Jazz Chill Music-Erika Dohi Confronts Memory, Myth, and Resilience on Myth of Tomorrow
- Erika Dohi
- Sep 22
- 3 min read
On October 24, 2025, Switch Hit/Figureight will release Myth of Tomorrow, the second album from Osaka-born, New York-based composer and pianist Erika Dohi. It’s a work born from solitude and shaped by transformation—melding personal myth, historical memory, and an expansive sonic vision into something both deeply intimate and breathtakingly cinematic.
For many, Dohi first emerged on the global stage with her acclaimed debut I, Castorpollux (37d03d), a recording that drew praise from the BBC, The New York Times, and other international outlets. In the years since, she has become a vital force in New York’s music scene, performing in ensembles that blur the lines between genres and lending her talents to artists as varied as Ichiko Aoba, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Wadada Leo Smith.
But Myth of Tomorrow marks an artistic leap—a leap inspired by a haunting image. The title references a mural by Japanese artist Taro Okamoto, a vivid, unsettling depiction of the Hiroshima bombing. Dohi saw in Okamoto’s work a mirror of her own emotional and creative reckoning.
“I began writing this music in the earliest days of the pandemic,” Dohi says. “I had just moved back to New York, only to find the city—and my career—suddenly paused. In that stillness, I confronted what I’ve come to call my ‘inner jails’: the emotional and mental confines we carry with us, no matter where we are.”
From that stillness grew music that’s anything but static. Produced by Grammy-winning composer William Brittelle (known for his work with Room Full of Teeth and Julia Holter) and supported by Metropolis Ensemble, the album layers Dohi’s piano and voice with an eclectic cast of collaborators: poet Carol Féliz, trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, violinist Lauren Cauley, and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. The arrangements move fluidly between electronic soundscapes, chamber textures, jazz phrasing, and moments of ambient stillness.
The Rain Woman’s Song
The lead single, Ame Onna, released today alongside a striking video by Michael VQ, offers an entry point into the album’s emotional world. In Japanese folklore, an ame onna—“rain woman”—is a spirit who brings rain wherever she goes. For Dohi, this wasn’t just a legend; it was her life.
“I was born in June, right in the middle of Japan’s monsoon season, and it felt like rain followed me everywhere—on school trips, birthdays, even my wedding day,” she says. “Over time, I learned to embrace that part of me, not as bad luck but as something quietly powerful and deeply tied to emotion. ‘Ame Onna’ is about that space between holding on and letting go. Rain teaches us that there’s strength in vulnerability—that release can be a form of resilience.”
The song begins with Dohi’s processed vocals, sounding as if sung underwater, suspended over delicate synths and the shimmer of a single cymbal. Halfway through, the atmosphere shifts: a deep bass pulse enters, doubling and folding back on itself, before dissolving into the surrounding soundscape.
Expanding the Palette
Myth of Tomorrow also sees Dohi embracing new sonic tools. As an artist-in-residence at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 studio, in partnership with Gotye’s Forgotten Futures project, she gained access to rare instruments—including the iconic Fairlight CMI synthesizer—as well as traditional Japanese instruments that ground her experimental approach in cultural roots. Hip-hop rhythms, chamber strings, and prepared piano textures all find a place here.
Still, at its core, the album is about connection: the way personal narratives can resonate with collective histories, and how music can bridge the two. Dohi describes Myth of Tomorrow as “an invitation to look inward, to sit with uncertainty, and to find hope and resilience in our shared human experience.”
Track titles like Izanagi no Mikoto, Saturn Square Venus, and 1111 / First Responders April 29, 2020 hint at the album’s scope—blending folklore, astrology, memory, and lived experience into a singular vision.
As the rain woman steps into her next chapter, Myth of Tomorrow feels less like a collection of songs and more like a constellation of emotional landscapes—a reminder that even in the heaviest storms, there is beauty to be found.
Erika Dohi – Myth of Tomorrow
October 24, 2025 – Switch Hit/Figureight