PRE-ORDER: Ichiko Aoba "Luminescent Creatures" LP

This is a pre-order. We expect this to ship on or around FEBRUARY 28th, 2025. Any items ordered with this will be held until they can be shipped together.

To listen to Ichiko Aoba is to be drawn into a world as intimate
as a warmly lit home, but cosmic in scale. The Japanese artist
has taken a dedicated online fanbase built from viral TikTok
sound clips and critically acclaimed albums and translated it
into international tours spanning more than 20 countries.
Aoba’s latest album, Luminescent Creatures is the culmination
of her 15-year long career - during which she’s collaborated
with Japanese luminaries such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi
Hosono, Cornelius, and more - and finds her deftly melding the
jazz-infused folk of her early albums with the orchestral world
building of her 2020 opus Windswept Adan.
While conducting field research on Ryukyu Archipelago, Ichiko
was enamored by the boundless beauty, and occasional terror
of the ocean. She’d go freediving, submitting herself to the
whims of the tides. “I feel unable to resist the pull of the ocean,”
Ichiko says, “and know how easy it would be for my small body
to be swallowed by the sea.” That contradiction, gentleness
and power, instilled a sense of awe that is expressed in the
soundscapes of Luminescent Creatures. “Luciférine” introduces
her central theory: bioluminescence. Lush strings and twinkling
piano ripple like sunbeams on lapping waves, cutting through
the dark expanse of the briny deep. “Inside each of us,” she
sings, “there is a place for our stars to sleep.” It conjures an
image of creatures pouring off light like celestial bodies, lighting
a path to close the distance between galaxies. On “SONAR,”
she ruminates on other ways to bridge the divide. “Beyond the
darkness, a glimmer of somebody’s voice”—her own voice low
in the mix as if suppressed by insurmountable depths. An echo
of her voice creeps in, reverberating like a whale song. Even
with the most rudimentary senses, we find ways to one another.
Luminescent Creatures is about making meaningful
connections against impossible odds. The sea is immense and
ancient, but it is also reminiscent, housing a deep record of
fossils and recollections of how we’ve treated our planet.
“When I stare into the seemingly bottomless black depths of a
trench,” Ichiko reflects. “I occasionally see the blinking light of
some rainbow-colored lifeform.” That organism may not speak
any known language, but in that moment it managed to
communicate in a universal way. “My beloved Luminescent
Creatures.”

Track List: 

1/ COLORATURA
2/ 24° 03' 27.0" N 123° 47' 07.5" E
3/ mazamun
4/ tower
5/ aurora
6/ FLAG
7/ Cochlea
8/ Luciférine
9/ Pirsomnia
10/ SONAR
11/ 惑星の泪 (Wakusei no Namida)