Sienná, who was born in Kyoto and is currently based in Oslo, incorporates Japanese musical traditions into electronic music on her album “Ema”, which is inspired by the ema wooden plaques found at Japanese shrines on which wishes are written.
She turns these wishes into sound over the course of nine tracks, shifting between ambient sections, restless electronics, cinematic textures and Japanese influences. The most effective parts of the album are produced when its themes of desire, uncertainty and connection come into contact with its digital sound.
Electronic, Experimental, Cinematic
-PurpleMistress
“Be A Seeker, Believer” promotes persistence in the face of grief, and “Your Facts My Facts” puts one set of realities alongside another. The title song, “Ema”, puts the shrine image at the heart of the record: a personal wish is given a physical location where it can rest. The transition from drum & bass and glitch to ambient and Japanese traditions enables the wish to alter its form as it travels.
The songs ranging from the reflective “Finding Inner Sanctuary” through to the broad “The Majestic” and the sense of distance expressed in “From Here To Where You Are” keep coming back to themes of wishes, memory and connection; the fact that the structure is open-ended means that these ideas are always in a state of change. Highly recommended!
