Kotoko

Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Kotoko Horikawa—performing as KOTOKO—works as a lucid-voiced electronic J-pop singer and songwriter. She chased a vocal career from early childhood onward, submitting to repeated auditions before earning a 2000 place among several female vocalists in the trance outfit I've Sound, a group noted for its video game music and anime series theme songs. Her debut album, Sora o Tobetara, appeared that same year. After joining the Geneon Universal Entertainment imprint Rondorobe in 2004, she issued her second J-pop album, Hane, which reworked much of the earlier material. The releases that followed were Garasu no Kaze in 2005, Umu-maki in 2006, and Epsilon no Fune in 2009. Under her media contract she supplied numerous songs for video games and anime series, among them the opening themes for Hayate the Combat Butler and the techno-steeped song “Screw” for the 2009 live-action film Assault Girls. She exited Rondorobe and I've Sound in 2010, then signed with Warner in 2011. Hiraku Uchu Poketto reached stores that autumn and was succeeded by Kuchu Puzzle in 2013.