Koenji Hyakkei

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高円寺百景
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genre(s)	Zeuhl, Progressive Rock
Years active	1991–present
Label(s)	Magaibutsu (Japan) Skin Graft Records (North America)
Website	Koenji Hyakkei's Official Site (English)
Members
Yoshida Tatsuya (drums, vocals) Sakamoto Kengo (bass, vocals) Yabuki Takashi (keyboards) Kubota Aki (vocals) Komori Keiko (reeds, vocals)
Former members
Masada Ryuichi Kuwahara Shigekazu Harada Jin Oguchi Kenichi Sagara Nami Kanazawa Miyako Yamamoto Kyoko

Koenji Hyakkei (高円寺百景, Koenji Hyakkei^? "Hundred Sights of Koenji"), also known as Koenjihyakkei, is a Japanese Zeuhl band led by Yoshida Tatsuya of Ruins fame. The band released their first (self-titled) album in 1994 with Aki Kubota from Bondage Fruit on vocals and keyboard. Though rhythmically not as complex as Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei still evokes a feeling of unfamiliarity due to non-standard modes and chanting in a nonsensical language.

Although Yoshida is the only consistent member of the band, Sakamoto Kengo has been on bass from their second album onwards. With new members, the band changes sounds completely, shifting from folky Prog rock to minimalism to Jazz fusion with the inclusion of Komori Keiko on reeds (usually soprano saxophone) on their album Angherr Shisspa.

It is planned that Koenji Hyakkei will perform for NEARfest this year.

1 History
2 Romanization
3 Language
4 Discography
5 Videography
6 References

[edit] History

Very little is known about the history of Koenji Hyakkei. Some have speculated that Yoshida keeps biographical information to a minimum in order to sustain a mystique. Former vocalist Kubota Aki (who has returned to the band in 2007) is originally from the Koenji area of Tokyo, which is the only real lead on the origin of the name.

[edit] Romanization

There is no standard way of romanizing the name 高円寺百景. Official sources write it as Koenji Hyakkei, Koenjihyakkei, KoenjiHyakkei, Koenji-Hyakkei, and others. The first two of the previous list tend to be the most common.

[edit] Language

There is no official word regarding the language that Koenji Hyakkei songs are sung in. For the most part, lyrics are reminiscent of Christian Vander's Kobaïan language (a notable exception is the song Zoltan from their self-titled album, which is a Kyrie). It is unlikely, though, that there is any meaning in the words. There are very few words shorter than four letters, and almost no instances of words repeated in more than one phrase. Additionally, spelling conventions and pronunciation vary between albums or songs, making it unlikely that the entire set of lyrics are meant to represent a single language.