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Akiko Yano

Akiko Yano

Japanese pop pioneer whose eclectic piano-driven songcraft has drawn comparisons to Kate Bush and shaped decades of Japanese music.

VIDEO · APPLE MUSIC

VIDEO · FROM APPLE MUSIC

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Japanese pop pioneer whose eclectic piano-driven songcraft has drawn comparisons to Kate Bush and shaped decades of Japanese music.

MOODS · eclectic · playful · virtuosic piano · idiosyncratic vocals · genre-spanning · Japanese pop · jazz-inflected · warm · experimental · nostalgic

BIOGRAPHY

Akiko Yano was born Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo in 1955 and grew up in Aomori, where she began playing piano at age three. She left high school at fifteen to move to Tokyo, quickly entering the city's jazz scene and working as a studio musician by seventeen, later performing with the band Tin Pan Alley. Her 1976 debut, Japanese Girl, recorded in Los Angeles with Little Feat, was a major hit and launched her career. She went on to collaborate with Yellow Magic Orchestra on world tours, married and later divorced fellow musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and continued releasing acclaimed albums including 1981's Tadaima. She has since worked with Peter Gabriel, scored Studio Ghibli's My Neighbours the Yamadas, and recently collaborated with jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara and shamisen player Hiromitsu Agatsuma.

WHY THEY'RE COOL

Akiko Yano has been called one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world, a star in her own right since 1977 with a vast and complex solo discography. Her vocals and eclectic style have drawn comparisons to Kate Bush, and a reissue campaign by WeWantSounds has renewed attention to her pioneering early work, even as her footprint outside Japan remains small.

GEORGE'S PLAYS

First time on the station.