Biography
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Years Active
1986 – 2003 (17 years)
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Members
- 森岡賢 (1986 – 2003)
- 藤井麻輝 (1986 – 2003)
- 遠藤遼一 (1986 – 2003)
Soft Ballet was a Japanese industrial and synthpop band. The group consisted of three members: Maki Fujii, Ken Morioka, and Ryoichi Endo, although they would employ extra support members for live shows.
They formed in 1989 and had a long span of inactivity from 1995 to 2002 while the members pursued solo projects. The group had considered reforming for some time, but Maki had been the last holdout. Finally in 2002, the trio came to an agreement and Soft Ballet officially reunited. They made their return to the stage at the 2002 Summer Sonic Festival, and began recording together for the first time since 1995. The resulting album, Symbiont, showcased an updated sound, taking advantage of the leaps in digital music technology that had occurred since they last worked together. The album was a moderate success, but the wave of popularity that the band was riding when they broke up had now passed. The band played a handful of live dates through the end of 2002 and toured again at the start of 2003, and released a new single, "Bright My Way". In the final quarter of 2003, Soft Ballet released Menopause which is their final album. After embarking on one final tour in December, Soft Ballet disbanded again on December 17, 2003. This final show was filmed by the crew, and later released to DVD in 2013.
Soft Ballet's sound is similar to late-'80s New Wave bands such as New Order. They were occasionally political; their album Love and Peace was largely a criticism of the United States' involvement in the Gulf War. For their 2002 album Symbiont, the band updated their sound to take advantage of more modern synthesizer technology while maintaining the aggressive atmosphere of their previous albums.
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