The Sound of Flowers

Kanon Wakeshima was introduced to music at an early age, learning to play the cello when she was just three years old. In junior high school, she formed a cello duo and by the time she was fifteen she was playing baroque cello as part of classical ensembles.

At the same time, she also became interested in J-pop and started to sing. She soon began to write her own songs and, feeling more comfortable with her cello than a keyboard, added cello melodies to accompany her voice. At the age of 16, she sang for the first time publicly at a festival of her senior high school.

In 2007, she entered an audition held by Sony and, as one of the finalists, signed a contract with its subsidiary DefSTAR Records. The young artist soon attracted the attention of fellow classical music lover Mana, who was intrigued by the fact that she sings while also playing cello, as well as her mature, yet childlike personality, and decided to become her producer.

Her debut single, still doll, was released in May 2008. The song was used as the ending theme of the anime series "Vampire Knight" and Kanon actually starred as a voice actress in one of the early episodes, playing a maid. In September, she participated in the Individual Fashion EXPO IV, hosted by the department store MARUIONE, where she performed still doll, and in October she released her second single, Suna no oshiro, which was used as ending theme for the second season of "Vampire Knight". The following month, she gave another live performance at the Laforet Underground Party, where she also revealed that she would release her first album, Shinshoku Dolce, early the following year.

To celebrate the European release of Shinshoku Dolce on the French label Wasabi Records in February 2009, Kanon travelled to Paris together with Mana, who had written and produced the album. There, she had a brief solo performance and Q&A session in the FNAC record shop on the Champs-Élysées. The following day, she gave her first mini concert outside Japan at the club La Bellevoise, only to return in July to participate in the annual Japan Expo. In the same month, on the occasion of the US release of her album, she also traveled to America where she performed at the anime convention Otakon in Baltimore, as well as at the Royal/T Cafe in Los Angeles. Moreover, she was voted Newcomer Of The Year 2009 by the US anime magazine Shojo Beat after receiving 45% of the votes.

On 9 August, finally, Japanese fans were treated to her first one man, Kaiga-teki ongaku-kai, at Shibuya O-West where apart from songs from Shinshoku Dolce she also performed an interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bachs Cello Suite Nr.1 Prélude and offered some of her paintings for sale. In September it was announced that her new song Toumei no kagi would be used for the online game AVALON no kagi and in October she performed at Hellween Night 2009, an event sponsored by VAMPS. On this occasion, she wore a dress from the lolita fashion label Baby the Stars Shine Bright; it was the beginning of an official collaboration with this brand.

In February 2010 she performed at the [~Butou-Kai~ Cool Japan Style] Dance-Party, which was hosted by the fashion magazine KERA. July saw the release of her second album, Lolitawork Libretto, for which she had again written the lyrics. This time she had also composed seven of the thirteen songs it contained; the others, including LOLITAWORK LIBRETTO -Storytelling by solita-, a collaboration with the French vocalist Solita, were again composed by Mana. Like its predecessor, the new album was released in Japan, Europe and the US. In October she presented the new songs at her second One Man at the Laforet Museum in Harajuku.

With Mana having stepped back from freelance composing and producing in order to concentrate on his own band, Moi dix Mois, the young vocalist now teamed up with her namesake Kanon, whose band An Cafe had gone on hiatus in early 2010, to form the "genius musical unit from the 2.5th dimension" kanon x kanon. The title was a reference to the project's commitment to creating anime songs since, according to DefSTAR, the 2.5th dimension lies between the real world (3D) and the world of Anime (2D). Their first single, Calendula Requiem, which was released in November 2010, was used as the new opening theme for the TV horror anime series "Shiki" (Corpse Demon) and the PV was shown on the cartoon TV channel AT-X.

In February 2011, the illustrations Kanon had been posting on her blog were released as a book titled Flower Sound Orchestra. In June kanon x kanon released their second single, Koi no dotei. It was be used as the intro theme of the TV anime series "30-sai no hoken taiiku", which dealt with health and physical education for men over thirty. In July, the duo made its long awaited international debut as Guests of Honor at the AM² anime, music and manga convention in Anaheim, California, where Kanon also played a solo concert. In the same month, she performed at HYPER JAPAN in London and the AGCHK convention in Hong Kong.

Upon her return to Japan, she announced a series of three concerts entitled The strange treat!. Each concert saw her songs interpreted in a different musical style, from jazz in September, to classical in October and rock in November. For the September live, she wrote the song The strange treat! and performed three songs she had written as a student, Mahotsukai ni koi wo shita, glitter and Geijutsuka no kawaii sozo tachi. At the November live, she introduced a new song called Mujyuryoku.

On October 27th, she played her first live concert with kanon x kanon in Japan at the 8th Tokyo International Music Market (TIMM) at Shinagawa Stellar Ball and in November she and kanon x kanon returned to Europe for a coupling tour entitled kanon x kanon x kanon. She also continued to work as illustrator under the name Hirari and created artwork for the Scotland Loves Anime Festival 2011, which took place in October in Glasgow, Great Britain.

With kanon x kanon fading into the background following An Cafe's revival, Kanon Wakeshima continued to pursue her solo career. In February and March 2012, she participated in two events called We love children of the Earth, which were hosted by the lolita fashion model Midori Fukasawa. In April she travelled to the US, where she performed at Sakuracon in Seattle. In August, she took part in the KITTYROBOT exhibition, a charity event for the great East Japan earthquake, and in October she joined artists such as Acid Black Cherry, Tommy heavenly6 and Tsuchiya Anna in HYDE's HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA project, which released the maxi-single HALLOWEEN PARTY. In November, she released the double A-sided single Foul Play ni kurari/Sakurameikyu, the first release on her new label, Warner Home Video Japan. The first track, Foul Play ni kurari, was used as the ending theme song for the anime Series "To Love Ru -Trouble- Darkness", while Sakurameikyu was used as the theme song for the PSP game "Fate/EXTRA CCC".

In 2013, Kanon Wakeshima continues to keep busy. In January she performed at JMIC in Seoul, South Korea, and in March she returned once more to France where she appeared at Japan Expo South in Marseilles. Later that month, she played two one man concerts, Pinocchio and Freefall, in Tokyo. Both shows were transmitted on her official USTREAM channel. August will see her travel to Canada, where she will perform at the Animethon 20 convention in Alberta.