Chocolat began her official singing career at age 18 in 1997, with the release of her first single "Blue Mint Blue". She was married the next year to Akito Katayose. She released a few more albums up until 2005 when she teamed up with her husband as Chocolat & Akito.
As a solo artist, her sound was much more rough and playful. While firmly in the no-risk zone and sticking to more mature sounds, the songs would occasionally throw a curve-ball and do something, well, interesting. There's a lot of indie spirit on her early recordings which remind me a bit of early Puffy Ami-Yumi's happy sound mixed with Tsuji Ayano's crystal clear vocals. Most of the time though, they were straight up "nice" songs suitable for the adult contemporary charts and daytime drama soundtracks.
This niceness was taken a step or two further when she joined up with Akito in 2005. Together they produce very down-tempo, jazzy/classic R&B tracks that are, unsurprisingly, rather romantic and gentle.
Like A Starberry (feat. Miki from Supercar)
Blue Mint Blue
One Too Many Rain
Chocolat and Akito - Tuning
On MTV Japan 2001 - Pt. 1
On MTV Japan 2001 - Pt. 2
Official Site
Chocolat and Akito's MySpace
Major Releases
One Too Many Chocolat - 1997
Hamster - 1999
henry - 2001
Chocolate notes - 2003
Chocolat & Akito - Chocolat & Akito - 2005
Chocolat & Akito - Tropical - 2007
1 comment:
isn't first video - Furukawa Miki's "Sunburst"?
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