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The pop duo CHEMISTRY has been around since 2002 and consists of Kaname Kawabata and Yoshikuni Dochin, both on vocals. Both were discovered on the Japanese casting show Ayasan, where other stars like Ami Suzuki and Morning Musume debuted as well. Their sound ranges from R&B to reggae, acoustic ballads, electronica and beyond, always recognizable by the pair's powerful vocals.

biography

As the winners from over 19000 participants, CHEMISTRY debuted in December 2000 with their single Saigo no yoru. Only four months later, their major debut with Sony came with the single Pieces of a dream, of which more than a million copies were sold and reached the #1 rank on the Oricon Charts - an amazing success, but not too surprising since most of the world's casting acts immediately appear on the top of the charts.

In the summer of 2001 they participated at the MTV SUMMER SUMMIT in Taiwan and two singles later, their first album The way we are came out in November. Ranking #1 again, just as expected, but now the critical point for every casting band was about to come up: would they disappear again or would the hype continue?

Next to their participation on the official FIFA WORLD CUP 2002 - Voices of Korea/Japan sampler, more singles and albums were released, one after the other breaking the band intern record of sold units. In July 2003, the remix album Between the lines was released and around that time, the group parted ways with their previous producer.

Their third album One x One (February 2004) was produced by Kawabata Dochin himself and varied a bit from CHEMISTRY's typical sound. Although it didn't sell as highly as some of their previous releases, it was still enough to bring them to the top of the charts again.

After their recent album fo(u)r (and its remix Re:fo(u)rm that came out in August 2006) it became apparent that CHEMISTRY have not followed the path of many of their international casting colleagues and disappeared, but have continued to be successful.

Apart from their participation in the FIFA WORLD CUP 2002, CHEMISTRY also made themselves known in Korea with the popular collaboration song Let's Get Together Now featuring talents from both Korea and Japan and hooking up with Korean ballad singer Lena Park who appears in the b-side Dance with Me in the Kimi ga iru single.

In April of 2007 the duo released their 20th single, Sora no kiseki, which takes long distance lovers as its theme. Their schedule was full of lives that summer, and in July they performed at Excite Music Festival '07 in Saitama Super Arena. This was followed in August by another single, This Night, which addresses the story of a broken heart from a female perspective. Boosting the group's already considerable popularity, its title track was used as the ending for the anime "Chikyuu he". This trend continued as their next single's title track, a ballad called Saigo no kawa, appeared as the theme song for the movie "Zou no senaka". Another significant boost in exposure came when their following single, Kagayaku yoru, was used in the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2007 Opening Ceremonies.

In January 2008, CHEMISTRY's long awaited 5th album Face to Face went on sale, their first original album in two years. The group's first single of '08, Life goes on, scheduled to come out in August, will include another theme song, this time for the TV series "Seiyo Kotto Yogashi Ten - Antique". Far from slowing down or fizzling out, it seems this pair will be making hits and gaining new fans for many years to come.