Terrys Artist Recommendation.
Ok here is my artist recommendation. if you only check out one artist i mention on my blog make sure its her. shes a lot different to all the other artists i get all giddy over. as an idol obsessive i post a lot about people who may not be that talented but are catchy or have charm, which although making them fun for me may not be good for others. well heres someone with actual talent.
Her name is Akiko Shikata and apart from being very pretty as you can see in the pic, she is also very talented, she composes, arannges, writes the lyrics and sings her own songs, she is a classically trained singer with an emotive voice who sings fluently in Italian, French, English and of course japanese, as well as a hymmnos language(which is a mix of certain world languages) when she sings the hymns for the ar tonelico games(for which she also composes, arranges, writes lyrics for etc). Her style is quite an experimental mix. she takes influences from everywhere, making her music quite complex. influenced by early european, medieval, fantasy, and the noises of nature, as well as sounds from many cultures around the world. sometimes soothing, sometimes chaotic, but always original sounding and worth a listen.
She was discovered when she was creating music when she was younger for a doujinshi(fan manga comic) circle. since then she has made music for various computer games such as ar tonelico and shadow hearts(including the in game music)
here are a few examples, excuse the youtube links i guess but if anyone takes an interest do say something :).
Click to viewthese are just two examples but check around for others on youtube because she is really worth a listen.