Miho Hatori loves words. As one half of the international pop phenomenon Cibo Matto, Hatori sang in French, Portuguese, Japanese and English, creating lyrics that made words dance and flow as sweetly as a stream of summer water slipping down a mountainside. “Every language gives you a new perspective,” Hatori says, even if that language is the language of insects. “I grew up near a river where there were a lot of pear fields and every summer I went out to pick up cicada shells. When the cicadas do ecdysis (ek duh sis,) the shells they leave behind are brown, but they emerge with a beautiful, glistening green color that’s impossible to describe. I was thinking a lot about how stunning nature’s work is while I was working on this album.”

Miho Hatori, ex-lead chanteuse of the groundbreaking Cibo Matto, makes a triumphant return with her highly anticipated forthcoming release Ecdysis. Available October 24, 2006 on Rykodisc, Miho Hatori is set to release her strongest and most realized work of her already notable career.

The self-produced Ecdysis led Miho into new realms of electronic pop and world music, blending the intimacy of her craft for storytelling with the harmonizing sound of a full jazz-oriented ensemble. Known to be a genre-hopping pop experimentalist, Miho here unveils eleven brand new, wide-ranging songs such as the enchanting title track, Ecdysis, the tempo shifting, psychedelic Barracuda, as well as the beauty ballad, In Your Arms. Miho elegantly arranged Sweet Samsara with two different interpretations of the track -- Part 1, a pensive piano driven opener and Part 2, a pop thumper that morphs into an eclectic dance beat. Ecdysis also includes A Song For Kids, a Japanese sing-along pop song that is so catchy you'll forget its not in English.

Miho delivers lush, melodic, and ethereal songs that pay tribute to electronic pop, world music and jazz-fusion while crafting a sound and sincerity that is all her own. Her obsession with harmony, hooks and details has resulted in a diverse collection of tracks and an album that will stand the test of taste and of time.