Mieko Shimizu’s ‘Butterfly’ was originally released on her ‘I Bloom’ album but now has been remixed and refreshed by Mike Lindsay from Tunng.
This is one of Mieko’s most beautiful tracks in both musical arrangements and poetic lyrical verses. Mieko wrote Butterfly just after her mother’s passing, although the lyrics are not directly descriptive about her mother. They are more utopian about the image of a life leaving a body and transforming into some form of energy. Combining the ideology of the story when people die, they turn into a butterfly which comes and says goodbye before they leave this world. Such as the closing lyrics: “Butterfly on a spiders web searching for the light, the light shining back”
The track takes on experimental synth pop beats traveling through an electronic soundscape with Mieko’s signature mix of avant-garde and electronica. Mieko’s elegant floating and wandering melodic vocals are accompanied with shining synth melodies over the top of punchy and gritty basslines and textured harmonic phrases from accordion chords.
Watch the video for the Mike Lindsay remix
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. Mieko’s album I Bloom is a neoclassical journey through a landscape of Japanese folk and electronica and this genuinely ground breaking Japanese artist has been described as cross between Björk & Laurie Anderson.
During Covid-19 Mieko has been working on several different projects. She is currently performing a weekly Instagram Live show due to gigs being cancelled and so she can still perform intimate live shows. Mieko is continuing to spread her positive and creative outputs, with rearrangements of original songs and covers of inspiring artists such as Radiohead and Caribou. The show takes place every Monday evening from Mieko’s home studio set up.
Mieko is also currently running a remix competition with Street Furniture Records. This has given fans across social channels the chance to remix her track A Change Is Coming and have their music released on Street Furniture’s label. The style and genre is completely open which allows for entries to be freely creative. This competition is open to everyone, whether you are a professional producer, musician, bedroom DJ or just dabble in creating cool sounds. With the idea to give the opportunity from isolation in the current climate to be creative and experimental with musical composition.
