Music Is: Japanese Pop Outfit UQiYO Releases Collaboration with Malaysian artist Froya

Having collaborated with many outstanding creators locally and internationally in the music industry, Japanese Pop Music Project UQiYO has announced the release of a cross-border collaboration single with Malaysian singer-songwriter, Froya, titled, ‘invisible’. The single is now available on all digital streaming platforms, ahead of the band’s full album which is slated for release on 26th March 2021.

Having met in Niigata, Japan for a co-writing session, the collaborative single was written by both UQiYO and Froya about the snowy city itself. Frontman Yuqi Kato shares: “Having many important people including family and friends from and currently living in Niigata, I was very familiar with the city. This time, I tried to see Niigata through Froya’s eyes as it was her first-time experiencing snow, and the city. I wanted to express this experience in an infinitely detailed and deeply layered manner like a snowflake-like superstring theory where all particles and fundamental forces of nature are in one theory, but with many branches. If the colour of sound is a ray of light, then all the tones combined create white, nothingness, a dream, dazzlingly transparent, which became of this song.”

The single, ‘invisible’ blends both UQiYO’s and Froya’s different artistic approaches, effortlessly weaving both sounds into a cohesive genre-bending experience including the crafting of sounds of Niigata, as well as sounds inspired through a jamming session in a century-old traditional Japanese ryokan. A sonically liberating single, ‘invisible’ allows listeners to groove in a rather nonchalant way. Froya shares: “The single signifies the hidden strength and potential inherent in everybody waiting to be uncovered, rising from the surface, just like flowers blooming in the springtime.”

Listen to invisible on Spotify. UQiYO’s brand new album, ‘loom’ is slated for release on 26th March 2021.