UMIKO Kotori

UMIKO Kotori produces, mixes, masters, records, sings, and plays drums and bass. Every sound on her records is hers. She works from a studio in Vilnius, Lithuania — between collaborations, theater sound design, radio presenting, working with other artists — and has been doing so for over a decade.

Her catalogue as a solo artist spans eleven albums, beginning with Wave and Aftermath — the latter recorded at "Big Jelly Studios" in the UK and presented live on LRT Opus — through "In the Nowhere Without the No" (released with five contemporary dance video clips), "SAKE", "Sorry to be You" (presented at Trakai Vokė manor), the collaborative "Mommy's Karma" -  II with drummer Mantas Augustaitis, and "Spitting Supernovas" (2024, presented at Sodas 2123 with live visuals by Adomas Žudys). Each record moves differently — from krautrock-influenced grunge to hip-hop rhythms, electronic synthesis to raw punk energy. The constant is a refusal to be one thing.

Before the solo work she fronted "Magic Mushrooms", a band blending jazz, funk, drum and bass, rap, and soul — recognised at "Vilnius Jazz "Young Power and "Kaunas Jazz", performing alongside twin designers from EGYBOY in Fluxus-influenced live events. She played drums and sang simultaneously in "Shishi", a lo-fi surf punk trio. She sang and played trumpet with the reggae collective "Ministry of Echology". From 2022 to 2024 she presented a monthly show on Radio Vilnius — "Kokie nelygūs Vilniaus šaligatviai" — dedicated to music, movement, and the city.

She began learning drums at 28. Within a year she was recording an album. The discipline of playing and singing simultaneously traces to breathing techniques learned from a teacher trained in Nō theatre, the classical Japanese performing art.

She has composed sound design for Lithuanian theater productions, built the audio guide for Trakai Vokė manor, created soundscapes for the Bėgantis Kunigaikštis historical app, and continues to produce and record for other artists alongside her own work.

Her name is a compound of two Japanese words: UMIKO (海子) — child of the sea — and Kotori (小鳥) — little bird. She did not choose them for aesthetics.

Her forthcoming album is called UKA. The title came from a discovery: 羽化 (UKA) is the Japanese word for the moment an insect emerges from its previous form — larva to butterfly, nymph to cicada. The moment of metamorphosis itself, not the result. And Ūka is the Lithuanian word for fog: unclear borders, dissolved shapes, nothing with hard edges. The two words sound identical. They arrived from opposite ends of the world at the same sound, the same meaning.

The album contains 16 tracks recorded by following instinct rather than intention — entering the studio without a plan, following the smallest spark of excitement, letting beats evolve and shift like a living organism. Each track stands alone. Together they form one body.

The singles preceding UKA are documented through a recurring visual: a mask, worn through different landscapes .The mask does not hide. It marks a form mid-transformation. By the time the album arrives in September 2026, the transformation will be complete.

POLITE, the first single, received airplay on LRT Opus, Lithuania's national cultural radio broadcaster.