Having already shared the emotive “A Journey”, London-based artist Hinako Omori has now returned with a second offering from her approaching debut album.
For “The Richest Garden in your Memory” she drew from the work of a friend, and an unexpected connection, to form its basis: “I took the beautiful words from a poem by my friend and poet/philosopher Emily R Grosholz and put them to music. I met Emily when we sat next to each other on a plane to Philadelphia in 2018 – there was a snowstorm in NYC and we were meant to fly straight there for a show, but we changed flights last minute to Philadelphia and drove from there. Emily is a lecturer at Pennsylvania State University and was flying back home.“
This friendship proved fruitful, also leading to perhaps the most organic moment of creation to be found on the album: “Emily very kindly sent me a book of hers called “Great Circles: The Transits of Mathematics and Poetry” which I just fell in love with – she travels all over the world hosting lectures, and much of her writing and poetry also incorporates tales from her travels. “The Richest Garden in your Memory” immediately stood out to me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it – so it inspired me to set the words to a melody, and interestingly, it was the quickest composition to come about on the whole record.“
The resulting song is a piano-based dream, where notes drop like icicles beneath Omori’s soothing, searching voice. As beautiful as it is, there is some conflict at play, especially in the words; “You shall begin to change, with that despair / Which is too heavy for the tree to bear / The secret vision that you are not free.” This is a crystalline and cryptic wonder that invites you to revisit again and again until you unlock the message.
Check it out below or on streaming platforms.
Hinako Omori’s album a journey… comes out on March 18 through Houndstooth, including a limited edition of 500 180g white vinyl copies (pre-order/save). You can support Omori via Bandcamp, as well as find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
