Akiko Shikata is a genre-defying soprano singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose songs range from neofolk to avant-garde, world music, symphonic metal, folktronica (with a bit of industrial influence), new age or dark ambient.
Her style could be defined as neoclassical, with a deep tendency to experimentation. Most songs have a medieval-ish or celtic feel, and she tends to use her voice as an instrument, using many layers and oddities such as dissociated choirs, or using very different vocals within the same song (she has three very distinct singing styles: a deep low-pitched voice, a sweet, almost child-like voice, and her regular powerful soprano vocals).

Shikata is known for using several languages in her songs; although Japanese and Italian are the most frequent (she has been writing and singing in Italian since her debut) she also has a bunch of songs in unusual languages such as Uyghur, Turkish, Greek, Ainu or Tibetan, but also French, English or German, as well as Hymmnos, the made-up language created for the Ar-Tonelico game series.

She was born January 7 and works for several labels including the quite underground neoclassical/folk label HATS, and FrontierWorks. She founded her own indie circle, Vagrancy, in 2001, through which she has been releasing several albums in addition to her solo works.

Shikata also contributed to several game soundtracks: Shadow Hearts from the New World, the Ar-Tonelico series and the Umineko no naku koro ni visual novels. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.