Haruhi Kobayashi

Haruhi Kobayashi’s life in sound is woven through her new work, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone. Growing up in Tokyo, she was singing from the moment she could speak, played taiko drums as a child, and first released music eight years ago as a teen J-pop singer-songwriter. Pulling at these past threads, she explores the themes of bi-cultural identity, tradition, and existentialism while seeking to liberate sound from preconception. Her work distills experimental pop, classical composition, and avant-garde songwriting through voice, bass, and electronics.

Mark Rothko said, “I’m interested in only expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on.” Borrowing its title from a self-help book, Kobayashi’s new album, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, is a diary that cheekily references the intersecting arc of
intention and experience. Bass Extreme 5000 imitates the vibrations and movement of water, Fuluis is an aural reflection of a traumatic event, ((dance)) is a textural representation of the pressure and suppression often felt by Asian women. The album is dotted with the musical influences of her formative years – taiko and catchy hooks ripple throughout.

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone captures a transitional stage of Kobayashi’s practice. The pendulum swing from mainstream pop to experimental is slowly returning to the space in between.