Artists of ethereal wave/neoclasical dark wave?
 

Yo everyone! here i go again asking suggestions. This time tho i specifically KNOW what i WANT.lol
I am looking for musicians/singers/bands with strong vocals (preferably female) from a rather unpopular genre of music - ethereal wave or neoclasical dark wave. You know the music that would pretty much fit movies of fantasy adventure. Epic stuff. It can have folk, rock influence too but not too much.It can be in either chinese, japanese or korean(would be surprised lol). The only thing i ask to be exact is STRONG VOCALS or if they are something of the unearthly sound, then that's fine. Anyways if you still have no idea what i'm talking about, here have a few examples. These are all by KOKIA.







so if anyone has thei fave stuff, please do share!! :D

I love KOKIA!

I would suggest you listen to RURUTIA or Kalafina.

RURUTIA songs
-Seirios
-Hallelujah

Kalafina songs
-Oblivious
-progression

idk if they fit your description...lol

I always forget about Rurutia. I miss her.

I was thinking maybe Akino Arai...but her songs might be...too much on the mellow dream pop side.

I think all of the people I like are too mellow and relaxing for an epic adventure lol

like this one, which I love just because of the vocals and harmonies.

Thanks for this thread! I've been looking for these kinds of artist beside KOKIA and Rurutia, but I forgotten lol

Oh yeah, where can I find Eiko Shimamiya and Akino Arai's material?

Jpopsuki is the *best* place tbh. They have like everything.

It's also the best place for finding similar artists, since they have the little similar artists maps.

gosh RURUTIA ALMOST hit it ALMOST, it's a shame i could not just listen through the whole stuff because of her vocals =/

as for Kalafina i've heard them before, but never got into them somehow... It's so difficult for me in japoanese music to find vocals that wouldn't annoy me m(_ _)m

@emi: Eiko's isn't bad, i actually enjoyed it! the rest tho is a bit pop-y yes, and too um electro (?) for me.... but sank you for sugestions!

also i found this Akiko Shikata, she is basicly all THAT except...great instrumentals, rather annoying vocals, but someone else who's looking for simmilar stuff might end up liking.

^ I had the same problem with Kalafina and Akiko Shikata :|

Honestly, I had a feeling you weren't gonna dig her due to her vocals but I was praying maybe you'll just ignore that and fall in love with her arrangements LOL

^and it made me mad it was such a tease lol because i loved the instrumentals/alangements!

also i accidently bumped into lastfm page of simmilar artists to KOKIA and i found a couple that are quite good o is terms of style, but again vocals failed on me lol however i'm leaving the names here: Nagi Yanagi, Hitomi Kuroishi.

Also this Yuki Kajiura is pretty good, and the vocals aren't annoying for my ears even tho as far as i understood she rarelly does the vocals usually has a vocalist to do the singing - "canta per me" ; "everytime you kissed me" ; "fake wings" ; "I talk to te rain" .. there are a lot of instrumentals tho and i gotta say they are pretty gorgeous. Just go through this playlist instead and listen, it's really good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COhdh...0C89B343F98F8C it isn't hitting home exactly, but I'm almost loving every single track that starts!

Have you checked ALI PROJECT ? their style is consist mainly of neoclassical darkwave songs. I like some of their songs but I admit that's somewhat special for people who listen to pop music

^i think i'll check it out. I'm liking what i hear, and the voice is pretty listenable, not amazing but listenable. So that's for a suggestion!

This thread is exactly what I've been searching for. I've also discovered Akiko Shikata very recently and her music is really interesting....BUT (why there has always to be a but??) her voice is kinda annoying in some songs...finally, I decided to download an album to try her out.

I would suggest Sound Horizon, they're like my favorite band when it comes to neoclassical/opera/rock stuff, especially that they also carry stories/meaningful messages in each of their albums, making them more interesting.

Here are some of my favorites from them:

Yoiyami no Uta (the first one):
http://mp3juices.com/search/Sound-Ho...Yoiyami-no-Uta

Hikari to Yami no Douwa (also the first one):
http://mp3juices.com/search/Sound-Ho...-Yami-No-Douwa

Arasoi no Keifu:
http://mp3.zing.vn/bai-hat/Arasoi-no.../ZWZAEUDA.html

(sorry that i couldn't find youtube videos of 'em, their label seem to delete everything so I hope the links work for you ^^; )

^Oh yes so much on Sound Horizon, they're (well it's Revo mostly lol) really talented and interesting!
Their music is dark sometimes cheerful, eerie, sad and mysterious with epic sounds here and there :D
They incorporate multiple singers in their releases with stories in each songs or the whole album as a story book, and their live is like musical crossover with cosplay!

Oh yeah, they made Bravely Default OST and Shingeki no Kyojin OP theme under the name of Linked Horizon

Miisan had put links to their dark neoclassical rock songs, I'll put some ballads then

Kono Semai Torikago no Naka de (Vocal by Joelle)
here

Hana ga Chiru Sekai (Vocal by Joelle)


Yorokobi to Kanashimi no Budoushu (Vocal by REMI)


11 Moji no Dengon (Vocal Rikki, the singer for FFX Suteki Da Ne)

^Good choices, especially that the album Roman is one of my favorites by them :)

I especially love REMI's voice but yeah, I hope you, artcika, find what you want in a voice, especially that Sound Horizon members change constantly.

^^^what's up with german in those songs? o_O also i could not load the last website. um I've listened to the first two and.... something is missing for me, i dunno. it didn't really got me at all. Tha Joelle has a lovelly voice, tho.

and gosh my internet is so slow that i cannot load anything properly and it is getting on my nerves, but thanks for suggestions, i'll check the rest out when my patience levels won't be so low... >|

Does Maaya Sakamoto counts? She's mostly an anime singer but i think her songs can have an epic presence and her vocals can be nice like in Gravity and kiseki no umi. Kiseki no umi sounds quite epic!

^ Kiseki No Umi sounds nice, it's close enough.

Maybe try Faye Wong's Fable album? The first half of the album is very dark :luv2

It's not asian, but I hope you know of Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows. Her music is fantastic and she sings mostly in english, but sometimes in german.

@MiiSan
I LOVE REMI! I miss all of the old members so much, but Joelle is an awesome addition to the team :)

It came from their 7th album, Marchen. It spins several German based fairytales and folklores and make it into a much darker one, connected with a base story that Revo created. It pretty much a Halloween album filled with tragedy and horror :D

Their 5th Album is stories based in France so they incorporate French in the lyric, their 6th album is based in Greece and Greek myth so they utilize some Greek elements

Ever tried SingerSen?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fy9d6uClNs

She's awesome..I've been a fan for a year now. Even if she has a small discography, I must confess it's full of gems. I love almost all her songs :luv2..too bad that she didn't release The World In My Eyes in physical format...I would have purchased it. Can't wait to hear new music from her! Hopefully soon!

^ I think she will release an album soon ^^ or at least I hope so. I found her album "the world in my eyes" as a reccomandation on jpopsuki and fell in love with it even though I don't usually listen to chinese pop. But this dark-electro feeling...I love it. Sirens is one of my favourite♥

I'm glad you like it :D.. My faves are Asura, Wolf and also Dust. In fact I love all of them with the exception of Ghost Street, that song makes no sense on an dark experimental album. It is too mainstream.

^ totally AGREE. I like that song, but it doesn't make sense on the album. Especially after blue jellyfish. I think that it is made to be mainstream, as there is also an english version of it. They probably wanted to see if it could break into US pop market? it seems like a song katy perry could make. XD

Pssst~~~ There's a SingerSen thread :)

sorry for going OT! using the thread from now on, gomen ne.