Petals and Marbles by Miko

If you love bedroom dream pop with a bit of electronica and subtle experiments – this album will be definitely for you.

Miko is a Japanese artist who has released a few albums already. This one has a mastering imprint of Lawrence English who is behind many great projects and the Brisbane, Australia based Room40 label.

Nine tracks of unique softness, melancholy, simplistic beauty and dreamy quality. Miko’s voice is only empowering those qualities.

Clean cut and somewhat deep synth passages that make me think of more sweet side of Art of Noise or late Mr Ryuichi Sakamoto. But there is more to those melodies, they are somewhat hidden behind the veil of pretty unique sensitivity and they are always very far from the shallow cliches of dream pop genre.

Such a beautiful and sweet album….

A Note from Miko

I had been away from music for about a decade.

Simply put, I was raising a child in the countryside, but there was a time when I felt as if I were blending into other people and my surroundings. The boundaries between me and the world blurred, and I felt as if I no longer knew where I ended and the world began. That was my joy.

I think it was around the time my daughter turned nine. I just felt like making music again.

I was curious about what kind of music would emerge from who I had become—just an ordinary person living in the countryside. After self-releasing my work “Across the Water Mirror,” which was inspired by the nature I love—mountains, lakes, flowers, and the changing seasons—I felt my creativity—instinctive and eccentric—begin to move again. And so, this work "Petals and Marbles” came together naturally.

At the sketch stage of songwriting, the keywords that came to mind were electric, sync, dance music, sampling, lightness. I felt that I might be able to create something again with the same kind of energy I had when making my first album. By chance, my former bandmate provided me with some vintage drum machines, sequencers, and sample materials. These elements played a major role in shaping the lo-fi and somehow futuristic beats I had envisioned. I also used many of my favorite synthesizers from long ago, and I think the result is a sound that feels very much like me.

The album title, “Petals and Marbles,” refers to the little gifts my daughter used to give me when she was young. Anyone who has spent time with small children will understand, but they give us casual gifts every day. They are truly subtle, gentle and unassuming like pieces that have captured the beauty and love overflowing in the world.

I don’t have the words to fully explain what was quietly nurtured within me during that time away, but I believe in the creativity that keeps circulating within me at all times. I cherish this work for reminding me of that.

My deepest thanks to Lawrence English for welcoming my music back once again. 

credits

releases July 3, 2026

This is a Someone Good Edition

Produced and recorded by Rie Mitsutake

Special thanks to Will Long

Mastered By Lawrence English at Negative Space

https://riemitsutake.bandcamp.com/album/petals-and-marbles