Rock Monsters Romania

On October 10, Bucharest Photofest opens its 10th edition at Control Club with a luminous performance by Hinako Omori, a Japanese composer, musician, and producer based in London. Known for her ethereal blend of analogue synthesis, field recordings, and processed vocals, Omori crafts immersive sonic architectures that invite introspection and emotional resonance. Her music occupies a space between ambient electronics, modern classical composition, and sound art, a realm where frequencies, textures, and consciousness intertwine.

Omori’s creative process resembles painting or weaving: she layers and merges sounds into vast yet intimate soundscapes that seem to breathe and shimmer. Rooted in analogue synthesizers, often the Prophet 8, OB-6, or Moog Matriarch, her compositions are both tactile and transcendental. Through the use of binaural recording and multi-channel installation, she constructs environments in which listeners can process and access emotional states, turning inward as her music unfolds “in the mind’s eye.”

Her debut album, a journey… (Houndstooth, 2022), combined therapeutic frequencies, forest bathing, and binaural sound to map a meditative cartography of the mind. Exploring how sonic frequencies influence our brain states and emotions, it was hailed as “remarkable” by Pitchfork and “blissfully restorative” by Loud and Quiet. Its successor, stillness, softness… (Houndstooth, 2023), deepened that exploration, tracing the contours of the subconscious through nuanced synthesis and emotional delicacy. Electronic Sound called it “a deeply enchanting patchwork,” while Rolling Stone wrote that “her music felt like a balm for an injured world.”

Born in Yokohama and raised in the UK, Omori studied Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) at the University of Surrey, where she fell in love with analogue electronics. Her career has since flourished across multiple worlds: she has composed orchestral works for the BBC, scored multimedia installations for the Serpentine Gallery and the Centre Pompidou, and collaborated with artists including Utada Hikaru, Kae Tempest, Shabaka Hutchings, and Ed O’Brien (EOB). She has performed internationally at Southbank Centre, ICA, St Paul’s Cathedral, Le Guess Who, Pitchfork Festival, SXSW, and MUTEK, as well as joining Floating Points’ ensemble at the Hollywood Bowl for the live performance of Promises, his celebrated collaboration with Pharoah Sanders.

Across her performances, Omori channels both precision and emotion, transforming the act of listening into something meditative and sensory. As Gold Flake Paint observed, she is “a true master of her craft; a singular vision brought beautifully to quiet, restrained life.” Pitchfork described her work as “a participatory journey in which memory and consciousness are configured through forests, oceans, and gardens,” while Electronic Sound praised its “deep tranquility” and dreamlike atmosphere.

At Control Club, her live show will open the 10th edition of Bucharest Photofest, a fitting beginning for a festival dedicated to visual and emotional exploration. Through her layered soundworlds, Omori will lead audiences into a shared, reflective space where sound becomes image and legacy becomes feeling.

Tickets are available here!