Ki Oni – Stay Indoors and Swim

Los Angeles ambient artist Ki Oni is here to satisfy your need for twinkling, therapeutic, synthetic-nature-vibes to quiet your incessant inner monologue. Stay Indoors and Swim was originally released as a three-song EP last year and is now expanded to an eight-track album by Ki Oni, the stage name of the artist Chuck Soo-Hoo.

Reminiscent of the inside of an aquarium, it’s no surprise to find that the album was inspired by Jacques Cousteau documentaries and Soo-Hoo’s time spent in a lifeguard chair. Floating in piscean blue tranquility, with gentle winds of nostalgia, the music mimics the play of light reflected by moving water. The songs swim seamlessly into one another, individual streams joining a greater tributary to create a synthetic sea of stillness and softness.

Soo-Hoo has certainly mastered invoking sonic themes- Interestingly, his previous release, Indoor Plant Life, emulates a day in the life of a houseplant placed next to an open window. He skillfully echoes gentle breezes causing leaves to softly sway and swish, an allegory for the past year, placing us similarly immobile and yearning, able to just glimpse the sun from our respective fish tanks.

Although these two releases place the listener directly inside a terrarium, at least in a controlled environment we know we are safe and able to self-soothe. If stay indoors we must, Ki Oni’s music helps make the stay as comfortable as possible.

Stay Indoors and Swim is out now on Sound as Language. Get it on Bandcamp.