NEWPORT and Japan have come together thanks to one city man and a charity album.

Musician David Barclay, 40, of Malpas, was contacted by Japanese woman Riko Maeda, of Tohoku, after he put some of his songs onto music sharing website SoundCloud.

Now, after Mr Barclay realised Ms Maeda lived in a town affected by the earthquake and tsunami in March this year, the pair have joined together with another SoundCloud user Dave Greening to release charity album Gakki for Kids.

All money raised from the album will be donated to the Gakki for Kids support activity which helps child victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

Mr Barclay, who sings and plays the piano and guitar, decided to concentrate on his music after being made redundant from his job as an IT manager back in January.

This led to him starting to post some of his songs onto the website in June and he has since gained more than 900 followers.

But one of his songs A Little Cwtch caught the eye of Ms Maeda, who contacted him asking if she could collaborate with him and translate the song into Japanese.

Mr Barclay said: “I agreed and noticed that she lived in an area affected by the earthquake.”

This led to the pair joining up with Mr Greening of Bristol to produce the eight-track charity album which all three have contributed to.

Mr Barclay, who is currently studying for a masters degree in business and administration at the University of Wales, Newport, worked on one of Mr Greening’s album Numb Remixes earlier this year which was released in aid of Cancer Research UK.

The Gakki for Kids album was released last Monday and is available at http://barclaybunch.bandcamp.

com/album/gakki-for-kids for a minimum donation of £3.