IOSYS Ltd., (イオシス) is an indie music project based out of Sapporo formed on October 10th, 1998. They are self produced and do not operate under a label or talent agency.
They primarily focus on Touhou Project remixes since 2006, and are one of the most successful and popular doujinshi music groups.
History[]
IOSYS was founded in 1998 by a small group of freshman students at Sapporo University who were once high school classmates in the same club. The original lineup began recruiting other Sapporo University students, and by 1999 there were around 20 members of the project performing various music, artwork, or production related roles.
In the early 2000s, members of the group began posting their music and artwork to Internet forums such as 2chan. They often made music based on internet trends and memes seen on the forums, and became fairly popular online. As a result of their online success, the group formed into an doujinshi circle and began selling their self produced albums as CDs at events where many forum users would attend.
In 2006, IOSYS released their first Touhou Project remix album with accompanying Adobe Flash music videos, and many songs and music videos began to go viral online. The group exploded in popularity worldwide following the viral flash videos being uploaded to various video sharing websites like Nico Nico Douga and YouTube. That same year IOSYS decided to focus almost exclusively on Touhou Project remixes and also became an officially incorporated group. Starting in 2007, some of the more popular participants of IOSYS began performing live in small venues.
In 2011, IOSYS made their mainstream debut as songwriters under a major label for Fujiwara Marina's single Daydream Syndrome. After that, they began writing and composing music for several mainstream artists.
As of 2023, they are still active in remixing Touhou Project music and still attend doujinshi events, however, they have started to transition to commission based songwriting and production as well, such as Vtuber Shigure Ui's 2023 single Shukusei!! Loli-Kami Requiem☆.
Music Activity Participants[]
Active Participants[]
- ARM- composer and arranger
- d.watt (Shichijou Lettuce)- composer, arranger, lyricist
- Kobayashi Yuuya/void- composer, arranger, lyricist
- uno (RoughSketch)- composer, arranger, lyricist
- Maron- composer, arranger, lyricist
- Hakase (Atobe Yasuhiro)- lyricist
- Shachou (Yuno Yoshimi)- lyricist
- GIGYO- lyricist
- Ayu- vocalist
- Chiyoko- vocalist
- Takaisan- vocalist
Former & Guest Participants[]
- miko (Former participant, current guest participant)- Vocalist
- Fujiwara Marina (guest participant)- Vocalist
- Aikapin (Takahashi Aika) (guest participant)- Vocalist
- Dummy (guest participant)- Vocalist
Discography[]
Remix Albums[]
- TBD
Original Albums[]
- TBD
Trivia[]
- IOSYS's policy for most of its duration was for all members to remain anonymous. This meant that they had to operate under stage names and never release any personal information or photos to the public. When participating in distribution events, all members had to conceal their faces with masks. Even Ayu, the group's dancer and "visual," had to cover her face in performances. However, around 2007 this rule began to become more lax as they grew in popularity. For example, vocalist miko performed live a few times with her face exposed in 2007 and 2008. ARM also began to show his face to the public after he made his debut as a DJ and songwriter for major label acts.
Gallery[]