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stillness, softness​.​.​.

by hinako omori

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    500 Clear vinyl, 180gram - 300gsm outer gatefold sleeve in reverse board. Lyrics included - download card.

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Black vinyl, 180gram - 300gsm outer gatefold sleeve in reverse board. Lyrics included - download card.

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    4 Panel Digipack with Horizontal Slot - 4/1, Reverse board.
    8 Page Book 4/4, Matt art paper

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1.
2.
ember 02:27
it’s funny it’s like decades have passed yet still no time at all since you closed the door and here I am waiting holding the key a stranger to a familiar home but behind those eyes the light’s gone out to just a flicker quicker than a pulse my heart’s racing for the resolve waiting impatiently for that ember remembering that sense of belonging and what you mean to me but it wasn’t you it wasn’t me It was the circumstance we bound ourselves in break free from our own chains
3.
stalactites 01:23
4.
sometimes i get overwhelmed but don’t take it personally it’s like a busy city navigating through my head and spinning me round and round a distortion in the reality spectrum field of noise and nonsense a careful observer among the chaos tune the dial to my tv screen eyes oh the uncertainty and the possibility bowing to the unknown bowing to the future and surrender printed into darkness by the sun focused into being cyanotype memories let in the light that guided you out before and many times again the longer they process the bolder they remain oh the uncertainty and the possibility bowing to the unknown bowing to the future and surrender
5.
in limbo 02:56
floating weightless sensory dreaming moving as fast as i can but there’s no sound in this timeless space pressing my feet firmly into the weightless ground no forwards no backwards carried by our dreams here and now
6.
epigraph… 01:48
close the curtains switch on the shadow follows you until the light disappears they ask me who I think I am who I thought I was who I could become sitting in a room full of shadows becoming still life you disappear and shadow and life merge into one they ask me who I think I am who I thought I was who I could become becoming stronger and lighter and stronger until they re-emerge in the most structured form
7.
foundation 06:04
finding a home within to return back to where the locks can’t be changed or the key misplaced my foundation is stable guiding the rivers and storms through new terrains turning traversing of their own accord It’s as if they knew the way our foundation is stable who can tell what the future holds? just know that I hold you dear in my thoughts
8.
in this solely solitude so quiet I can hear my breath the moonlight shining brightly downwards focusing the beams on the allotment where I tend to my inner garden may you grow may you grow may you grow and shine waiting for the spring to watch the lilies awake in full bloom in full bloom in full bloom
9.
a structure 04:12
i build my own bridges to reach the inner state i’d felt so disconnected but now there’s a structure a structure that helps us to be together your mind is your home you’re safe now in this framework here’s the key to your door your own planetarium your thoughts a solar system a library of experiences alphabetised and ordered a structure that helps us to be together
10.
astral 02:19
11.
12.
epilogue… 03:02
i wonder how many times we’ve walked this plane hand in hand promising each other the world
13.
stillness softness like a breath of silk gliding over the moon dust settling on the first grass softly spoken your words sparkle in the atmosphere hanging from every cloud soaring through the night sky showering down to nourish the soil bring life
14.

about

For Hinako Omori, synthesisers are a portal to the subconscious. Far from being sterile or austere, “synths really do respond to how you’re feeling,” says the London-based artist, producer and composer. “There have been times where I’ve felt stressed and my synth would go out of tune. I took it to a repair place once, thinking that something was wrong with it, but it was fine; I think it was to do with my energy levels. So when I sit down and write something, whatever comes out is relevant to how I feel in that moment because the synthesiser is responding to it. The music really becomes a map of my emotions.”

If her highly critically acclaimed debut ‘a journey…’ (2022, Houndstooth) was about healing others with its soothing sounds, Omori’s next album unexpectedly became one of healing herself. Looking back at the lyrics to ‘stillness, softness…,’ “it was very much an inner journey of uncovering stuck points within myself and coming to a sense of peace with them,” she says. Omori was particularly taken by the idea of our shadow selves – the dark parts of ourselves that we keep hidden – and the need to reconcile with them in order to break free. “The relationship with ourselves is consistent, and when it's healed, wonderful things can come from that,” she adds.

