Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast creates “soft sounds from another planet.” Life on Earth, seen from above. Burbling synths, extra-terrestrial ambience and tales of robot love punctuate her songs – the cosmos a place of escape from mourning and loss.

Her songs levitate with a powerful message: “don’t cling to the past. Don’t descend. Look up, and fly higher.”

Her sound is subtle and sensual. Danceable and dreamlike, somewhere between LCD Soundsystem and Lykke Li. Soft Sounds from Another Planet is one of Split Works’ albums of the year, and we’re delighted to present Japanese Breakfast live in China for the first time.

Who else but Japanese Breakfast would release a videogame to help promote her new album?

Japanese Breakquest was just that: a retro-tinged role-playing game, released free online, with lo-fi bleepy-bloopy version of songs from her sophomore album.

There’s a joyous, carefree heart to her music that belies the grief and loss that informs it. Her debut album, Psychopomp, was an elegy for her mother, who passed away of cancer in 2014. On it, Zauner romanticizes need, knowing precisely how futile it can be, as she howls on the record's final song, to "cling to your sleeves 'til they're like lacerated sails."

The 2017 follow up, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, was a work of self-reflection that looked out at the cosmos in search of healing, finding inspiration in science fiction, outer space, and the Mars One Project. It led to a series of sold-out show around the world with the legendary shoegaze band Slowdive.

On stage, it’s all deeply alluring, featuring spoken-word intros, autotuned 80s pop bliss, and even a sultry saxophone solo.

For more information or to buy tickets, visit: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/i9gU90ddpLcKRlyx3G4ErQ