Hush Hush is honored to present the debut release 'Nature’s Way' by Japanese musician mioriii. A delicate balance of soaring ambient-pop and evocative introspective beats, the 5-track EP provides an intimate glimpse into an artist evolving into her own sound and finding renewed hope in everyday life.
mioriii’s relationship with music goes back to early memories of listening to artists her parents loved (The Beatles, The Carpenters) and her own budding fascination with the radio. Dating back to her elementary school years, she would eagerly listen to the radio every day to discover new music, record her favorite songs to tape, and expand her vision of the world. A teenage obsession with the late 1990s American TV show Dawson’s Creek also proved a pivotal point in her record collection, as she would quickly order CDs whenever she heard a song on the show that she liked. These memories of getting swept up and lost in music set a foundation for her own art, which carries its own cinematic and escapist touch.
Her first official solo releases emerged in 2018 with a series of three self-released EPs under the name Ms. Indie Pop. The EPs boasted a wide range of colorful synth-accented styles and a consistently widescreen and whimsical sound. A week before she was scheduled to start performing her music live for the first time, she began to suffer from extreme and mysterious health problems that drastically impacted her quality of life. To begin the difficult road to adjusting to this new normal, she began to take walks along riverbanks and through nearby parks. These restorative and grounding walks helped inspire the vision behind 'Nature’s Way' and played a role in adopting her new alias of mioriii.
'Nature’s Way' is ultimately a healing story, with mioriii undergoing a surgery late last year that has put her on the road to recovery. This optimistic shift in her life is felt in a hopeful undercurrent that runs throughout most of the EP. Beginning with a charmingly bright flute call, the EP’s title track slowly unfolds to unveil a welcoming bed of synths and mioriii singing the encouraging lines, “The sun follows you / Turn your face to the light / Look on the bright side.” Three instrumental tracks follow, with each song exhibiting their own distinctive yet unpredictable narratives. Weaving her way through shadowy, contemplative, and dreamy downtempo terrain, these three songs boast a strong expressive quality. While this run ends on the uplifting and comforting tones of “Under the Sun,” the two preceding tracks (“Annual Rings” and “Mossy”) rarely fall into expected patterns, keeping the listener unsure of where it’ll go with each passing second in a style that mirrors the moments of uncertainty she has experienced over the last few years as she navigated her rare and unexplained illness.
The EP concludes with the hypnotic vocal track “Echoes,” mioriii once again lyrically reflecting on the sun, rivers, and birds that have played an important part throughout her journey. These solo nature walks have become a daily routine for mioriii since dealing with her worsening physical condition, and even though she experiences a gentle loneliness during these walks, she is grateful to return to a more normal life and creating music with a renewed passion. Now embracing her new alias mioriii, 'Nature’s Way' happily breathes new life into her blossoming musical vision.
releases July 28, 2023
All songs written, recorded, and mixed by mioriii.
Artwork by mioriii.
Mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard.
all rights reserved
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