Sooper Artist

Sen Morimoto

Sen Morimoto has been obsessed with time. The Chicago alt-jazz polymath’s latest LP Time Is On Your Side arrives October 23rd on their own label Sooper Records, stitching together ‘60s / ’70s psych-soul production with Morimoto’s fresh take on post-genre songwriting. Nostalgic drum machines, ambient 808’s, acoustic guitar, and swelling strings emphasize the intimacy of Morimoto’s vocal delivery, hushed yet urgent, like sand in an hourglass.

Morimoto has been playing with time since their 2018 debut. A self taught multi-instrumentalist, Sen performed and recorded the collection of odd time signature ear worms on Cannonball! entirely on their own, a feat that quickly made them a sought after producer in Chicago. By 2023 Sen had released two follow-ups and produced critically acclaimed albums with Chicago artists KAINA and Kara Jackson. Sen’s signature saxophone and vocal stylings have featured on tracklists that run the gamut from folk, to rap, to jazz, to indie and electro pop artists including Djo, Cuco, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Son Lux, Vagabon, NNAMDÏ, Resavoir, Lala Lala, and Pivot Gang among others.

Time Is On Your Side is a departure from the bombastic prog-fusion of Sen’s previous album Diagnosis (2023), with deliberate and subtle textures that center Morimoto’s intimate songwriting. Nine tracks shapeshift from rootsy folk on “Overthinker” to impressionistic new jack swing on “Moves Like A Drunk” and mathy psychedelia on “Chewing Gum.” Delicate flutes are drowned out by a tidal wave of screaming guitars on the semi-finale “I Saw You” before the title track scores the comedown with triumphant orchestral jazz and ambient synths. In the final crescendo, Morimoto personifies time itself, singing “If you should find a way to finally say what’s on your mind, I pray you do, ‘cause I am on your side my friend.”

Lyrically, Time is an antidote to the ever-accelerating pace of the doom-scroll era. “I’m not fighting time anymore,” Sen says, “I treat it as an ingredient. Some of these songs only needed a pinch - a couple of improvised takes. Others sat for years, like wine in a barrel, until they became equal parts of my past and future. My hope is that it could inspire the freedom to slow down.” The gentle and soulful “Lucky Strike” encapsulates Morimoto’s outlook. There is a deep cosmic gratitude, tucked under the melancholic admission that most things just don’t work out as planned. Songs like Flashback measure the distance time puts between us all with cutting sincerity. “I heard your song on the radio. They called you local but you moved away a long time ago,” Sen sings in a lonesome drawl. Morimoto’s effortless songwriting prowess shines on Sade-eque groover “The Devil.” Lush harmonic movements glide under baroque lyrics that feel inevitable. Sen is crafting modern mythology, cautionary tales about friendship, love and loss, sung with a reassuring shrug. Afterall, time heals all wounds.

Sen’s own timeline begins in Kyoto, Japan. Their family moved to the US soon after Sen’s birth, landing in California where they moved into a Volkswagen bus and headed east. They made it all the way to a small town in rural Massachusetts where Sen would be raised. The quiet solitude of the forest can be heard in Sen's writing, along with the common first-gen American feeling that there is an alternate version of yourself, brought up in another country, in another timeline. Sen cites their move to Chicago in 2014, and the community they found there, as a serendipitous catalyst for their worlds to converge. Releasing music with their friends in Chicago would lead to touring in Japan, a bridge that connects Sen’s fans, collaborators and family today.

Since 2019 Sen has co-owned and operated Chicago’s celebrated indie label Sooper Records, alongside artist collaborators NNAMDÏ, Glenn Curran, Jess Myers Rigoni and Steven Daoud. Founded in opposition to the music industry’s blindspot for Chicago’s DIY underground, Sooper has become a trusted source for eclectic music, and practices that center each artist’s unique journey before industry standards.

Morimoto’s unique brand of off-kilter DIY bleeds into every aspect of Time Is On Your Side. The hand drawn album cover and self-directed music videos contrast Sen’s most elegant compositions to date with child-like wonder and disarming sincerity. On the significance of the cover art, Morimoto says, “Each orbit around the sun is treated like a repetition, planets moving around a galactic clock, but the Earth never actually lands in the same place twice. I wanted to make a reminder that the present belongs to you. In a space and time that no one has ever been before, free from destructive cycles and history repeated, time gives us the freedom to invent an entirely new world.”

Bandcamp Instagram Youtube

Sen Morimoto on Sooper Records