Coppé
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Coppé (pronounced Co-pa'y, often also typed Coppe') is a Japanese electronic music singer-songwriter and music producer. She has affectionately gained the title of "The Legendary Godmother of Japanese Electronica". She has released fifteen solo albums on her self-owned Mango + Sweetrice label. She released the most acclaimed album of her career, "8", in 2004 .


Early life

Coppé was born and raised in Tokyo. Her real name is Yoshimi, which means pure, good and beautiful in Japanese. She was given the nickname Coppé by her mother because on her birth day she resembled a loaf of bread of the same name. As a child, Coppé travelled frequently between Japan and Hawaii, and also lived for a while in
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. She studied classical piano and ballet from the age of three. As a child she won a "Best Song for Children" of Nihon Record Taisho award (sometimes called "Japanese Grammy") for her song "Peke No Uta", which was released via King Records. She also won a Chibikko Nodojiman award while still in elementary school singing her original song "Red Red Balloon". Also while still a child she began to appear regularly on a weekly NHK TV show "Uta Wa Tomodachi". This led to her getting involved with radio, her first regular show being "All Night Nippon". She later also had shows on FM Tokyo and FM Yokohama. Her English language skills led to her being on an NHK show that teaches English. Other TV shows in which she made regular appearances were TBS's "Jikan Desuyo" and "Ginza Now", NTV's "Shower Gang," and the music program "Poppers MTV," where she interviewed many foreign artists including
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
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. After her father's death, she relocated to
Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...
to be closer to her mother. In Hawaii, she also had a radio program on KIKI AM 83.


Mickey Mouse collector

Coppé also became known as a world class expert and collector of
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goods, mostly
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
related items. She has a vast collection of goods, many from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. In May 2020, Coppé appeared in the
Visual Collaborative Visual Collaborative is an American festival and publishing platform highlighting the intersections of people, commerce, and innovation. Acclaim for its social impact in humanities, it was featured by VOA, for advancing the cause of humanities and ...
electronic catalog, in an issue called ''TwentyEightyFour'', she talks about a
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
piece created in the 30s, which
Lasse Åberg Lars Gunnar Åberg (born 5 May 1940), known professionally as Lasse Åberg, is a Swedish actor, musician, film director and artist. Between 1960 and 1964 he studied at the Konstfack department of graphic design. Åberg has produced some of the m ...
gave to her.


