Sen Morimoto’s Cannonball release may well turn out to be one of the most noteworthy projects to come out of Chicago this year, but you’d hardly know it from talking to the twenty-something musical wunderkind. Having bided his time on the bountiful undergrowth of Chicago’s burgeoning arts and music scene, Morimoto has built a reputation as a serious talent with forward-thinking ideas that is at once able to meld himself into the creative direction of others. While we’ve seen plenty of him on features, playing the backing or production roles at times, we’ve yet to see him really stretch his wings and show off his full repertoire. That is, until last Friday when Cannonball, a project that’s been talked about in the background for well over a year, finally hit the internet.
The project is an artistic release for Morimoto, albeit tempered and restrained at times, with moments of un-tethered excitement. It’s much akin to the mind behind it; Sen himself is perpetually even-keeled, but with a smile and an off-beat reference never too far away. Similarly, his music on this project exudes his personality, dipping and rising with the flick of an emotion. In today’s time, with so much in the lexicon of creating, it seems as though many artists in this lane have a hard time finding themselves, falling into the distorted reality that many find when art takes over. For his part, Morimoto proves an ability to take from the world and piece it back together into a fully understood work that stands alone and sets the stage for much more in the coming months and years. With his hands in a variety of projects across the city and beyond, this is far from the last we’ll hear from Sen. Dive in above, check out the video below and of course hit Mild Sauce Radio for all the latest streaming music from Chicago!