Mieko Shimizu - I Bloom (2020)

In every aspect of her career, Mieko has refused to be restrained or placed in a box artistically, and new record I Bloom sees a continuation of that ethos. With a career that has seen her as an acclaimed Japanese electronic artist and producer, a trailblazing female drum'n'bass DJ (signed to Haruomi Hosono's personal label), a collaborator with the likes of MC RIZ (Riz Ahmed) and Mick Karn (JAPAN), and having her own residency at the Southbank, it's safe to say that Mieko Shimizu is sui generis. Amalgamating haunting melodies with challenging modular-synth-laden landscapes, the record has equal moments of sparsely instrumented beauty and musical entropy, as layers and rhythms clash and collide in polyphony.