Today London-based artist Hinako Omori has shared a second track from her forthcoming debut full-length album, a journey…, to be released on March 18th through Houndstooth.
“‘For ‘The Richest Garden in your Memory’, I took the beautiful words from a poem by my friend and poet/philosopher Emily R Grosholz and put them to music” explains Hinako. “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.
We had such a wonderful connection, and ended up chatting away for the whole flight! Since then we reconnected online and have been sharing work with each other – 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.
Another wonderful synchronicity – I was reading this book on a tour I was on around Europe with James Bay, and on that same tour both Emily and I happened to be in Rome on the same day, so we had a beautiful reunion – and she came to the show!!” – Hinako Omori
Listen to “The Richest Garden In Your Memory” below: