OPTICAL*8

Optical*8 biography
The original concept of OPTICAL*8 created by a Japanese keyboard monster Hoppy KAMIYAMA was a New York-based experimental rock outfit in collaboration with Marc RIBOT (guitar), Dougie BOWNE (drums, percussion), and Sebastian STEINBERG (bass). Soon after releasing their eponymous debut album and another studio one in 1992, Hoppy took a drastic remedy for producing another conception in OPTICAL*8 - that is, they altered themselves into a pure Japanese experimental project filled with indivisuality, incarnated by Hoppy, RECK (bass), Masashi MINATO (drums), and Yoshihide OTOMO (guitar).

The new OPTICAL*8 have released two studio albums - "Bug" (1994) and "Gender" (1994) - and one live album "All Over" (1995) via Hoppy's own label God Mountain (by the way, God Mountain means Kami-Yama in Japanese).