Baiser

Baiser (French for kiss) was a Japanese visual kei rock band formed in 1991 by vocalist Yukari. They played concerts in the Tokyo area before debuting on an independent label in 1994.

History

The original line-up for Baiser featured Hiderou and Akane on guitar, and Haiji on bass. Gaz (former drummer of Malice Mizer) was their support drummer until 1993, when he was replaced by Akihiro. In 1993 they released their first demo tape "Daraku", distributing only 100 copies. Their second demo tape, "Fleurs des Fleurs", was released a year later. In 1994 they released their first album, Seppun Kuchizuke.

In 1995, Akihiro was replaced by Toshimi. Following this change, Baiser recorded their second album, Ash. It reached number two on Oricon's independent album chart. They also released the video Pictures, which they did everything by themselves, such as; filming, scripting, editing and mixing. That year, a few of their songs appeared on compilation albums such as Sacred Seed, Turn Over Eagle Vision and Turn Over Crow Vision.

Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria ( American pronunciation , also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of theatre which used a modified magic lantern to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection. The projector was mobile, allowing the projected image to move and change size on the screen, and multiple projecting devices allowed for quick switching of different images. Invented in France by a Belgian physicist in the late 18th century, it gained popularity through most of Europe (especially England) throughout the 19th century.

History

The magic lantern has been credited to both Athanasius Kircher and Christiaan Huygens both in the mid-17th century. Kircher's device consisted of a lantern with a candle and concave mirror inside. A tube was fitted into the side of the lantern and held convex lenses at either end. Near the center of the tube, a glass slide of the image to be projected was held. Huygens' magic lantern has been described as the predecessor of today's slide projector and the forerunner of the motion picture projector. Images were hand painted onto the glass slide until the mid-19th century when photographic slides were employed. Though Huygens' magic lantern was often used for amusement by projecting quaint and pastoral imagery, phantoms, devils, and other macabre objects were also sometimes projected, thus giving rise to phantasmagoria.

Phantasmagoria (Curved Air album)

Phantasmagoria is a 1972 album by Curved Air. It reached No. 20 in the UK Charts and is notable for its early use of the EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer to process lead singer Sonja Kristina's voice on the second side. Unavailable for many years, the album was reissued on CD in April 2007.

Reception

Allmusic called Phantasmagoria "the culmination of all that Curved Air promised over the course of its predecessors" and "the band's grandest hour by far". Their review praised the vast majority of the individual tracks, especially complimenting the blending of musical styles and absence of pretentiousness.

Track listing

Side One

Side Two

Phantasmagoria (band)

Phantasmagoria was a visual kei rock band formed in November 2004 in Osaka, Japan by Kisaki, the executive of Under Code Production, a popular independent label.

History

Phantasmagoria was formed in November 2004 and their first single "Material Pain" was released in the music magazine Shoxx on December 21 of the same year. The following day the group released its first Maxi-single, "Moonlight Revival".

Phantasmagoria was featured on the cover of well-known visual kei magazine Cure, one month after their formation, becoming one of the fastest-rising indie bands to appear on the cover of a magazine.

During the 2010 Under Code Production's New Year's live, Phantasmagoria was once again revived to perform. Along with their revival, the band released a mini-album and a single which contained songs the band had written while they were active but never released. The EP, entitled Seeds of Brain, contained four new songs, whereas the new single, "Diamond Dust", contained the title track and an instrumental version. In an interview with Shoxx magazine, Kisaki stated "Although we created the songs a while back, we never released them. We included those for hardcore fans who want to listen to all our songs. This is our last release; although I'm not sure if that sounds convincing [grins]. But this time around it's really the end." On April 5, the band had their last official live and Kisaki announced his newest band, "凛 -the end of corruption world-," the day after. As of now, Phantasmagoria's last release is another collection of unreleased songs entitled Actuality, which was released in two versions on June 16, 2010.