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CD
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VIERNULV 019CD
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$20.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/2/2026
While composing the music for The Juniper Tree, Midori Hirano drew on her own memories of touring Iceland, which included a stop at a waterfall featured in the film and rendered in sound on "Mother's Path." Folktales, like the origins of The Juniper Tree, are often attempts to contend with humans' place in the natural world, with all its mysteries and intricacies, and both the film and Hirano's soundtrack draw their sense of breathless wonder in part from the sensation of being engulfed by one's environment. Margit, played by Björk, possesses a sublime sensitivity to her environment that allows her to receive messages from her mother, who was murdered for their shared inheritance of witchcraft. Hirano captures the relationship between the transcendental awe that is felt as supernatural and the private feelings of being immersed in that experience, creating a musical dialogue between the self and what lies beyond. In the final sentences of her liner notes describing the film's philosophical and feminist throughlines, Anna Bogutskaya says, "what we call Margit's witchcraft is maybe just her willingness to listen." This is the magic of music, and Hirano composes with an alchemist's pen. Just as Keene seems to break down barriers between binary poles, Hirano uses both electronic and acoustic means to communicate the film's emotive cues, uniting approaches she has explored under her own name and the alias MimiCof. There is an understanding that stillness can be understood as peaceful or foreboding, that dissonance and consonance are contextual, that efforts to protect one's own kin can lead to tragic ends. At the film's end the audience sees Margit enthralled with birdsong, understanding it as something deeper, a connection to those she has lost. Through sound, listeners understand what lies beyond sight, beyond convention, and with this new soundtrack they hear the story anew.
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LP
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VIERNULV 019LP
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$31.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/2/2026
LP version. While composing the music for The Juniper Tree, Midori Hirano drew on her own memories of touring Iceland, which included a stop at a waterfall featured in the film and rendered in sound on "Mother's Path." Folktales, like the origins of The Juniper Tree, are often attempts to contend with humans' place in the natural world, with all its mysteries and intricacies, and both the film and Hirano's soundtrack draw their sense of breathless wonder in part from the sensation of being engulfed by one's environment. Margit, played by Björk, possesses a sublime sensitivity to her environment that allows her to receive messages from her mother, who was murdered for their shared inheritance of witchcraft. Hirano captures the relationship between the transcendental awe that is felt as supernatural and the private feelings of being immersed in that experience, creating a musical dialogue between the self and what lies beyond. In the final sentences of her liner notes describing the film's philosophical and feminist throughlines, Anna Bogutskaya says, "what we call Margit's witchcraft is maybe just her willingness to listen." This is the magic of music, and Hirano composes with an alchemist's pen. Just as Keene seems to break down barriers between binary poles, Hirano uses both electronic and acoustic means to communicate the film's emotive cues, uniting approaches she has explored under her own name and the alias MimiCof. There is an understanding that stillness can be understood as peaceful or foreboding, that dissonance and consonance are contextual, that efforts to protect one's own kin can lead to tragic ends. At the film's end the audience sees Margit enthralled with birdsong, understanding it as something deeper, a connection to those she has lost. Through sound, listeners understand what lies beyond sight, beyond convention, and with this new soundtrack they hear the story anew.
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CD
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THRILL 643CD
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"The artistry of Midori Hirano lives in the resonance between sonic and visual worlds. Over her distinguished career the Berlin-based, Kyoto born composer, pianist, and synthesist has crafted a distinctive voice straddling the spheres of classical music and harmonies with abstraction and invention. In addition to works under her own name, Hirano has released dynamic experiments under her MimiCof moniker as well as composed for film, television, art exhibitions and architectural expos. Hirano has also been a prolific collaborator, working with CoH, Brueder Selke, Nils Mosh, Teodor Wolgers, Ben Lukas Boysen and Paul Emmerich, SPECIMENS, Mami Sakurai, Atsuko Hatano, and more, contributing to dozens of releases. Hirano is acclaimed for crafting emotive works that stimulate all the senses with impressionism, or painting with sound. OTONOMA is the culmination of her work synthesizing these elements and highlights her acumen as a practiced and intuitive artist. The album infuses Hirano's more classical sense of harmony on the piano with the endless textural possibilities of synthesizers. Like nebulas coalescing into galaxies, the pieces of OTONOMA emanate hues dense with subtle layers of color folded into gradients, arresting and radiant. In Japanese the word 'Oto' means 'sound' and 'Ma' refers to the 'space' or 'interval' between things. So, 'Otonoma' literally means 'the space between sounds.' In classical usage, 'Ma' can also mean 'room' which allows a different reading, 'a room of sounds.' 'Illuminance,' a foundational track on the album, has rich textures and a searching modular synth. 'Ame, Hikari' was initially composed for a photo exhibition of Japanese artist Rinko Kawauchi's work at Fotografiska Berlin and captures the rain (ame) and light (hikari) of Kawauchi's photos. The stately lone piano of 'Rainwalk' offers a minimalist, affecting snapshot of a moment in time while pieces like 'Aurora' take a more wide-eyed, macrocosmic view with fluttering electronics and a surging drone. Throughout OTONOMA, Hirano's compositions seep over their sonic borders and through the complex intersection of rhythm and tone are an affecting listen. The intersection between sound and space embodies the architecture of this beautiful impressionistic album. In the deft hands of its architect, Midori Hirano, the music is remarkable for its reflective and connective beauty, a sensational sensorial experience."
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LP
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THRILL 643X-LP
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Pink color vinyl. "The artistry of Midori Hirano lives in the resonance between sonic and visual worlds. Over her distinguished career the Berlin-based, Kyoto born composer, pianist, and synthesist has crafted a distinctive voice straddling the spheres of classical music and harmonies with abstraction and invention. In addition to works under her own name, Hirano has released dynamic experiments under her MimiCof moniker as well as composed for film, television, art exhibitions and architectural expos. Hirano has also been a prolific collaborator, working with CoH, Brueder Selke, Nils Mosh, Teodor Wolgers, Ben Lukas Boysen and Paul Emmerich, SPECIMENS, Mami Sakurai, Atsuko Hatano, and more, contributing to dozens of releases. Hirano is acclaimed for crafting emotive works that stimulate all the senses with impressionism, or painting with sound. OTONOMA is the culmination of her work synthesizing these elements and highlights her acumen as a practiced and intuitive artist. The album infuses Hirano's more classical sense of harmony on the piano with the endless textural possibilities of synthesizers. Like nebulas coalescing into galaxies, the pieces of OTONOMA emanate hues dense with subtle layers of color folded into gradients, arresting and radiant. In Japanese the word 'Oto' means 'sound' and 'Ma' refers to the 'space' or 'interval' between things. So, 'Otonoma' literally means 'the space between sounds.' In classical usage, 'Ma' can also mean 'room' which allows a different reading, 'a room of sounds.' 'Illuminance,' a foundational track on the album, has rich textures and a searching modular synth. 'Ame, Hikari' was initially composed for a photo exhibition of Japanese artist Rinko Kawauchi's work at Fotografiska Berlin and captures the rain (ame) and light (hikari) of Kawauchi's photos. The stately lone piano of 'Rainwalk' offers a minimalist, affecting snapshot of a moment in time while pieces like 'Aurora' take a more wide-eyed, macrocosmic view with fluttering electronics and a surging drone. Throughout OTONOMA, Hirano's compositions seep over their sonic borders and through the complex intersection of rhythm and tone are an affecting listen. The intersection between sound and space embodies the architecture of this beautiful impressionistic album. In the deft hands of its architect, Midori Hirano, the music is remarkable for its reflective and connective beauty, a sensational sensorial experience."
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