As a musician

While developing as a radio and TV personality, Coppé continued to write and perform original music. In 1995, she retired from commercial radio to devote herself full-time to music creation. That year, Coppé moved to the US, establishing Mango + Sweetrice Records from which she released her first, self-produced and self-titled debut album. Coppé's music references many influences from ambient to noise, but is generally electronic, " IDM" and club oriented. Coppé works with a wide palette of instruments to construct her musical universe. She created her debut album Coppé entirely on a TEAC
Reel-to-Reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is pla ...
, transitioning through
Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...
to the Nord Lead and her current instrument of choice, Teenage Engineering's versatile OP-1. Outside the synth world Coppé employs unconventional instruments including the 5-octave mbira, nail violin, and meatgrinder. Coppé characteristically processes her vocals to create a broad range of effects that she likens to "angels whispering," "colors of the wind," and "orange sorbet sunsets" with equipment including the Digitech 300 and TC helicon. On 27 June 2005, a
Youtube Channel YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...
called "slvgdvg" posted a short-length version of Coppé's music video entitled "I Lick My Brain In Silence." It is the first known music video to be published on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and has more than 30k views as of March 2022. It is only available in 144p quality. Later, Coppé republished the original, full-length version of the same music video on her official YouTube Channel, but with the quality improved to 480p. This video has over 11k views as of March 2022.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
Coppé co-creates with some of the electronic music/IDM scene's most influential artists. These include Plaid, Kettel, Q-Bert, DJ Vadim, Christ (ex-Boards Of Canada), Atom™, Tipsy, Addictive TV, Kelli Ali (ex-Sneaker Pimps), Bola, Modified Toy Orchestra, Sutekh, Kit Clayton, Peanut Butter Wolf, members of Skinny Puppy, Takemura Nobukazu, Barbara Morgenstern, DJ Kensei, Fred moTh, Hifana, Jemapur and more. Coppé performs regularly in Japan and the US, also touring the UK and Europe every autumn since 2010, in collaboration with UK-based Bit-Phalanx Music label since 2011. In 2015, Coppé celebrated the 20th anniversary of Mango + Sweetrice Records with the release of 20rpm. To mark the occasion, Mango + Sweetrice and Bit-Phalanx Music produced an all-day festival of Electronic Music in central London, also called 20rpm, held at St. Giles in the Fields church, Soho. The event featured special guests Plaid, Bola, Kettel, Christ., Barbara Morgenstern, Kelli Ali, Earth Is Flat, DJ Mixmaster Morris, DJ Nick Luscombe and more. 20rpm became an annual event with the second edition in 2016 (21rpm), featuring Graham Massey (808 State), Plaid, Funkstörung, Leila, Luke Vibert, Seefeel, sarasara and DJ Flint Kids. In 2017, Coppé released Milk. Produced with diverse electronic collaborators including Nikakoi, Atom™ and Kettel, Milk re-envisions jazz standards through a prism of contemporary electronic and ambient esthetics. Bleep.com wrote, "The result is an album that at moments could be the incidental ambience from Blade Runner shot through the synth bank of Portishead." Unconventional esthetic statements in collaboration with Japanese fashion designer Comme des Garçons and lyric references to outer space are a unique feature of Coppé's creations. "I feel very comfortable floating, like swimming in the air," she wrote. "I want to live in a clear bubble and meditate singing…like the blue people in the Fantastic Planet by rench animatorRené Laloux." In 2023, Coppé appeared on the UK Top 10 album " Optical Delusion" by UK Electronic band Orbital, featuring on the track 'Moon Princess'.


Discography

Albums: * 1995 "Coppé" * 1997 "O of M with Coppé" * 1999 "Peppermint" * 2000 "Mercury" * 2001 "Papa My Buddha" * 2002 "oTo" * 2003 "Nauru" * 2004 "8" * 2005 "9+10=10th Anniversary!" * 2007 "Fi-lamenté" * 2010 "Artificial Insemination" * 2010 "Coppé In A Pill" * 2011 "Yogurt" * 2012 "Rays" * 2012 "Rays" / "Coppé In A Bloc" * 2012 "Coppe' Who? (Aloha From Mars!)" * 2013 "Void" * 2015 "20rpm" * 2017 "Milk" * 2019 "Na Na Me Na Opera" * 2021 "Mitsu (25rpm)" * 2022 "(Un-)tweaked" Singles: * 1997 "Blue Time Machine" * 2000 "Blue" * 2012 "Forbidden/My Heartbeatz Become Earthquake" * 2020 "Fever (Don't Give Me)" EPs: * 1999 "VAD" * 2013 "Null" DVD: * 2015 "20x20 (20th Anniversary Music Videos)" Tracks appear on: * 1997 "Nigh – Chocolate XTC" * 2001 "Electro-Organinc Vol.1 – Atlantis Is Kushti (Plaid mix)" * 2001 "Rundfunk – Rhythmus Einer Stadt (Oliver Scotoni Und Alex Dallas) – Mark. B...B...B...Gun" * 2008 "52 Weeks – This Is My Cancer" * 2008 "Minicomp 3 – Alien Mermaid" * 2011 "Carry On! – Dusty Tapes & Nuclear Raindrops"


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppe Japanese songwriters Japanese alternative rock musicians Japanese electronica musicians Singers from Tokyo Living people Alternative rock singers Japanese women in electronic music 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers 1967 births