura, Takagi Masakatsu, and other innovative sound artists.
As one of the early figures in this unconventional realm of "newborn composers," Nana "77" Futagawa was later joined by Elise De Waard, born in 1999 to Frans de Waard and Miriam De Waard. Elise was introduced to the world with a soothing lullaby suite composed by her mother, alongside contributions from FdW and Roel Meelkop. She made her first appearance on a mini CD-R in July 2000, which featured her screams and other involuntary vocalizations. By the age of three, Elise was engaging with various instruments and everyday objects—which included metal sheets, paper, sticks, and plastic—amplified with contact microphones for Freiband's album.
In 2005, Yoshio Machida's Tokyo-based label Amorfon produced a CD compilation featuring ten tracks of field recordings, accidental music, and conscious sound-making attempts by infants and recently born babies, including those of Andrew Deutsch, Vlad Dobrovolski, Felix Kubin, and Shigeru Sato. All participants in this project were under 1.5 years old at the time of recording, which took place from 2003 to 2005.
Elise De Waard continued her artistic journey, releasing a micro-album of field recordings titled "Sound music" in Dutch, which came out as a business card CD-R from one of FdW's labels in 2007 and received positive reviews from Vital Weekly.
In 1999, Nana "77" Futagawa graced the front cover of a CD released by WEA Japan and Birdman Records in the United States.
