Ichiko Aoba was born in Japan in 1990. Her first album, “Kamisori Otome”, which was released when she was 19, has been followed by seven further studio albums. Aoba plays a kind of Fantasy Folk: etherial, spartan and intimate. She often gets the inspiration for her complex, image-rich lyrics from the out-of-body experiences in her dreams. Aoba does not limit herself to songwriting, though; she also makes installation art, works in advertising and produces theatre music. In 2020, Aoba founded her own label, hermine, on which she released her latest record, “Windswept Adan”, the same year. It is, as she says, “a soundtrack for a fictitious film”, set on fictitious islands in the remote vastness of the ocean south of Japan. Pop critic Sarah Beltran has written in “Beats Without Borders” on impact89fm.org, “Listening to Aoba is like trying to remember a dream that you only have bits and pieces of – gauzy colors, hazy portraits, a sudden pang of heartache – and then putting them back together in the conscious mind.”
Albums:
Windswept Adan (アダンの風), 2020.
qp, 2018.
Mahoroboshiya (マホロボシヤ), 2016.
0, 2013.
Utabiko (うたびこ), 2012.
Origami (檻髪), 2011.
Kamisori Otome (剃刀乙女), 2010.
“Windswept Adan” Concert with streaming option overseas on 21 June 2021
More information and tickets
Photo © Kodai Kobayashi