Biography
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Born
22 February 1960 (age 64)
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Born In
Shiki, Saitama, Japan
Hoppy Kamiyama is a Japanese singer, musician, composer, and record producer. He has often been compared to Brian Eno. Kamiyama is best known for his role in the 1980s J-Pop band Pink and his independent record label God Mountain.
Kamiyama's interest in music began at age three. His father exposed him to classical music and arranged for him to take piano lessons. Even as an elementary school pupil, Kamiyama felt confined by the music he was forced to play. He began to deviate from his assigned lessons and started to play the works of his favorite composers: Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Bartok, in defiance of the instructions of his music teacher.
At age 11, Kamiyama abandoned his ambitions to become a classical pianist after attending a performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos 2 and 3 by Alexis Weissenberg. Kamiyama was overwhelmed by the power of Weissenberg's performance and decided that the grand piano was instrument designed for large, Western body types, not Asians.
In elementary school, Kamiyama began composing in classical and modern classical styles. However, by the time he entered junior high school, progressive rock became popular and the influence of bands such as Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and Gentle Giant weighed heavily on him.
In 1978, Kamiyama joined Hero, a band comprised of members of Yonin Bayashi and the Anzen Band. In addition to Hero, Kamiyama performed in Yonin Bayashi and ES Island.
In the mid-1980s, Kamiyama joined J-Pop band Pink and released three albums. In 1985, the band released their self-titled debut album, 光の子 followed by Hikari-No-Ko (Children of Light). In 1986, the band released Psycho-Delicious.
Pink's popularity attracted the attention of Toshiba EMI and Kamiyama contracted with them to release two albums: King of Music 1 in 1990 and King of Music 2 in 1991.
Despite critical acclaim, EMI killed production of the album due to low sales. Angry and frustrated, Kamiyama created his own record label in 1993: God Mountain records, which is the English translation of his Japanese surname. He added ambient label God Ocean in 1995.
Kamiyama then released a solo album for chamber music Juice and Tremolo: the works of chamber music in 1999. This was followed by A Meaningful Meaningnessless in 2005. In 2007, he released a piano solo album If I Were A Piano, and a second piano solo album called The Three Cornered World in 2009.
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