Experimental synth-laden avant-pop
Who they?
Japan-born but London-based Hinako Omori has a love of synthesisers and “anything that makes interesting sounds”. After studying Music and Sound Recording at the University of Surrey, she trained as a sound engineer, worked at a record label and as part of a festival curation team. But now, after a stint as a session player, she’s decided its her turn in the spotlight.
Why Hinako Omori?
Her debut EP came about after plundering a hard drive full of early demos, instrumentals and field recordings, all made over the span of four years. After layering on synths and vocals, the result is ‘Auraelia’ a haunting five-track offering that, they say, is “a sonic exploration of space, haziness and transformation”. We’d argue it blends ambient soundscapes with synthpop, and evokes Gazelle Twin and just a smidge of Grimes. And that it’s very much a good thing.
Tell us more…
“The idea of the tracks on ‘Auraelia’ came about during a strange period of having daily migraines with auras for a month,” explains Omori. “The physical reaction I was experiencing from the auras – the partial loss of sight and spots of light surrounding every day vision – also seemed to reflect the emotions I was feeling at the time.” She says she also found out that an Aurelia is a type of jellyfish which “strangely seemed to fit the description perfectly” because they “respond to stimuli detected from their tentacles – so they’re almost floating kind of helplessly, but perhaps with an innate sense of direction…”. “Helpless” is definitely not how we’d describe ‘Auraelia’ and we definitely sense greater things for Hinako Omori.
‘Auraelia’ is out on Injazero
