“Only you can change it, and by it, I mean you are changing yourself.”

“Inspired by Taro Okamoto’s striking mural of the Hiroshima bombing by the same name, Myth of Tomorrow merges historical trauma with Dohi’s own personal upheaval in 2020,” writes Arielle Gordon (via erikadohi.com). Dohi says that she had begun writing the album in the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. The album features many themes of self exploration and consciousness, the ovewhelmingness of isolation and growing in the midst of unprecedented circumstances.

At times, the album feels as if it is opening to a different world, or possibly in between two. With jazz-like elements swirling, they meet in the middle with synthesized, techno melodies. In the track “In The Wild,” this disparity between the two genres is very present. The two different kinds of sound almost seem to fight against one another somewhere in the middle of two worlds, each genre representing two sides of a universe. Slowly, listeners are pulled from one reality to another, a striking and inventive method of expressing the theme of change.

“Izanagi no Mikoto” is a shorter track, starting very still and quiet but building dramatically in tension. The track feels like a light, building from a tiny match in the darkness to an otherworldly blinding beam. Many tracks, especially ones such as this that heavily showcase techno elements, seem as if they could be placed into a sci-fi film. A new pace is picked up in the title track, “Myth of Tomorrow,” with rapidly drilling vocals and drums over layered waves of keys. The title track also presents a plethora of traditional Japanese elemtents and instrumentals that Dohi layered into this album as another facet of experimentaion. 

Myth of Tomorrow blends together ambient, lo-fi, jazz, electronic, synth and traditional Japanese instrumentals. While the album heavily uses electronic elements, this does not hold it back from finding an earthy ambiance that returns your mind to nature. Dohi mindfully creates an experience that feels both organic and supernatural. Winds and chimes create a sensation of the openness of the outdoors, while variance in echo and volume create a perception of distance and time. The listener can almost place different sounds, layers and elements in the space around them through the audio. The ability to compose a piece like this shows not only artistry but also technical production skill.

The last track in the album, “1111 / First Responders April 29, 2020,” starts out more upbeat and slightly more common, blending with the rest of the ambient, lo-fi energy of some other tracks on the album. Over the span on the song, there comes a deep still. Jazz elements are drawn in long phrases, as if in slow motion. Baritone keys play with industrial chiming whirrs in the distance. The keys and instrumentals slowly fade out to leave only this mechanical clanging behind, and what sounds like faint sirens from afar.

In the last words of the album, Dohi says, “It will be over very soon, do you want it to be over? / It is up to you, how you see the world, only you can change it. And by it, I mean you are changing yourself. “

This can be interpreted in many ways reflective of each listener and their experiences, but it still touches back to the themes explored with the isolation of COVID-19 – that we might not be able to control the world around us, but we can change the way we perceive and react to each circumstance. In turn, we don’t change what is happening, necessarily, but who we are changes in turn of those events.