--

Headline London Show - ICA - 2nd December 2023
formpresents.seetickets.com/event/hinako-omori/ica/2710113

--

Since 2022’s critically acclaimed debut album, ‘a journey…’, Hinako Omori has fast become one of the UK’s most compelling breakthrough musicians, blurring the lines between classical, electronic and ambient. A concept album inspired by the ancient Japanese ritual of forest bathing, a journey…’s lush textures, rooted in nature, were called “remarkable” by Pitchfork and received heavy rotation on BBC 6Music. Omori’s potent blend of therapeutic frequencies, drones and her ethereal falsetto connected: she has since supported Beth Orton, Anna Meredith and Ichiko Aoba, played with a 60-piece orchestra for BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified and, later this year, will join Floating Points’ esteemed ensemble at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to perform Promises, his collaborative album with the late Pharoah Sanders.

‘stillness, softness…’ explores a new sonic range within Omori’s world of analogue synths – namely, her Prophet ’08, the Moog Voyager and UDO Super 6, an analogue hybrid synthesizer that creates binaural, 3D-simulating sound. The album is darker, more expansive and more noirishly theatrical than her previous work. Whereas Omori’s debut was largely instrumental, here the vocals are front and centre – “it’s more vulnerable,” she nods – as she opens up on themes of dreams versus reality, solitude, reconnecting with who you are and, ultimately, finding strength in yourself.

Omori calls ‘stillness, softness…’ “a collage of experiments” which she then pieced together “like a puzzle”, each song representing a memory room. The end result is seamless, a continuous cycle of 13 vignettes that flow in and out of each other, recorded and written between her bedroom in London and her grandmother’s house in Yokohama, Japan. “It was very DIY,” she laughs. “I was whispering into the microphone because I didn’t want to wake anyone up.”

Omori was born in Japan but grew up in south London and studied sound engineering at the University of Surrey. Her interest in machine music began before that, in college, thanks to a teacher who introduced his class to analogue synthesizers. “It sparked a curiosity in me,” says Omori. “I grew up learning classical piano, and the minute I came across synthesizers for the first time it completely drew me in. With a synth, you get to truly sculpt the sound: it opened up all these endless possibilities for expression that I had never even thought about before.”

After university, she joined the touring bands for both indie musicians and arena acts including EOB, James Bay, KT Tunstall, Georgia and Kae Tempest, the latter of whom Omori still plays with regularly. “I’ve learned so much from those experiences,” says Omori. “If it wasn’t for working with these wonderful artists, I don't think I would have had the confidence to do what I’m doing now.” Her confidence, she says, is still a work in progress, which is partly what the album speaks to. Its title might be ‘stillness, softness…’ but the album is actually about making yourself uncomfortable in order to grow. “It’s about embracing the things that we want to hide away from, and that we feel ashamed of,” she says.

The album on the whole is Omori’s most accessible yet, and one that evidences her true range as a composer, artist, arranger, vocalist and synth virtuoso. It closes with the title track, completing the cycle. “I wanted it to evoke a state of peace that you reach within yourself,” says Omori. “I think of it as a blanket of sorts, very gentle, very calming.” That softness, she says, is the ultimate strength – and one that will guide us through life with love and compassion for ourselves and others.

credits

released October 27, 2023

mixed by Cherif Hashizume
mastered by Matt Colton

artwork by Emi Takahashi

photography by Luca Bailey
(assisted by Aris Roussos)
styled by Kingsley Tao
(assisted by Sam Richardson)
Hair by Moe Mukai
Make-up by Machiko Yano

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about

hinako omori London, UK

大森日向子
✉️ : hello@hinakoomori.com
live : jan@earth-agency.com

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