Sienná's Japanese Electronic Music Album, "Ema" is What a Forest Sounds Like!

Oslo-based Norwegian producer, composer, and music artist, Sienná, is out with her newest album "Ema". The artist infuses Japanese traditional and contemporary musical traditions with the Western style of music. This unusual, yet beautiful style of hers is influenced by her roots, and childhood in Kyoto, Japan.

Her music is an amalgamation of multiple genres like jazz, ambient, classical, and house, with experimental electronic music in the forefront.

Instead of sticking to the plain, stiff structure of fixed genres, and AI-driven slop, Sienná believes in setting her music apart from the trends, by experimenting with unconventional compositions. She calls it her "no rules" approach. Her work is also influenced by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, roughly meaning "beauty in imperfections" or "perfect imperfections".

"Ema" is Sienná's seventh full-length album released on the 23rd of September. The title is a reference to the Japanese tradition ema where wishes, and prayers are written on wooden plaques as a way of communicating with the divine.

It's a 9-tracks album exploring the ideas of interconnectedness with nature, and Sienná's own relationship with the natural world. With a multi-genre album like this, with the songs floating from cinematic music, glitch, drum and bass, ambient music, it kept me guessing what I would experience next.

The inspiration for this album came from spending time in nature, particularly the Kibune Valley in Kyoto, and the Ischia Island. “I wanted to draw what I perceived on a sketchbook, but I wrote songs instead because I'm not a good drawer", Sienná stated.

The first track of the album is "Be a Seeker, Believer", which is a five-minute song with heavy Japanese influence that is clear from the get-go. It instantly transported me to the feeling of being in a historical drama. It is slow, steady, and truly unique. It's a flawlessly mixed track that ebbs and flows like waves.

The second track is "Your Facts, My Facts", a more upbeat track. It can only be described as interesting with enjoyable music. The electronic voice saying "Your Fact, My Fact" genuinely cracked me up. But it did get a little monotonous towards the end.

"Ema", the title track, is third on the list. It feels more melancholic in the beginning. And you feel like you're bleeding into nature, becoming one with the nature. On the 1:06 minute mark, there is dual harmonizing in the background. One feels angelic, almost choir-like, peaceful, while other feels more dark, eerie. Simultaneously, these created an experience for me that I had never encountered before through music. Like a liminal space within a liminal space. Then the Japanese instruments joined in, adding to the song's existing beauty. This song is what a lazy walk through a mildly sunlit, quiet woods would feel like.

The fifth track, "369", is more rhythmic in nature, almost hypnotic, picking up its pace as it goes. This one has heavier electronic rock influence unlike the other tracks of this album.

In the beginning, "Finding Inner Sanctuary", feels more like a generic alarm tune. Until you keep listening to it, and then it pulls you in, almost like a fae trap. I cannot figure out how a song can be calming, yet anxiety-inducing at the same time. Sienná has mastered the art of creating these simultaneous sensations of peace and eerieness, like real forests do.

Give this album a listen, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, exploring a side of music I never thought possible.

Dive into the tune here:

Discover More Similar Tunes Here: