Tsukiko Amano Biography
Amano Tsukiko is one of the Japanese rock divas heavily influenced by 80s pop rock, with an emphasis on the rock part - which actually amounts to following the blueprint of Nanase Aikawa. Amano Tsukiko has an impressive musical background - she took piano lessons from the time she was 5, sung soprano in high school choir, and finally stuck to guitar, in a pretty literal way - she mostly writes and performs her songs on the first instrument she bought in her teens. She started her career the traditional way, by playing local clubs, giving street performances and making indie releases (since 2001). She even attempted to gather her own band, but the project didn't work out, and Amano stuck to playing solo, which eventually paid off - her friend managed to land her CD with the exec of the Otokura record label. That led to the successful single Bodaiju out in 2001 on the same label, with two full-length albums, Sharon Stones and Meg&Lion released within the next year.After that Amano worked on theme songs for the popular survival horror games of the "Fatal Frame" series, recording "Chou" for FF II "Crimson Butterfly" and "Koe" for the third part, "The Tormented". That scored her some good points domestically and even gained her international exposure, as the games were released worldwide under the title "Project Zero". That was supplemented by two more albums - Tenryuu (2004) and A Moon Child In The Sky (2005). Amano also became known for her non-musical activities, as she designs extravagant clothes for her own videos and performances, draws artwork for her releases and even keeps a webcomic. Still, none of her releases cracked the top part of the Oricon charts, although all singles made it to top-50 or top-100, and after the 2005 album Amano entered a pause during which she didn't record any more LPs and dropped from Otokura label, getting back to work as an independent artist: she released singles Howling in 2007 and Heaven's Gate in 2008.
Biography by allmusic.com
