The New York experimental electronic artist Hiro Kone is releasing her first new music in three years. Hiro Kone is the recording alias of Nicky Mao, who released her Fallen Angels cassette on Geographic North in 2014. Today, she announces her debut LP entitled Love is the Capital, also from Geographic North, which was inspired by recent political turmoil and societal anxiety.
In advance of the album she has shared the its first single, “Rukhsana,” with THUMP. It is an engrossing melange of high pitched feedback that sounds like some sort of prehistoric insect cry, ethereal vocals that skip and repeat like a scratched record, and a beautiful synth line set against an unconventional beat. Coil and Psychic TV’s Drew McDowall features on “Rukhsana” playing the modular synthesizer.
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“‘Rukhsana’ imagines a life beyond static being, trajectories superseding entities,” the producer explained in an email to THUMP. “Human subjectivity occupies a small space in a vast mercurial molten landscape and we must endeavor to understand that better. ‘Rukhsana’ is the embryo of a new mode, and a new life that may not be human.”
We’re with her on the “mercurial molten landscape” thing, and there is something hopeful and refreshing in “Rukhsana,” too. Have a listen for yourself to see if you can detect the stirring of alien life. Or at the very least, enjoy the collage of surprises she weaves, and make sure to look out for Love is the Capital coming soon.
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