YUMA KODA SHARES DREAMLIKE NEW SINGLE ‘ENDE’ FEATURING MEI SEMONES AND YUMA ABE

Tokyo artist and composer Yuma Koda has shared ‘ende’, the final single from his forthcoming debut album Amid Kinos, out October 2 via Newhere Music.

The new track finds Koda joined by Brooklyn-based guitarist and songwriter Mei Semones and Tokyo vocalist and guitarist Yuma Abe, bringing Amid Kinos to a hushed, sentimental close.

Part lullaby, part half-remembered piece of folklore, ‘ende’ is markedly different from much of the record. Built around Koda’s piano and joined by strings, saxophone, drums and bass, the track has the feel of something drifting in from another room — dreamlike, intimate and gently cinematic.

Koda says he wanted to create “something that felt like a fragment of a distant memory”, inspired in part by the closing moments of films he remembers from childhood.

It is a fitting entry point into Amid Kinos, an album shaped by a lifelong fascination with film, classical composition, jazz and electronic music. Koda grew up spending time in an independent cinema run by his father before studying classical music theory in Italy and Japan, influences that continue to run through his work.

Across the album, Koda is joined by a close-knit group of collaborators including Takuro Okada, Shun Ishiwaka, LUCA, Julia Shortreed and Shinya Fukumori. The result is a record that moves between jazz and electroacoustic composition, with melodies and textures often blurring at the edges.

Koda has already built an impressive career across film, television, fashion and installation, including award-winning soundtrack work and collaborations with figures including Haruomi Hosono. But Amid Kinos marks a significant new chapter: his first full-length statement under his own name.

Reflecting on the album, Koda says it grew from “the nostalgia within me and the confusion surrounding it”, as well as his “deep longing for images and language”.

Amid Kinos arrives on October 2 via Newhere Music. Koda will celebrate the release with a special album show at Tokyo’s Shibuya WWW on October 28, joined by a live band featuring several of the record’s key collaborators.

For now, though, ‘ende’ offers a final, beautifully blurred glimpse into Koda’s world — a quiet song that sounds like the closing credits beginning to roll.