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Miho Hatori Official Site
Miho Hatori loves words. As one half of the international pop phenomenon Cibo Matto, Hatori sang in French, Portuguese, Japanese and English, creating lyrics that made words dance and flow as sweetly as a stream of summer water slipping down a mountainside. "Every language gives you a new perspective," Hatori says, even if that language is the language of insects. "I grew up near a river where there were a lot of pear fields and every summer I went out to pick up cicada shells. When the cicadas do ecdysis (ek duh sis,) the shells they leave behind are brown, but they emerge with a beautiful, glistening green color that's impossible to describe. I was thinking a lot about how stunning nature's work is while I was working on this album."
Ecdysis is the process of shedding old skin so new growth can take place. Snakes, crabs and insects do it. Hatori found it an apt metaphor for her own creative process. "If I stay in one spot without changing, I'm not living," she explains. "We're all living hearts, pumping all the time. Our skin changes once a month, our bodies change everyday. I want to keep changing and evolving in my life and my music. I produced this album by myself so it's very different from what I was doing [in Cibo Matto.] Ecdysis was an honest word to describe what I was feeling as it evolved."
The music on Ecdysis -- Miho's debut solo album to be released on Rykodisc -- has a wide-open, adventurous spirit with multi-layered arrangements that draw you deeper with every listen. Hatori has created an album that tips its hat to the past, present and future of pop music with its unlimited vision and openhearted generosity of spirit. Rhythms from Japan, Jamaica, Brazil, Bali, Africa and Arabia rub up against American rock, blues and pop to produce a global resonance that draws upon the past while leaping fearlessly into the 21st century. Hatori's lyrics are both poetic and cryptic, full of images drawn from the spiritual and natural world, including the world of insects. "My favorite author is Takeshi Yourou who said: "Looking at something humans didn't create for 15 minutes a day helps you maintain a connection to the natural world." I put a lot of insect sounds and images into the songs because I don't want to cut my connection with nature. We're going to the moon and Mars, but we'll never be able to make insects or butterflies. Humans sometimes think they have control over nature, but [nature] remains stunning and powerful."
Hatori's playful musical intelligence is evident on very track of Ecdysis. "Barracuda" combines Hatori's reggae keyboards, Mauro Refosco's Brazilian percussion, blues harmonica samples and a Cuban bass line from Sebastian Steinberg to produce a dreamy journey to an imaginary island. The lyrics describe a snorkeling trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands where Hatori encountered several barracudas. "I wanted to go to a coral reef and the barracudas were like the guardians of a temple. The song is about overcoming fear and recognizing that obstacles are sometimes only in our mind." "A Song For Kids" is a percussion driven tune with a percolating rhythm that sounds both African and Balinese. Hatori explains the meaning of the Japanese lyrics: "It's a happy song to cheer up kids. Children have such liquid minds, but when we get older it can turn into ice and go dead. My mom stimulated and encouraged my imagination when I was young and that helped me when I became an adult. In the song I tell kids to play a lot and move their bodies. Don't spend too much time with your Play Station.: "River of 3 Crossings" is a meditation on the afterlife that has a Brazilian melody, gamelan gongs supplied on Hatori's synthesizer and a wraith-like cornet solo by Jon Birdsong that adds to the track's spooky feeling. The title track is anchored by a Bach inspired keyboard melody, accented by insect like percussive sounds and a propulsive bass line that gives the song a rolling, flowing feel. Hatori's whispered chorus of "Ch-ch-change" pays homage to David Bowie. "I think it's cool when you can quote something for a musician you love," Hatori says.
Hatori created the basic tracks in her apartment on her computer using ProTools. Her collaborators - bassist Sebastian Steinberg and keyboard player Mark de Gli Antoni both formerly of Soul Coughing, Brazilian drummer and percussionist Mauro Refosco, cornet player Jon Birdsong (Beck, Smoky & Miho) and accordion player Thomas Bartlett tracked their ideas at various studios in New York. Hatori took the tracks back home and assembled them, doing a final mix with Patrick Dillett at Kampo Studios, NYC. "The music comes to me organically, but good sound is difficult to make at home. It helps to go to a studio and work with a good engineer; they hear dimensions of sound most people can't hear."
"Ecdysis was important for me to make," Hatori concludes. "When I went home and listened to it after the last day of mixing, the first thing I felt was: "Wow, that"s really me!" I could hear myself in the music. I could connect with my parents, because what they gave to me is a combination of everything they've ever done and with this music I'm going into the future because of everything I've done in the past."