Sienná is an electronic artist, producer and composer born in Kyoto and based in Oslo. Her music bridges East and West: experimental electronics meet house, jazz, classical and traditional Japanese music, and she composes without fixed templates, letting each piece find its own shape. Over more than a decade on stages across Europe and Asia she has worked with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, the late bassist Mick Karn and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

EMA, her seventh album and her first since 2023's Wa-Kei-Sei-Jyaku, came out in September on Anneis Records. Its nine pieces took shape on solitary walks through the Kibune valley outside Kyoto and on the island of Ischia: she wanted to sketch what she was seeing, she says, but since drawing isn't her strength, she wrote songs instead. In Japan, an ema is a small wooden plaque on which people write messages to the gods, and the album treats music the same way, as a place to note down what nature has to say. It moves between cinematic and ambient passages, drum & bass, glitch and Japanese traditional music.

The lead single, "Be A Seeker, Believer," a song about resilience and trusting yourself, clashes warped soundscapes with crisp beats and ghostly vocals, creating an image of otherworldly environment that the narrator (or, rather, the narrator's soul) travels through, dealing with many hardships and coldness.

Other notable tracks include "Finding Inner Sanctuary" and "Aenaria". It's interesting how a piece informed by the beauty of nature (outer world) turns inside, looking for sanctuary. "Finding Inner Sanctuary" combines piano and synth textures and constantly switches between moments of sweet calmness and anxiety. And "Aenaria" is memorable for its deep, dark soundscape that creates a beautiful space for the vocals to shine, like a deep dark forest can hide a beautiful bird with colorful feathers and heavenly voice.

Listen to Ema below.