Editions Mego has released albums by Tujiko before and it is the sixth one to date.
Dedicated to her cat: an album that cannot be summed easily. On one hand we have a set of electronics and a palette of colours and timbres. The other angle of this album is a pop sensitivity – soft and subtle melodies. Another angle is an experimentation and putting the previous elements in a different context which makes this album something deeper than a cliché label: dream pop.
There are also different elements: field recorded voices which show that Tujiko can add a completely different verse and accentuation to the items that are not necessarily typically musical.
Imagine something that bears the fragility of childlike play but it’s not pretentious at all. A trip on a memory lane – something to ponder on in those cynical times.
Pon is Tujiko Noriko’s sixth album for Editions Mego and a further extension of her already significant body of work as both a solo and collaborative artist. Dedicated to her cat who she adopted as an infant and passed away due an accident having been born deaf, Pon is imbued with abstraction, tenderness and a deep emotional resonance.
Noriko’s palette of electronics, romantic melodies and surprising sonic details are all fully present here, and like her last full length, 2023’s Crépuscule this is an epic work, released as a 2LP by Editions Mego alongside a Japanese CD release.
The unmistakable hue of Japan hovers throughout this emotional rich landscape. Subtle field recordings and fragile, abstract motifs drift through the album, all cloaked in a warmth and humanity that only Noriko seems able to conjure.
Pon moves effortlessly between the childlike and the obscure. There are moments of deceptive simplicity where unexpected elements suddenly surface — strange voices emerge on Boku Wa Obaka, Knife of Yonder is a standout: a startling ten-minute unfolding that begins with a warm, almost Eno-esque drift before launching into a soaring mid-section and finally landing somewhere unexpectedly blues-adjacent.
Kikoeru Pon is brimming with childlike wonder — a heartfelt ballad that dissolves into domestic field recordings, including sounds of the feline for whom both the album and track are named. A quietly devastating ending that brings the personal nature of the record into sharp focus.
There is a deep sense of the human in the way Noriko embraces technology. This is far from cold abstraction; rather, Ponfeels like a colourful photo album, documenting Noriko’s inner world and instincts with remarkable intimacy. Hovering in liminal states between pop, ambient and abstraction, this is a deeply affective and moving release that reveals new surprises with each listen.
The emotional range of Noriko’s latest offering inspires hope in a world in disarray. It is both gentle and epic and one which we feel embodies the work of an artist fully at the height of her powers.
credits
releases June 12, 2026
Written, produced, recorded and mixed by Tujiko Noriko.
Mix and treatments by Lawrence English at Negative Space.
Also recorded by Tomoyoshi Date at Studio SANATORIUN
Nico Mazet at Bick-Out Studio
Nobuki Nishivama at soup
Chihei Hatakevama at Nature Bliss
Jérémy Demesmaeke
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at studio Schwebung
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle
Painting & Design by Chloé Fabre and Pipo
Pon Charm photo by Joji Koyama
With: VBF, Vito and Len Baute Tsujiko, Ysé Tsujiko, Ponpon, Yusuke Date, Haruyasu Hirose, su, Yuki Yoshida, Yasutaka Yokota, Gerard Paolo, tyme, Maxwell August Croy, Kazuya Kato, Tama.
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