Japanese pianist Yumiko Morioka initially released Resonance, her first and only solo recording, on Akira Ito's ‘Green & Water’ imprint in 1987. Whilst by no means a commercial failure, the album was mostly found in the background of Japanese TV documentaries, maternity clinics and healing shops before drifting into relative obscurity.
By 1994, Morioka had relocated to America and her solo music career had given way to the joys of starting a family and her new life in California. It was, and still is, a shock for her to learn that Resonance had gained the attention of a new audience outside of Japan through blog posts and YouTube album uploads.
After hearing Resonance for the first time ourselves back in early 2017, we tried for months to track Morioka down about a reissue. This news reached her at a particularly trying time in her life following the devastating loss of her home in the 2017 California wildfires.
Her home had recently been razed, destroying all of her possessions, musical equipment, scores and recordings. Morioka was lucky to escape with her life; her quick thinking neighbour raised the alarm in the middle of the night giving her just enough time to escape safely before then tragically watching her home burn to the ground.
In the aftermath, Morioka returned to Japan in an attempt to rebuild her life. She found work writing music for commercial projects and pop acts before recently opening her own chocolate shop in the Jiyugaoka neighbourhood of Tokyo - back where it all began.
‘’Space and time moved at a different speed than now’’ – Yumiko Morioka
Yumiko Morioka - Resonance
£21.00
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A victim to lockdown, Metron's reissue of Yumiko Morioka's near-impossibly beautiful Resonance was due in April but is only just arriving with us now. Besides, a bit of patience is deserved for something so unobtrusively pretty and elegant. In fact, I can't recall the last time i heard something so wholesome outside of Virginia Astley or, say, Shelleyann Orphan's symphonic Anatomy of Love. The period of its recording and Morioka's cultural and musical heritage (she's said to be an Eno acolyte) suggest a connection to Japanese environmental music, but i find Resonance composed of a far broader palette, the arrangements more ornate, its musicality much more heavily accented. This is not minimal music, but neither is it obtrustive, simply and earnestly struck with a sense of loveable grandeur. For certain, pretty and elegant are the words. You might even want to call it moving should you still feel the ability to be moved. Lovely out of nowhere reissue.
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