Takako Minekawa (嶺川貴子 Minekawa Takako, born June 3, 1969 in Fukuoka, Japan)… Read Full Bio ↴Takako Minekawa (嶺川貴子 Minekawa Takako, born June 3, 1969 in Fukuoka, Japan) is a Japanese musician, composer and writer. She writes and composes her own material, using equipment such as vintage keyboards, analog synthesizers, and other electronic instruments while singing about a variety of topics like cats, clouds, dreams, and the color white.

Her live debut was in 1990, calling herself Mamene Kirerie as a member of the group Fancy Face Groovy Name alongside Kahimi Karie and backed by Flipper's Guitar. She was also a member of the band L <-> R before releasing her solo debut, Chat Chat in 1994.

She has written professionally, as regular columnist in the Japanese edition of Keyboard Magazine; she also contributed a serialized novel to the Japanese quarterly Bungei.

She married fellow musician Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) in 2000. The pair have collaborated on several projects. Cornelius remixed some of her songs, including the well-received "Milk Rock". He also produced her album Fun9.

Minekawa's musical influences are as varied as her lyrics. An avowed fan of French pop, some of her favorite French artists include Françoise Hardy and Pierre Bachelet. The influence of the British band Stereolab can also be heard in her music. While there are certainly touches of humor in her lyrics and tone, she is a sincere fan of Krautrock, particularly the earlier works of electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, to whom she dedicated the song Kraftpark!

In an interview, Minekawa explained her admiration for the band: "I decided to describe the landscape of Kraftpark with sound and narration. This song is not a parody of Kraftwerk. I did it because I love them!"