Hinako Omori – stillness, softness...

Hinako Omori finds herself, synths in-tow, amidst a darker, more driven soundscape on stillness, softness..., the London-based multi-hyphenate's latest studio album. The landscape inspiration of 2022's a journey... is traded here for something rhythmic, meditative, and binaural. It juxtaposes scattered, icier melodies with altogether warmer and lusher chords which swell to quell the melodic sparsity, aided by Omori’s increased vocal presence.

It's in the company of this more active vocal that much of the growth between the projects is evident. On 'cyanotype memories', the classical and ambient fusion of her debut is present, joined by a more aggressive electronic aspect, where these combine in a propulsive crescendo, accompanied by sparing use of drum machine. The mind has to shift a little when the aptly titled 'in limbo' builds to its atonal segue with 'epigraph...', a disquieting interlude announcing the album’s mid-point, while later Omori invites you into her yogic mantra on 'a structure', the listener assured that 'your mind is your own'.

Nothing here feels inauthentic: there's an ever-present familiarity in her swirling synth accompaniment and instrumental vignettes; 'both directions ?', 'stalactites' and the sonically dilating, metronome-like highlight 'astral', all assuring the listener that stillness, softness... is as natural a progression as sophomore albums can proffer.

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Listen to: cyanotype memories, a structure, astral