“Arigato”
A quietened audience ushered themselves into the downstairs crucible tucked away within London’s King’s Place, situated within the epicentre of the city’s hustle and bustle. Whilst the mania of midweek London ensued outside, here within this crucible began the Japanese folk singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba to stage an mesmeric performance as part of the EFG Jazz Festival.
Inspired by her own dreams, Aoba’s evening recital proved overwhelmingly transformative as her minimalist approach, consisting purely of vocals and guitar, swept the audience off their feet and into a peaceful, holistic world of her own. Having released her latest LP, Windswept Adan, almost a year ago, these tracks offered a more mature approach to her songwriting and showcased the grandiose nature of the record for an intimate staging. The absence of luscious strings and numerous vocal harmonies instead offered pinpoint focus onto the astoundingly emotive voice of Aoba which glistened within ‘Pilgrimage’ and ‘Porcelain’.
As every audience member desperately clung to Aoba’s utteration and intonation borne within these moments, one couldn’t help but notice the transcendental effect of a Japanese artist performing within the U.K. For all of Aoba's minimalist songwriter similarities to that of The Microphones and Mount Eerie, to Laura Marling and Lamp, a softened and grateful “arigato” graced the intimate crowd in Kings Place with the entirety of her performance remaining within the Japanese canon - duly reciprocated with requited supportiveness from the audience.
'Kokoro no Sekai’ initiated something of a historic throwback to the earlier days of Aoba’s songwriting, perhaps protruding more straightforward songwriting compared to her more contemporary work, however, ‘Taiyou-san’ concluded this evening with an illustrious masterpiece. As if caught within an eclectic film soundtrack of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Aoba passed through a myriad of emotions, environments, and tempos, claiming sumptuous in points, desperate in others, and transformative throughout. Ultimately, the singer-songwriter bowed out ten minutes later to rapturous applause from the sold-out audience bursting with pride over the presence of a mesmeric repertoire.
Seldom often does such brilliance and prowess grace us within our chaotic midweek city-entrenched life, however, tonight proved a rare exception. Aoba indelibly transcended the simplified nature of the venue’s darkened room and numerous language barriers to connect and translate to her audience in another way - through the indelible power of such oration and repertoire.
9/10
Ichiko Aoba's latest LP, Windswept Adan, is out now and can be found here.
All photos are courtesy of Monika S. Jakubowska whose work can be found here.
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