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志方あきこ

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Akiko Shikata is a genre-defying , composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose songs range from neofolk to avant-garde, world music, symphonic metal, folktronica, new age and dark ambient.
Her style could be defined as with a deep tendency towards experimentation, while many of her songs are progressive and have a medieval or celtic feel. Her voice tends to takes on the role of an instrument, rather than a driving force, and her compositions typically consist of multi-layered and atypical musical passages, often featuring idiosyncrasies and quirks in the vein of dissociated choirs. She is also known to employ very different vocal styles, sometimes within the same song: a deeper, low-pitched voice; a high-pitched, child-like voice; and her regular, unique soprano voice, of which a more operatic variant can also be heard.

Shikata is known for her knowledge and use of several different languages in her songs; while she most frequently sings in Japanese and Italian (she has been writing and singing in Italian since her debut), these also include French, English or German, as well as unusual languages such as Uyghur, Turkish, Greek, Ainu, Tibetan and Hymmnos, the made-up language created for the Ar-Tonelico game series.

She was born on the 7th of January and works for several labels, including the underground neoclassical/folk label, HATS, and FrontierWorks. She founded her own indie circle, Vagrancy, in 2001, through which she has been releasing several albums in addition to her solo works.
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  • Untitled Album
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  • Raka
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  • うみねこのなく頃に
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  • Navigatoria
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  • Shadowy-Chan

    I love the artwork of Laylania.

    Thursday morning

  • wohensinile111

    真是太棒了！

    Tuesday morning

  • KP-X

    Laylania's tracklist: 1. ライラニア 2. Ta Fatie 3. 不条理≧楽しい？ 4. 風は遥かな明日を知る 5. 幕間～カオカゲウオ：その頃団員達は見当違いな方向を大捜索中 6. ラ・シェール（PlayStationVita用ソフト『シェルノサージュ ～失われた星へ捧ぐ詩～』イメージテーマ・ソング） 7. 透明ノスタルジア source: official Laylania site http://www.laylania.com

    last week

  • PrincessOvelia

    女神的玉音不能只用“好”来形容好嘛！！！ Anyway... Do we have any samples from the Ciel no Surge game? I hear the game performs pretty well in Japan, hope there's an album coming out!

    20 days ago

  • GoXsummer

    绝对的好音乐啊！

    last month

  • Madrangue

    I'd love to hear her doing minimal stuff. No kidding. But yeah, goth rock and jazz are styles that suit her schizophrenic vocals pretty well. Oh and about Laylania... it seems it's gonna be a live album, am I right? Now this sounds exciting.

    last month

  • TakemuraMasato

    @Madrangue "She needs other songs like La Corolle or Hollow". Amen, brother. Well, for Hollow at least. She delivers awe-inspiring stuff when she truly experiments with the arranging. I wish she did it (or had it done, w/e) more often. Tho I do love pretty much everything with her voice in it ^^;

    last month

  • Madrangue

    Weird... new artwork does look unusually cartoonish. And the colors are awful. Bah... As long as the music's good, I don't care much for that kind of stuff anyway.

    last month
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