Ichiko Aoba
Luminescent Creatures World Tour plus Julien Desprez
Celestial. Delicate. Fall in love with life.
Ichiko Aoba’s pulls listeners from reality, surrounding them in the comforting fabric of her imagination, and she has been casting spells on them with voice and guitar since her debut at 19. In recent years, she expanded her sound, blending classical guitar with orchestral arrangements on Windswept Adan (2020), a nature-inspired album created alongside arranger Taro Umebayashi and creative director Kodai Kobayashi. This project introduced her to international audiences. In turn she’s worked with artists like Japanese Breakfast, Mac DeMarco, Owen Pallett, Pomme, Weyes Blood, and Black Country New Road and has been recognised by publications like Pitchfork.
Her latest album, Luminescent Creatures, inspired by Japan’s Ryukyu Archipelago, is rich with bioluminescent imagery, lush strings, and oceanic soundscapes. On it, Ichiko reflects on themes of life’s origins, the ocean’s beauty and power, and connections across time and space.
As Ichiko prepares for her biggest world tour yet, her music continues to transcend language barriers thanks to her delicate yet powerful voice.
Need to know
Price: £33.20
Venue: Sage Two (Theatre Layout)
Timings: Announced nearer showtime.
Age: Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult.
Watch and listen
What they say
“This album, Luminescent Creatures, was born from Windswept Adan… It began when I started wondering what happened after the protagonist of Windswept Adan disappeared along with the music of the island’s inhabitants. What would be left?”
– Ichiko Aoba on Luminescent Creatures
Plus 'Agora' presented by Julien Desprez
Julien Desprez plays solo with only his guitar and effects pedals as instruments themselves. His performance truly engages all the senses. The body is at the heart of his practice, and one theme still fuels his work today: what to do with bodies and their generated movements through music?
Originally conceived as a recorded sound piece, ‘Agora’ has become a piece for electronics, impedance games, electric guitar and podorythmie, created during the autumn 2020 confinement and presented during the Italian Festival Cataclisma.
Agora refers to the meeting place of the city, of the town, where the people come together, it also means “now” in Portuguese. Agora is twofold and plays from several points of view. A soft, explosive and joyful trance brings together artforms until their rupture and reconciliation with playfulness and frenzy.
