Towa Tei

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Towa Tei
Tei on the cover of his album Sound Museum
Background information
Born	September 7, 1964 (1964-09-07) (age 43) Tokyo, Japan
Genre(s)	Shibuya-kei Electronica Dance House
Occupation(s)	Music producer Disc jockey
Instrument(s)	Keyboards
Associated acts	Deee-Lite
Website	http://www.towatei.com/

Towa Tei (テイトウワ, Tei Tōwa^?, 鄭東和 정동화 Chung Dong-hwa) is a Japanese-born DJ of Korean descent. He moved to New York City in the late 1980s to be an art student, but soon dropped out as he became involved in the New York City club scene. He first earned notice for his production work on the Jungle Brothers' 1989 LP Done by the Forces of Nature.

In 1990, he shot to fame as a member of the downtown New York club trio Deee-Lite. The group scored an international hit with "Groove Is In the Heart".

In 1991, Towa Tei and Super DJ Dmitri collaborated with Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto on the song "Rap the World".

After two albums, 1990's World Clique and 1992's Infinity Within, Towa Tei left Deee-Lite to begin working on solo projects; his debut album Future Listening!, a montage of bossa nova, jazz and electronic dance music, appeared in 1995. His second album for Elektra Records was 1998's Sound Museum. On it, he collaborated with Kylie Minogue for the track "GBI: German Bold Italic", which reached number 20 in Japan and number 63 in the UK. Bebel Gilberto also did vocals for the album. This was followed by album Last Century Modern in 1999.