ALBUM REVIEW: Ichiko Aoba – Luminescent Creatures

Hermine

Released: 28.02.25

As my favourite album of the decade, Ichiko Aoba’s 2020 album Windswept Adan moves like a novella. With pages turning over like the opening of an animated fairytale, slowly unravelling into a picturesque tale.

The next chapter is Luminescent Creatures, which feels more akin to a painting. The delicate instrumentation provides luscious strokes of colour and shade, as the blues shimmer on the canvas. Inspired by walks across Ryukyu Archipelago, Ichiko paints a phenomenon across the mind, with haunting melodies echoing the water’s call and the ever flowing sound of the aquatic. It is transportive like the ocean; as quiet and patient as it consuming. Luminescent Creatures is the next chapter for Ichiko Aoba, diving deeper into the water and coming out glistening.