Takako Minekawa crafts her unique sound from her personal obsessions -- cats, keyboards, French pop -- and her sweet, girlish voice. A child movie and TV star in Japan, Minekawa formed her first group, Lolita, with college friends. This morphed into Fancy Face Groovy Name in 1990. She released her solo debut, Chat Chat, in 1994, which she followed up with 1995's A Little Touch of Baroque in Winter and 1996's Roomic Cube. Cloudy Cloud Calculator, Minekawa's most independent statement yet, was released in 1998; it was followed by 1999's Fun 9 and 2000's Maxi On EP. After marrying Cornelius' Keigo Oyamada, Minekawa took an extended break, and resurfaced in 2013 with the fractured experimental pop of Toropical Circle, a collaboration with Dustin Wong. ~ Heather Phares