Hailing from Amami-Oshima in southern Japan, Atari Kousuke is a young singer currently signed to Epic Records Japan. He is a self-trained musician, and performs in the difficult 'shima-uta' ...

Hailing from Amami-Oshima in southern Japan, Atari Kousuke is a young singer currently signed to Epic Records Japan. He is a self-trained musician, and performs in the difficult 'shima-uta' (or 'island-song' style of his hometown.

While his style of music is close to mainstream pop, his vocals have an undoubtedly traditional Japanese flavour, and his inspiration still comes from his traditional roots.

History - Indie Releases
Atari Kousuke (2006)
Atari Kousuke (2006)

When Kousuke was in high school, he became a fan of Hajime Chitose. Inspired, he began to teach himself how to sing in shima-uta style.

In 2000, he won the Amami Folk Song Grand Prix's 'New Member Award'. He also won the Japanese Folk Song Association Award. He continued to participate in numerous Ryukyu based folk festivals and tournaments.

He began releasing very traditional albums in 1999, under the Jabara Records - [1] label. He released two straight traditional albums, Atari and Kurudando, followed by the mini album Shodon, which saw him experimenting with a wider range of instruments and musicians, and finally the full-length Notus, which saw an even further departure from the traditional style with jazz elements and other influences. After these four releases he moved to a more modern pop style with his Day! Records release, Materia.

In September of 2005, he gained much attention with the release of an indie mini album entitled Materia. Materia is the first of his musical releases to have an undeniable 'pop' music feel to it, although it managed to retain the flair and beauty of his traditional style vocals. The album shot to #5 on the indie music charts, and sold over 7000 copies.

Major Debut - Sorezore ni to Yurai Bana

By March of 2006, he had released his debut major label single, Sore Zore ni, for Epic Records Japan. Kousuke worked with much of the same staff for this single that helped him created his indie album Materia six months beforehand, and the single was chosen as a 'power-play' track on Kyushu FM radio stations. The single did fairly well, originally peaking at #60 on the Oricon Charts. After some time doing live performances and other types of promotion, the single re-entered the charts, and peaked at #50.

His second single, Omoide no Sugu Soba de / Mahiru no Hanabi, was used as the theme song for the film Chakushin Ari Final - [2]. It also peaked at number 50 on the Oricon Charts, although it saw a shorter chart run. His third single, Hana, was a spring time ballad. It debuted at #19 on the Oricon Charts, immediately making it his highest ranking single to date.

His first full length major album, Yurai Bana, was released on July 11, 2007, and faired quite well on the Oricon Charts, debuting at number 7 on the weekly rankings. Two days later, he released Hua Jian Dao, a sister album to Yurai Bana, in Taiwan.
[edit] Current

On November 14, 2007, Kousuke released Tane wo Maku Hibi, his first single after Yurai Bana. The single did fairly well, selling over 5600 copies and charting at #22 in its first week.

A new version of the song Yasokyoku~nocturne (originally from his Hua Jian Dao album) was used as the image song for the film Lust, Caution, and was dubbed Yasokyoku~nocturne(LUST, CAUTION version).

Kousuke is currently preparing to release his fifth single, Haru on April 9th.

Atari Kousuke tends to promote his releases through numerous free-live performances and radio and TV appearances around Japan. He keeps his *Official Blog - [3] very well updated with dates and times for his appearances, and enjoys fan feedback.

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