Born in Urayasu (Chiba) and raised in Kyoto, Japan, Ichiko released her first album, Kamisori Otome (Razor Girl), in 2010, aged only 19, and went on to receive much acclaim for her folksy, jazz-influenced songs written for nylon-strung classical guitar and voice – including her 2013 album “0” and on 2018’s “qp”. Her music featured prominently in the soundtrack to the 2019 video game The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. She has collaborated with Japanese legend Ryuichi Sakamoto and American sound artist Taylor Deupree; with Sakamoto’s Yellow Magic Orchestra colleague Haruomi Hosono; with Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco (they duetted on a song for a whisky advert); and with Japanese producer and multi-instrumentalist Cornelius (“she’s such a genius,” he says, “she brings such focus and intensity to what she does, and she’s an incredibly talented guitarist – even though she’d only been playing for two years when I met her!”). There have been collaborations with Japanese hip hop producer Sweet William and with Japanese indie band MahiToThePeople. Canadian violinist Owen Pallett has cited her as an inspiration, comparing her compositions to those of Burt Bacharach (“I’ve never been so blindsided by a musician as I was by Ichiko Aoba”). Ichiko has also worked on several stage productions: 9 Days Queen by Go Aoki, a production of Cocoon written and directed by Takahiro Fujita, and a revival of Lemming by Shuji Terayama.