Taste Test
What is “good taste” anyway? Allow your favorite actor, musician, celebrity, or comedian to let you in on what they’re watching, reading, and consuming.
Ichiko Aoba takes the “deep dive” literally. A few years ago, the Japanese singer-songwriter started traveling south to the islands of the Ryukyu Archipelago to see the sea. With the help of local ferrymen, she conducted field research there, diving without scuba gear to look at whales, jellyfish, and coral reefs. She also participated in Shinto rituals to study the human culture of the islands. These encounters made the musician think about the primordial power of the ocean and the interconnectedness of the Earth’s species. They eventually inspired her new album, Luminescent Creatures, on which she marvels that “life can be found from long before words were ever born.”
The album’s title comes from bioluminescent plankton, which she discovered were some of the Earth’s first organisms. She started researching why. “I found this theory that they began to glow as a form of communication when they were alone and isolated,” she explained. “Whether we’re laughing or crying, the genesis of our emotions as humans is the same as those ancient creatures deep under the sea.” Luminescent Creatures laps and sparkles like waves glinting in the sun, gentle on the surface but impressively textured with piano, strings, guitar, and her own voice. Here, Aoba speaks about her research process, her connection to nature, and other places she would like to explore.
What were some of the most striking things you witnessed under the sea?
While I was swimming with whales, I saw a swarm of jellyfish. Initially, they looked like bubbles on a wave, but when I looked really carefully, I saw they were shining in seven colors, like tiny UFOs. That sort of glimmer is very much reflected in the title of the album.
Typically, how do you decide where to go for your field research?
Whales often follow a set path, migrating south in the winter and farther up north in the warmer months. Ferrymen will take me out to where they are. Whales are very fickle, and they can be almost standoffish to humans. There are plenty of times when people miss them. That being said, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never have.
When did you start developing a close relationship to nature? Is that something you always grew up with?
I grew up in Kyoto at the foot of a mountain. Every morning, I would see the birds fly out and come back. In the evening, whenever it would rain, I was aware a mudslide could come down the mountain at any minute. This awe, but also fear, of nature was instilled in me from a very young age. My father was also very involved with the local community, and he took me to a lot of garbage-picking events and nature walks by the river. And then, of course, I was heavily inspired by Ghibli movies like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke.
Your last album was a soundtrack to an imaginary film, and you’ve arranged many movie scores. What are some of the films that have been influential to your work?
Besides Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which I watched many times as a child, one that comes to mind is The Shape of Water — whose music is by Alexandre Desplat — specifically the theme song. I occasionally watched Andrei Tarkovsky movies, and I saw Avatar when I was making the album.
What are some of your favorite film scores?
I love the score from The Nightmare Before Christmas. There are a lot of scenes in which the characters express their emotions through song rather than just normal dialect. It really opens up a lot of avenues for expression.
What kind of music do you like to listen to when you’re alone?
I’m not someone who listens to music that much in my day-to-day life, but I encountered The Box Tree, by Óskar Guðjónsson and Skúli Sverrisson, about three years ago during my U.S. tour. It always gives me a sense of calm. I often use it as pre- or postshow music.
Do you have other preshow rituals?
I get a fever.
What do you look at when you spend time online?
I use Instagram a lot, just as a tool to reach my audience. I watch videos of things I like on YouTube. For example, I was watching a documentary from NHK, which is the Japanese national news network, about deep-sea creatures. Sometimes I’ll also watch live footage of my mentor, Anmi Yamada, as well as of the band Dir En Grey.
What does your ideal day look like?
I’d like to stay up late and watch the sunrise. I’d use a prism ball to reflect light across my room and watch it dance along the walls. Then I’d like to take a nap, wake up, make coffee, and play the piano or guitar. Afterward, I’d like to go for a walk, visit local cafés, and journal. Journaling and lyric-writing are tightly interwoven for me. At night, I’d like to drink wine with friends and family and then take another nap before staying up late to watch the sunrise again.
What do you do when you get creatively stuck?
Go for a walk and hear foreign sounds, whether that’s the voice of children or birdsong or cars going by. I’ll also attend a live show to see how other artists express themselves onstage. Most recently, I saw Sigur Rós at the Tokyo Garden Theater.
Are there any places that you haven’t been that you’d like to visit?
A lot of places, but these really small islands, like Hatoma-jima, to study their coral reefs. Another place is Iceland, where I’ve been to but not enough. Last time I went there, my friend took me to a place where two tectonic plates meet. As they explained the way that tectonic plates moved, I felt really strongly that the plates there and the plates in Japan were really tightly interconnected despite being so far apart.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
