GARUDA to return to Europe for ‘THE BLACK AWAKENING’ mini-tour

The photo shows Yuffie Sakimura as GARUDA sitting on a (prayer) chair in a room with gothic elements, plants and blue walls. She is dressed in a white dress with red elements, wearing black boots and black wings on the back, and simultaneously holding a bully mask and a baseball bat with spikes while looking away from the camera.

At the end of this May, underground idol Yuffie Sakimura will return to Europe as GARUDA for a handful of shows at various events in Poland, Sweden and Italy.

GARUDA is the dark industrial gothic solo project of Yuffie Sakimura, active since summer 2017. She is also active in rockabilly idol group MELON BATAKE A GO GO and was previously part of goth-metal idol group Re:Alice. Since the beginning, she has had the opportunity to perform several times in the United Kingdom, including the Indie, Idol and Infamous tour in 2019, as well as further into Europe, such as Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.

On stage, Yuffie wears a plague mask and dark wings and wields a baseball bat decorated with spikes, making a big impact. An even bigger impact is made from the beginning of the performance to the end, where she comes to bring chaos with a backdrop lined with heavy guitar riffs, aggressive rhythms and charged melodies. She incorporates themes from destruction to rebirth in her music.

Last November, GARUDA released a new EP titled VOID SERENADE. The release consists of five tracks, including a new track written by Patrik Leonheart (Uz:ME), some previously unreleased tracks and the track POSER that previously had a limited release. Before that EP release, the solo artist released a new mini-album in collaboration with Gollipop Record – the label where MELON BATAKE A GO GO belongs to – titled Phoenix of Resurrection. This new release also resulted in a number of music videos.

GARUDA Europe Tour 2025 ‘THE BLACK AWAKENING’ Dates

Friday 23 May, 2025: Magnificon Expo – Kraków, Poland
Saturday 24 May, 2025: Magnificon Expo – Kraków, Poland
Tuesday 27 May, 2025: Klubbfestivalen – Växjö, Sweden
Thursday 29 May, 2025: Kodachicon – Lund, Sweden
Friday 30 May, 2025: Kodachicon – Lund, Sweden
Sunday 1 June, 2025: Etna Comics – Catania, Italy
Monday 2 June, 2025: Etna Comics – Catania, Italy

As an ending to the tour, GARUDA will give a solo concert in Tokyo on 24 June, celebrating her return from Europe as well as the project’s eight-year anniversary.

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Francisca/Seraphinne

Never satisfied, always exploring. Started with AVO in 2003. Now active as a writer, reporter, reviewer, promoter, photographer, interviewer and presenter. Can be found regularly at conventions and concerts in the Netherlands and sometimes elsewhere in Europe or even in Japan. Big passion for Japan and music, can be made happy with coffee. (click on Soundcloud logo)

Jim O’Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi are standing together in front of a colourful closed shutter that is decorated with wings. They are positioned in such a way that it looks as though they both have wings. Eiko Ishibashi is dressed in black and is smoking, whilst Jim O’Rourke is wearing a black shirt, jeans, an ochre-yellow jacket and a green scarf with white dots. Photography by Mathieu Amalric

Japanese Events: Music

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