With the release of Pancake Moon, I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Tobias Fischer for #15questions
If you're interested, please give it a read💜🙏
Link↘
/interview/michiko-ogawa-about-magic-sound/page-1/?fbclid=PAZnRzaAOBEXhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAadLbVu-u8gsnH9PuZeK_dx2jQDNrwmlDk2NOMQZuZS1ssDU7_YXrlrcPUMyFw_aem_8zLzr596tLezlpfi0EHZDQ
Michiko Ogawa’s first full-length LP Pancake Moon is out now on Futura Resistenza! Available on vinyl and digital everywhere. 🦋🌑
In the words of @boomkatonline : “Ogawa seems to follow its insectoid vibrations with her instrumentation, not mimicking the cricket sounds exactly, but harmonizing with them, swallowing them into clouds of just intoned organ, synth and shrill shō… So beautiful.”
Piano, organ, synthesizer and shō by Michiko Ogawa @snirupustimo
Field recordings from Berlin (2024) and Joshua Tree National Park (2022)
Mixed by Sam Dunscombe @saltymedia
Mastered by Felix-Florian Tödtdloff @felixfloriantodtloff
Artwork by Angie Jennings @happypuddle
Layout by Jeroen Wille @jay_willah
Available in store and online worldwide via @clonedistribution .
Many thanks to Michiko O (@snirupustimo ) for delivering a gorgeous performance on shō last week at Blank Forms—a live adaptation of her excellent Pancake Moon via @futura_resistenza .
Photographs by @arthursillers .
Tickets on sale now for MICHIKO O’s solo show later this month, during which she will perform a version of her recent record Pancake Moon, adapted for live performance.
A clarinetist by training, @snirupustimo (Michiko Ogawa) came to the shō through her research on artist Teiji Ito; though the shō is traditionally associated with gagaku, a centuries-old form of Japanese court music relying on a sixteen-piece ensemble, Ito freely recombined the instrument with self-taught fluencies in Portuguese fado guitar and American jazz drumming, forging an idiosyncratic sound spurred by his omnivorous interest in whatever instrument was at hand. Ogawa, too, works in a syncretic mode, layering sprightly piano glissandos, with their open, daylit timbres, over discordant swells of organ and the shō’s brittle, glittering pitches. The effect is simultaneously eerie and serene, never quite identifiable as either. Her sonic architectures are designed to accommodate such unresolved contradictions.
Working with pre-recorded piano, organ, and sounds from Joshua Tree and Berlin, Ogawa performs on the shō, capturing and looping fragments in real time and feeding them through a synthesizer that extends the instrument’s tuning. The synthesizer operates less as an additional layer than as a continuation of the shō itself, allowing the performance to shift subtly with each iteration. What emerges is not a fixed version of the album, but a framework—responsive to the space and moment, and not intended to be repeated in the same way twice.
Photo: Kate Clark.
I'm coming up to Boston!
Very excited to play my solo work" Pancake moon"🌕 released by @futura_resistenza last year as a part of "Waterworks 2026" curated by @noneventseries
featuring performances by…
A. Cambpell Payne
Amirtha Kidambi & Music Research Strategies
The Bicentennial Memorial Accordion Choir
Bill Nace & David Watson
Bob Bellerue
Dave Seidel
Greg Kelley presents “A Fanfare for Non-Event” featuring Kelly Bray, Eric Dahlman, Ellwood Epps, Forbes Graham, and Kimmie Sabio
Jesse Kenas Collins x Michael Rosenstein x Yoona Kim (trio)
Michiko O.
SUTUR
The year 2025 brought me many experiences, lessons, and encounters, allowing me to reach the end of the year in good health.
It is truly a blessing to be walking my own path now, living alongside the people I love, and being able to envision the future.
Next year, I will continue to live each day mindfully and healthily, walking my own path at my own pace.
I wish you all health and good fortune.
Michiko
2025年も多くの経験と学びと出会いに恵まれて、健康で年末を迎えることができました。
今こうして自分の道を進み、愛する人々と共に生きられること、未来を思い描けることは本当に幸せなことです。
来年も健やかに日々を丁寧に暮らしながらマイペースに自分の道を歩いていきます。
皆様の健康と幸運を祈っています。
小川 道子
Upcoming Tuesday in Portland with @creature.comforts.bks 💜✨
/e/michiko-o-free-water-shrew-ensemble-anthony-stillabower-mother-foucaults-tickets-1966434692099?aff=oddtdtcreator
Tomorrow💜🌕✨
Wednesday, 26th of November 2025
20:00
PROGR - Zentrum für Kulturproduktion (Raum 013)
Michiko Ogawa (shō, harmonium)
Stefan Thut (Cello)
Christian Kobi (Saxophon)
Program:
“Pancake Moon” - Michiko Ogawa, samples and shō
“new piece for trio“
