BAROQUE (previously stylized as Baroque and baroque) was a Japanese rock band originally formed in 2001.baroque's Biography at CD Journal
Retrieved August 27, 2007Bounce ''Di(s)ctionary Number 13 - Visual Kei''
Retrieved November 19, 2008 Originally signed to S'Cube, a sub-division of the independent record label

Free-Will is an independent Japanese independent record label, record label founded in 1986 by Color (band), Color vocalist Hiroshi "Dynamite Tommy" Tomioka, with branches predominantly in Japan and the United States, as well as previously in Europe. Th ...

, the band later switched to the company's Firewall Division, with distribution handled by

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

. After releasing two albums, along with a

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

compilation, several singles and

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

releases, baroque disbanded in 2004. They became the newest band to play at the prestigious

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...

after just two years and three months into their career.''伝説のバンドbaroque（バロック）、完全無料ライブで復活か？'' Barks Retrieved September 19, 2015
/ref> They have also been credited as one of the bands that started oshare kei,Oshare kei
Retrieved August 3, 2012 a subgenre of

visual kei , abbreviated , is a category of Japanese musicians that have a strong focus on extravagant stage costumes that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Koji Dejima of '' Bounce'' wrote that visual kei is not a specific sound, but rather it " ...

that features more colorful outfits and utilizes upbeat and "happy" music. baroque reunited for a free concert in 2011 and fully restarted activities in January 2012. That same month, baroque became the first independent band to have three of the top five positions on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

's main chart. However, bassist Bansaku left the group several months later and guitarist Akira followed in 2013, leaving only the duo of vocalist ryo and guitarist Kei.

History

2001–2004: Formation and disbandment

baroque was formed in May 2001 by guitarist Akira and bassist Bansaku, after vocalist ryo and guitarist Kei joined in June, they had their first concert in August. The following month saw the demo "Hitei Derikashi" released and around the same time drummer Naru joined.''baroque Biography'' JAME Retrieved September 19, 2015
/ref> The band released the mini-album ''Tokyo Stripper'' at their first one-man concert on January 12, 2002. However, Naru left the band in March and was replaced by Yuji.
/ref> Even thou they were still an independent band, baroque was able to play at

NHK Hall The NHK Hall is a concert hall located at the NHK Broadcasting Center, the main headquarters of Japan's Public broadcasting, public broadcaster NHK. The hall is the main venue for the NHK Symphony Orchestra, but it has also played host to other e ...

and Akasaka Blitz. They signed to a major label in Spring 2003, however, Yuji officially left the band in May 2003 due to problems with his brain/memory. Retrieved August 20, 2007 Their first major single was July 2003's "Gakidou".''Personal Interview Part 1'' Arena 27c Special - Vol 013 August 2003 pg 3 - 25 When baroque went major, their sound shifted and included a drum machine; also their style shifted to casual clothing.baroque's page at ''Visunavi''
Retrieved August 20, 2007 Their second major single "Ila" (2004) particularly had a trance/electronica sound. After an August 20, 2003 concert at the

, which made baroque the fastest band to play the prestigious venue after just two years and three months of activity, Kei was arrested due to a drunken fight with the venue crew. Their single was delayed, several concerts cancelled, and their website temporarily closed. After resuming activities and releasing several singles in 2004, Akira was temporarily hospitalized, resulting in more concert cancellations. In August, Bansaku announced he was resigning. On September 11, two days after the release of their first album ''Sug Life'', baroque announced that they would break up, but they continued activities through the rest of the year.Official Website Announcement
Retrieved April 2, 2006
Retrieved April 2, 2006 Their last concert was a sold-out performance at

Zepp The Zepp music halls are a group of Japanese music venues covering every area of the country. They play host to many international tours and are a popular stop among Japanese musicians. Each venue takes the Zepp name, along with the city in whic ...

Tokyo on December 25, 2004, titled "baroque Last Live Mumirai -No Future-". Vocalist ryo and guitarist Kei then reformed their previous band Kannivalism in 2006,''Cure'' magazine, Volume 30, March, released 2006.1.21 pg 38 while Bansaku and Akira formed boogieman in 2007.

2011–2013: Reunion and the disappearance of Bansaku

baroque consisting of ryo, Kei, Bansaku and Akira reunited for a free live, titled "Odai ha Kekkou Irimasenkara", on July 17, 2011, at Yokohama Red Brick.baroque comes back with first live in seven years
Retrieved September 29, 2011 An estimated 10,000 fans attended. On September 28, 2011, they announced that they would fully restart activities at a live called "baroque Re: First Live in Future" on January 6, 2012, at Zepp Tokyo.baroque officially announces their revival
Retrieved September 29, 2011 On January 4, they released three singles, "Rinzen Identity", "Mono Dorama" and "Teeny-Tiny Star".baroque Entering ORICON Weekly Top 5 with all 3 Singles at Once!
Retrieved January 12, 2012 The singles reached third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, on the

chart, making baroque the first independent band to have three of the top five positions on the majors' chart. They then went on a nationwide tour in March, followed by a

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

tour in April. On June 26, baroque posted on their website that bassist Bansaku had been missing since June 24.Update on baroque's Bassist Missing
Retrieved August 3, 2012 The band notified the police and even retitled their tour to "Search for Bansaku". A month later, on July 30, a message was posted on their website stating that a representative of Bansaku's contacted the band saying he was safe, but due to his health has decided to leave baroque.
Retrieved August 3, 2012 As the message was not from Bansaku himself, the other members stated that they were trying to arrange a meeting with him in person. However, at a later date, they officially accepted Bansaku's exit from the band. The members announced that it was due to "his private issue". Following Bansaku's exit, in the end of 2012, Akira stepped away from the band's activities during the production of the album ''Non Fiction'' and officially left the band at a later date. Since then, baroque became a duo consisting of Ryo and Kei supported by touring/recording members. Kei stated that “we won't add any permanent member from here on”.

2014–present

In February 2014, the band capitalized its name as BAROQUE. On May 27, 2015, they released ''PLANETARY SECRET'', the first album as a duo. On October 26, 2016, a single "Girl" was released inviting ken from L'Arc-en-Ciel as the first external producer for the band. It was followed by two singles "AN ETERNITY" and "FLOWER OF ROMANCE" released on July 24, 2018. On releasing the album ''PLANETARY SECRET'', the band organized a preview event at a planetarium featuring planets as the motif of the album. Since then, the band aggressively takes conceptual approaches to their live events such as the concert allowing audiences to take photos with their smartphone and share them on SNS, the concert featuring live paintings, a 360° concert installing a round stage in the center of audiences, and the concert featuring a performance of a flower artist. On April 30, 2019, "VISION OF // PEP" was held a
Nihombashi Mitsui Hall
the first concert at a hall since they became a duo. At this concert, the songs of the upcoming album ''PUER ET PUELLA'' were unveiled prior to its release. On July 13, 2019, the talk and preview event for the album was held. The band undertook the tour "THE BIRTH OF LIBERTY" with a total of 21 venues across Japan starting from July 24 at Nagoya E.L.L. Their 4th album ''PUER ET PUELLA'' (Latin words for "boys and girls") was released on July 30, 2019, that includes the three preceding singles. It was a long-awaited album after an interval of four years and two months since the release of the previous album ''PLANETARY SECRET''. On November 1, 2019, while the band intensively carried on their live concerts, they suddenly started mysterious countdown on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. On the stroke of the midnight on November 2, they announced that the new album ''SIN DIVISION'' would be released in January next year. The fans and people around them were very surprised at the news because it was announced in the middle of the tour for the previous album that had been released only four months before then. On January 10, 2020, "THE BIRTH OF LIBERTY" tour's final concert was held a
Harmony Hall Zama
which was a triumphant return concert for Kei. On January 28, 2020, the album ''SIN DIVISION'' was released. With the completion of this album, they accomplished “the three albums we decided to produce when we became a duo”, according to Kei. These three albums are often referred to as a black book for ''PLANETARY SECRET'' (PS), a white book for ''PUER ET PUELLA'' (PEP), and a red book for ''SIN DIVISION'' (SD). The concert tour for ''SIN DIVISION'' was scheduled starting from February 2020. However, the band had to postpone the tour because of the self-restraint request by the government under the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On April 3, 2020, the band uploaded a music video with a demo recording of the new song "STAY" on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The entire movie was produced by Ryo and Kei using online communication tools while completely staying at home under the

. The lyrics are entirely in English composed by Ryo and Kei. While the band were recording the full version of the music, they invited their fans to post photos or comments on "what they think precious, what they want to protect, or what they love" on

and LINE OPENCHAT. These photos and comments were compiled into the movie and released with the full version of the music.https://note.com/line_openchat/n/n6a0758329c08 LINE OPENCHAT. note

Members

* –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

(2001–2004, 2011, 2012–present) * – guitar (2001–2004, 2011, 2012–present) ;Former members * –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(2001–2002) * – drums (2002–2003) * –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(2001–2004, 2011, 2012) * –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

(2001–2004, 2011, 2012–2013)

Discography

;Albums * ''Sug Life'' (September 9, 2004) Oricon Weekly Album Chart Top Position: No. 31''baroque Album Ranking''
Retrieved Nov 12, 2010 * No. 7 * ''Planetary Secret'' (May 27, 2015) No. 73 * ''PUER ET PUELLA'' (July 30, 2019) * ''SIN DIVISION'' (January 28, 2020) ;Mini albums & EPs * * ''Embrace'' (March 12, 2021) ;Compilation Albums * ''Brq 2001-2004'' (December 12, 2004) No. 55 * ''Complete Collection 2001-2004'' (April 3, 2013) No. 57 ;Singles * * * "Chaplin" (February 5, 2003) Oricon Weekly Single Chart Top Position: No. 23''baroque Single Ranking''
Retrieved Nov 12, 2010 * No. 14 * "ila." (April 7, 2004) No. 17 * No. 18 * "Nutty a Hermit" (July 28, 2004) No. 28 * No. 3 * No. 4 * "Teeny-Tiny Star" (January 4, 2012) No. 5 * No. 7 * No. 9 * 10 * 10 * "GIRL" (October 26, 2016) * "An Eternity" (July 24, 2018) * "Flower of Romance" (July 24, 2018) * "You" (December 25, 2018) * "Stay" (April 25, 2020) ;Videos * * * ''Brq DVD'' (December 15, 2004) Oricon Weekly DVD Chart Top Position: No. 55''baroque DVD Ranking''
Retrieved July 18, 2013 * ''Clip Collection'' (March 23, 2005) No. 130 * No. 112 * ''Re:First Live In Future 2012.1.6 Live at Tokyo Dome City Hall'' (April 25, 2012) No. 87 * No. 53 * No. 58 * ''BAROQUE SPECIAL FILMING LIVE FOR BLU-RAY DISC OPEN YOUR WORLD AND SEE THE LIGHT oon' (August 12, 2015) * ''ALL OF THE LOVE, ALL OF THE DREAM -LIVE at DIFFER ARIAKE 2017.12.25-'' (June 26, 2018) * ''LIVE Blu-ray & DVD VISIONS OF // PEP LIVE at NIHONBASHI MITSUI HALL 2019.04.30-'' (December 25, 2019)

References

External links

Official website

Official Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baroque Visual kei musical groups Japanese rock music groups Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups disestablished in 2004 Musical groups reestablished in 2011 Musical groups reestablished in 2012 Japanese musical duos 2001 establishments in Japan Rock music duos