Kono Michi

Kono Michi, the American violin virtuoso turned underground singer/songwriter, established herself as a one-of-a-kind artist with the release of 9 Death Haiku in 2009, which was listed as #19 on the Top 30 Best Albums of the Decade by Playback:STL Magazine. This suite of dark, beautiful songs gained her critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic from both indie and classical media, and the world premiere in New York resulted in a standing ovation.

Described as ‘a Bjork-like brooding wonderland‘ (Planet Sound Reviews), Kono Michi’s music has been broadcast nationally in the US and on BBC Radio 1, 3, and 6 Music in the UK. She recently earned a rave review in the New York Times (Jan 10, 2011) as an arranger and her unique approach to song-writing is apparent in her original songs, which include vocals, lush virtuosic strings, innovative drums and electronics.

Kono Michi started playing the violin at the age of 3, giving her first public performance at the age of 5, and though Gramophone Magazine has called her “an alluring soloist with heightened expressive and violinistic gifts,” she was raised on alternative rock music and was obsessed with artists like the Cocteau Twins, the Cure, Radiohead and Leonard Cohen, to name just a few.

For the One More Day EP, Kono Michi brought in Mike Sorensen Small and Grant Pringle, both from Scottish bands The Stone Ghost Collective & Dawn of the Replicants, to record the backings. Mike converted her string parts to guitars and electric bass and Grant added his trademark multi-layered rock beats. The result is an innovative, genre-bending feast for the ears and there are plans to take an expanded version of this group on a UK tour in October.

Accompanying 3 of the songs on this EP are unique music videos, which we highly encourage you to check out. “One More Day” is a gorgeous, innovative stop-motion video, while ‘In a Lake’ features her… floating in the middle of a lake. In the ‘When I Don’t Come Back’ video, Kono Michi sings (tastefully) nude in a bath of milk, which certainly ruffled a few feathers in the classical music world. When asked about this Kono Michi shrugged it off saying: ‘I can’t think of a greater luxury in the world than pursuing your own creative impulses no matter how spontaneous or popular they may or may not be. Somehow, ruffling a few feathers makes me feel like I’m actually doing something right.‘