Koto (band)

Koto
Origin	Italy and Netherlands
Genres	Synthpop, Italo disco, Hi-NRG, spacesynth
Instruments	Synthesizer, drum machines
Years active	1982–1993, 2001–present
Labels	Memory Records
Past members	Anfrando Maiola (1982–1990, 2001–present) Stefano Cundari † (1982–1990) Alessandro Zanni (1982) Michiel van der Kuy (1989–1993)

Koto is an Italian synthpop group that originally consisted of Anfrando Maiola and Stefano Cundari, later with the Dutch composer Michiel van der Kuy.

In 1982, Italian musician Anfrando Maiola (b. 1954 in Parma, Italy) teamed up with Stefano Cundari and Alessandro Zanni and released their first single "Chinese Revenge" on Cellophane Record (Studio Veronica's label). The following year, Cundari and Zanni formed Memory Records and re-released "Chinese Revenge". The single proved to be very popular in Italy, selling over 10,000 copies. It also proved to be a minor hit in Germany and the Netherlands.

After the success of "Chinese Revenge", they began writing songs for other bands, including Baby's Gang ("Happy Song", "Challenger"), and helped fellow Italian band "Hipnosis" cover Vangelis' song "Pulstar". It was released in 1983, going Top 10 in Germany and Top 20 in Switzerland. The same year, Maiola and Cundari released another single "Japanese War Game", under the Koto name, which became another hit.

In 1985, Koto released "Visitors". In an interview with Maiola, he confirmed it was his favourite Koto song. The track contains a sample from Michael Jackson's 1984 hit "Thriller". The following year, he released another single, titled "Jabdah". Fueled by a music video, the song became a big hit, charting in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Around this time, critics coined the term "spacesynth", which combines elements of Italo disco and Space disco. "Visitors" and "Jabdah" are considered part of the genre. In 1987, a megamix was released, combining elements of their previous four singles.

...
Wikipedia