LAREINE was a Japanese visual-kei rock band that existed from November 1994 to February 17, 2007.
On these pages, you will find a full biography of LAREINE and the related bands.
Chapter I: 1994: Bzirleick, Pre-Laliene and the Formation
LAREINE’s history started in August 1994, when guitarist “MAYU”, and vocalist “KAMIJO” met each other for the first time, both as roadies (technical staff) of the popular band “MALICE MIZER”. Since they noticed they had similar musical visions, they decided to form a band together called “Laliene” (LAREINE’s original name), in November 1994.
Before Laliene, KAMIJO was in a very short-lived band called “Bzirleick”, from early 1994 up until their last live on August 24, 1994. He was known under the name “Yuzi” in Bzirleick, and together with guitarist “Shinya” and bassist “Shinri”, they released two demo tapes: “Prosaic Sky”, limited to 50 copies, and another one with an unknown title. A CD was planned, but most likely never released.
They appeared in a newspaper or magazine, containing a short article and one picture. The source of the article is still unknown. Here is the article, translated by Anna Maria:
Bzirleick
ビジレイク
From the left: Shinya (G), Yuzi (Vo), Shinri (B)
Bzirleick is currently unfolding activity focussed on Yokohama 7th Avenue. They speak of “pursuing different sound worlds, from songs full of sadness to positive and aggressive songs.” So far they have released two demo tapes and they also have the release of their 1st CD scheduled somewhere this year. The next live scheduled is on the 24th of August at Yokohama 7th Avenue.
After the disbandment of Bzirleick, the guitarist, “Shinya” changed his stage name to “Maya”, and went on to join many different musical projects, such as “chercher”, and “Blanc:Musee”, but he was the most successful as a guitarist of the band “BABYLON” (バビロン) from May 8, 2006 until he retired from the music scene in February 5, 2008. The bassist of bzirleick, “Shinri”, did not join any bands after Bzirleick.
At times, some sources claim KAMIJO’s first band to be named “美辞麗句”, or Bijireiku, but this is a Japanese-language mistake. Here is why:
If you turn the word “Bzirleick” into the Katakana writing system, used for foreign words, it becomes ビジレイク, or litirally: Bi-ji-re-i-ku. That is because the Japanese language does not have characters for the letters “z”, “l”, or a word ending with a “k” (it has to be “ku”). If you know just “ビジレイク”, and not the original Roman character name, it is impossible to know that the real name is “Bzirleick”. Now, if you turn “Bijireiku” into the Kanji writing system, you could transcribe it as “美辞麗句”. That is where the confusion comes from.
MAYU was not in any bands before Laliene.
The only known image of Bzirleick, from the magazine article. From left to right: Shinya (Maya), Yuzi (KAMIJO) and Shinri