ACO

ACO is a female Japanese singer. Born in Aichi prefecture, she made her debut in 1995 with the pop single Fuannano. When she was attending high school at Sugiyama Jogakuen Koutougakkou in Nagoya, she was expelled (unfairly in her opinion). She then used the time to record demos, and sent them to the management label HIT STREET. She was later signed to Sony, and debuted in 1995 with the single Fuan na no.
She explores different musical styles, with the albums absolute ego and material displaying Electronica influences. absolute ego was produced by ex-Denki Groove keyboardist, Yoshinori Sunahara and the other side of absolute ego album contains remixes by Tricky, DJ Krush and Silent Poets, among others.
In 2003, after a 2 year hiatus, she enlisted the help of the avant-garde audio-visual performance group portable[k]ommunity for her quieter, more delicate album, irony. When ACO is not busy performing and producing music with some of the world’s top musical acts, she enjoys laid-back travelling. “I’d like to go to LA – it’s really laid-back, and I could just relax there,” explains Aco. “I’ll go skateboarding!”
ACO steadily released from 1995-1998, releasing three albums and six singles; however none of these charted very high (the highest being Lady Soul at #33). It was not until her collaboration with Dragon Ash, Grateful Days feat. ACO, ZEEBRA, until she hit stardom. This song reached #1 on Oricon charts and eventually after seventeen weeks sold 922,000 copies. This new found fame did not help her solo efforts terribly much (her next single after the collaboration, Ai Shita Anata wa Tsuyoi Hito, broke the top 50). It was her preceding single before the release of her fourth album, Yorokobi ni Saku Hana, which became her first hit single and first solo top 10 release (it had been used as the theme song to the drama Suna no Ue no Koibito-tachi). The album, absolute ego, sold in excess of 100,000 copies.
Her following album in 2001, material, featured a change in genre by her. Instead of pop/R&B, she had switched towards a more alternative and ambient sound. This new album was produced by Sunahara Yoshinori of Denki Groove, as well as overseas producers Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald. After a two year hiatus, ACO returned with the Múm-produced single Machi, and following album irony; which further developed her alternative sound.
ACO formed a band in Germany in 2005 with Sawai Taeji from portable[k]ommunity called “Golden Pink Arrow♂”. Currently the band have only performed live, with their most recent performance being on the 26th of July, 2007. At their official MySpace they offer downloads of demo versions of four songs: head trip, Crazy Quilt, plastic case and a cover of Madonna’s Material Girl, titled Material Gxxl.
In 2006 ACO released her first mini-album, Mask, which once again featured a genre change from her. This mini-album was compiled of upbeat electronica songs.
Official Website: http://acoaco.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ACOANNANN

ACO