Japanese chanson singer Amita Hachidori and button accordionist Kentaro Tamura thrilled audiences in Sydney last month during their Tokyo Dark Cabaret Tour, including performances at Sean & Dolly’s in Kings Cross and the MoshPit Bar in Erskineville.
Amita has been described as “a brilliant artist and singer who is at once poisonous, gorgeous and provocative” in a fishnet bodystocking.
Chanson is a French music genre characterised by poetic and often melancholic lyrics, accompanied by simple melodies played on piano or accordion. Dark cabaret draws on the aesthetics of burlesque, vaudeville and Weimar-era cabaret.
Amita blends traditional music from around the world with his unique interpretations and Japanese lyrics. His approach is niche in Japan because he scorns the industry’s apprenticeship system and the expectation that he perform wearing expensive suits.
Freeing himself from the restrictions of tradition, he plays about 200 shows a year, touring every prefecture in Japan without interference.
“I believe there is no hierarchy in music. Once you stand on stage, everyone is equal.”
“Through my activities, I want to rewrite the image of chanson – from a snobbish bourgeois hobby back to its original form: a spectacle for the people.”
He said he had reached a point where he wanted his music to be heard by a wider and more diverse audience who could share the “dark world” with him.
“After 17 years of refining my performance in Japan, I have crossed the ocean to Australia to see how far my style, this ‘full-body fishnet dark cabaret’ sung in Japanese, can resonate with the world.”
