midori jaeger shares hunted, the second single from her forthcoming EP (Re)planted, out August 26th.
(Re)planted follows (Un)planted, released earlier this year, and carries an idea through both records: the cello was once a living tree, and midori — born in Japan, moved to the UK at five, back to Tokyo at sixteen, then to London — has spent her life being uprooted and made to build roots in new soil. Where (Un)planted wrestled with displacement and identity, (Re)planted settles into a gentler, more expansive language, letting her groove-led writing turn softer and more fluid.
hunted shows a different side of that writing. midori’s songs usually grow out of bristly, upbeat pizzicato cello lines; this one is built around the piano instead, trading rhythmic push for something smoother and more rippling, with a weightlessness to her voice.
“‘hunted’ was inspired by a dream,” she says. “It asks why sometimes the scenes we create in our sleep can have such a strange allure after waking.”
Stream: https://music.midorijaeger.com/hunted
The EP’s opening track, planted, arrived last month. An acoustic performance of it spread quickly online and caught the ear of Jamie Oliver, who added the song to his “Kitchen Party Tunes” playlist.
midori has played cello since she was eight and trained at the Royal Academy of Music before pulling away from its stricter traditions. She recorded both EPs over ten days in Lisbon, playing cello, bass synth, synth and cavaquinho, with drums from a close friend.
She plays The Darwin Room at Shrewsbury Library on 25th October.