Emi Makabe - Echo (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Across cultures the world over, the word echo, well, echoes. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the mountain nymph Echo’s voice was cursed so that she could only repeat the words of others. In Arabic, صَدَى (ṣadā) — meaning “echo,” “ring,” “resonance” — deeply connotes longing, memory. Given her Japanese heritage, the revered, Brooklyn-based composer, vocalist, shamisen player, and educator Emi Makabe was drawn to her native language’s unique iteration: ekō.

“It shares the English pronunciation, but it means praying for people who have passed away,” Makabe explains. Which resonated deeply with her, as her father passed away in 2021. “It was during the pandemic, so nobody could visit,” Makabe says. “I watched him as he was taken to the hospital in a wheelchair, and I was praying that he might turn around just once. He didn’t turn back — and that was the last time I saw him.”

TRACKLIST

1. Emi Makabe - The Birthday Song
2. Emi Makabe - Morisan
3. Emi Makabe - Mu
4. Emi Makabe - Dignity
5. Emi Makabe - Snow
6. Emi Makabe - Scape
7. Emi Makabe - Text
8. Emi Makabe - Letter
9. Emi Makabe - Echo
10. Emi Makabe - Overture



Thanks to the Original customer.