Soft Ballet

  Vocals: Ryoichi Endo
  Keyboard/Programming: Ken Morioka
  Guitar/Keyboard/Programming: Maki Fujii

  Started: 1986
  Status: Disbanded

Profile

Stated as an influence by musicians such as RYONAI (Blam Honey), Hora (ex-Schwarz Stein, Another Cell, solo), Pride of Mind and Velvet Eden, electro-industrial/Synth Pop band Soft Ballet formed in 1986 consisting of three members, Ryoichi Endo, Ken Morioka and Maki Fujii. It wasn’t until September 1989, however, that they made their major debut on ALFA RECORDS and released their first album "Earth Born". This was then followed by the albums "Document" in 1990 and "Ai to heiwa" in 1991.

Soft Ballet released their first 5 singles, 3 albums and 4 videos through ALFA, before changing to Victor in 1992. The first album to be released through Victor was "Million Mirrors" in October of 1992 and after that, "Incubate" was released in 1993.

In 1994 Ken Morioka released his first solo album titled "Questions", but also remained active with Soft Ballet, including a live with Luna Sea and Buck-Tick that year called "LSB". Maki Fujii was also in a side project called "Schaft" with Imai from Buck-Tick and Raymond Watts from PIG at this time.

The band announced that they were to disband at a live in NHK Hall in April 1995. Despite the sudden announcement of their disbanding, Soft Ballet released the album "Form" in April 1995 and continued with the tour, but ceased all activities after their final live in July of that year. "The Ultimate Best of Soft Ballet" was then released in September 1995.

Although Soft Ballet had disbanded, they did release another album, ŗ [drai] + 3" in 1996. Their official status, however, remained inactive. Ken Morioka continued with his solo project, Ryoichi Endo also worked on his own solo project "Ends" and Maki Fujii became a member of the band She Shell.

In August 2002 Soft Ballet re-formed and played at Summer Sonic and released their first album for 6 years entitled "Symbiont". They then released another album "Menopause" in October 2003 before finally disbanding again in December at a live in Shibuya. After that two "best ofc" albums were released; "SOFT BALLET DVD e92~’95" and "SOFT BALLET 1989 ? 1991 the CLIPS +", both in December 2003. The members are currently continuing writing and performing music with their respective solo projects.

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Thoughts

Soft Ballet were a really great synth pop band. Just as you can tell that they were influenced by Depeche Mode and other British electro bands from the 80s, it’s easy to hear that Soft Ballet influenced quite a few other artists. Their use of synths and guitars worked really well together with their lyrics, which were in a mix of Japanese and English and sometimes political, but always interesting. Endo’s powerful, smooth and distinctive vocals completed the sound and made Soft Ballet stand out amongst other electronic bands.
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Music Samples:

Need a player like Windows MP that can read wma files to listen!

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Pictures

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Discography

Albums
Earth Born
Document
Ai to heiwa
Million Mirrors
Incubate
Form
The Ultimate Best of Soft Ballet
3 [drai] + 3
Symbiont
Menopause
SOFT BALLET 1989-1991 the BEST
SOFT BALLET 1992-1995 the BEST + 8 other mixes

Singles
Body to Body
TWIST OF LOVE
ESCAPE-Rebuild
EGO DANCE
FINAL
ENGAGING UNIVERSE
WHITE SHAMAN
YOU
THRESHOLD
Merchen Diver
BRIGHT MY WAY
SMASHING THE SUN

Links

Official Site by Warner Music

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