tomemitsu

Tomemitsu’s body of work as an indie-pop artist thrives on unexpected contrasts. Most tracks stay hushed and close, yet a dance remix of his signature piece “In Dreams” achieved notable reach; the songs feel tailored for solitary listening yet surface regularly as underscoring on television series. Although he usually handles writing and performance alone, one standout album assembled numerous contributors precisely when worldwide restrictions rendered such partnerships especially difficult.

Born Martin Roark in the Bay Area to Japanese and Brazilian parents, he later relocated to Los Angeles, where he transformed an unused bedroom into a makeshift studio and began capturing material that alternated between introspection and lightness. These early pieces centered on sparse, often acoustic arrangements dominated by nylon-string guitar and his singular voice. Beginning in 2013 he issued the recordings under his middle name, opening with the debut full-length M_O_D_E_S. The track “In Dreams” later took an unforeseen path: first licensed for an episode of the HBO series High Maintenance, reportedly stepping in at the last moment for a Grizzly Bear song, then receiving a popular 2016 remix from the dance collective RSS DIsco.

Subsequent lo-fi efforts continued the thread. The 2016 release Loaf Eye explored gentle psychedelia, while the 2017 joint album Had a Dream with East Coast lo-fi artist Alexei Shishkin and the 2018 EP The Cave returned closer to his initial sound. A shift arrived with the 2020 I’ll Be Alright EP, which previewed fresh recordings of previously unheard songs and set the stage for the 2021 full-length Sun. Parts of Sun were tracked before the COVID-19 pandemic; the project gathered a wide circle of indie singers and musicians that included V.V. Lightbody, Steady Holiday, and Eva B. Ross. In an era when in-person work had grown scarce across creative fields, the album emerged as one of Tomemitsu’s most engaging statements. The more inward Dream 2 appeared in 2024.