HIKARU
田中 光
"Music is light you can feel."
Biography
Hikaru Tanaka was born on July 7, 1998, in Shibuya, Tokyo—a date she later learned was Tanabata, the Japanese star festival. Her parents named her "Hikaru" (光), meaning "light," hoping she would bring brightness wherever she went.
Her father, a sound engineer at Sony Music Studios, exposed her to Western dance records, while her mother taught classical piano. By age seven, Hikaru was proficient at piano; by ten, she had discovered Ableton Live. The fusion of classical precision and electronic euphoria would define her sound.
At fourteen, watching Swedish House Mafia at Summer Sonic 2012, she experienced "the moment everything made sense"—50,000 people becoming one organism. That night, she decided: this feeling of collective transcendence was what she wanted to create.
Japanese Philosophy
HIKARU's music is deeply informed by Japanese concepts that guide both her creative process and the emotional experience she crafts for listeners:
"Every person in that crowd is carrying something—joy, grief, hope, fear. When the drop hits, just for that moment, we all carry it together. That's what I live for. That's the light."— HIKARU, DJ Mag 2023
Musical Influences
HIKARU's sound draws from a diverse palette of electronic and classical influences:
Photo Gallery
SUNRISE STATE
Debut Album • 12 Tracks • 52 Minutes
SUNRISE STATE is both a time and a feeling—the transcendent state achieved in those liminal moments when darkness becomes light. The album follows a day's journey through sound, from the first rays of dawn through the full brightness of day, the warmth of sunset, the intimacy of night, and finally returning to a new sunrise.
Light as Metaphor
Every track relates to light—dawn, daylight, golden hour, twilight, stars, and sunrise again. Light as hope, revelation, connection.
Japanese Philosophy
Each track embeds a Japanese concept—the philosophy is in the feeling, not the words.
Collective Transcendence
The experience of many becoming one, of individual joy multiplied by sharing.
Cycles and Return
The album ends where it begins—every ending is a beginning, every night leads to day.