midori jaeger – (Re) planted

London-based cellist and singer midori jaeger (pronounced MID-uh-ree YAY-ger) today releases her new EP (Re)planted, available to hear in full now. Alongside today’s release, she has also announced a new London headline show at Stone Nest on October 21st.

Since sharing the EP’s opening track “planted” earlier this summer, midori’s following has grown rapidly, with an intimate acoustic performance of the track spreading widely across social media, resulting in an invite to perform at SXSW, and even catching the attention of Jamie Oliver. The release has subsequently seen a series of successes for the self-releasing artist, with tracks from the EP receiving support from KEXP, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Introducing, BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum Jazz Show and BBC Radio 3’s Round Midnight, alongside praise from The New York Times.

Drawing a parallel between the cello, once a living tree, and her own journey as a child uprooted several times and forced to build roots in different soils, (Re)planted continues to transmute midori’s experiences of migration and mixed cultural heritage into songs written from the cello. Where its predecessor EP ‘(Un)planted’, released earlier this year, wrestled with displacement and identity, (Re)planted embraces a gentler, more expansive language, allowing her signature groove-led approach to evolve into something softer and more fluid.

As well as “planted”, pre-release singles included the piano-based track “hunted” and the deeply intimate acoustic cut “safe”.

From the ground, the tree. From the tree, the wood. From the wood, the cello. From the cello, a human—wrapping herself around it.

For London-based musician midori jaeger — who has collaborated with Imogen Heap, Patrick Watson, Christian Löffler, Daughter, Courtney Pine and Tanita Tikaram — this intimate bond has been one of her only constants amid a life marked by incessant uprooting and replanting.

Born in Japan and relocated to the UK at five, she later returned to Tokyo at sixteen before settling in London to study music full-time two years later. Each move was a replanting, each city a new soil.

Midori has played the cello since she was eight. Classically trained at the Royal Academy of Music, she eventually diverged from the rigid traditions she was schooled in. “Classical training made me feel quite insecure,” she says.”I started feeling like, what’s the point in me practising nine hours a day to just play this as well as someone else who can already do it? I kind of want to do something that only I could do.”

There is no better descriptor for Midori’s work: something only she could do. That insistence on personal expression defines her two latest EPs. Each song came quickly into being during the immediate aftermath of a long-term relationship, while jaeger still lived in the bedroom she shared with her ex. After a gestational period, she later recorded the EPs over ten intense days in Lisbon, playing cello, bass synth, synth, and cavaquinho, with drums by a close friend. Every note reflects a recalibration of roots — unplanting old certainties and replanting fresh truths through incandescent emotion and visceral groove.

Live dates:
21st Oct – London – Stone Nest
25th Oct – Shrewsbury – The Darwin Room, Shrewsbury Library

#midorijaeger