Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures [PSYCHIC HOTLINE]

Why you'll love it

Pressed on bioplastic vinyl with a double-sided fold-out lyrics and credits poster. Ichiko Aoba's ninth album continues the world of Windswept Adan with the same core team, and it drew the same widespread critical acclaim.

This edition

• Bioplastic vinyl
• Double-sided fold-out lyrics and credits poster
• Laser-etched runouts

About the album

Ichiko Aoba named Luminescent Creatures after the closing track of her previous album, Windswept Adan, and the new record picks up exactly there. Composer Taro Umebayashi, engineer Toshihiko Kasai and photographer Kodai Kobayashi are all back, and so is her fascination with the sea, the islands and the creatures that glow in the dark water around them.

It is a folk baroque record at heart: Aoba's nylon-string guitar and voice, wrapped in strings, harp and ambient textures that never crowd her. "Luciférine," "Flag" and "Sonar" came out ahead of it as singles, and one track takes its title from a set of map coordinates in the Yaeyama Islands. She premiered the whole album live in Osaka and Tokyo before anyone had heard a note of it. Put it on late at night; it is quieter than the neighbours, which is rather the point.

Tracklist

Listen

On Hermine / Psychic Hotline (cat# PSY050), first out in 2025.