REONA - Reona REONA

Reona is the debut album on Kou Records by REONA — tap dancer, metal percussionist, improviser, and one of the most viscerally original sound artists working anywhere in the world today.

Recorded over two days in January 2026 at Studio Dede and produced by Randall Dunn, the album captures REONA's full-body practice in real time: tap shoes and wooden board as rhythmic foundation, layered against metal sheets, chains, stainless steel bowls, plastic bags, loudspeakers, and an arsenal of found and handmade objects accumulated across years of performance. The instruments carry their own histories — a signboard from Okinawa stamped with the warning of unexploded bomb disposal, a transportation company sign from the Jingisukan Pot Museum in Iwamizawa, a festival bell acquired at the start of the COVID era, South Indian meal plates, an oil pot from Taiwan. Stomp, scratch, touch, strike, blow, groan — REONA makes full use of everything from her legs to her mouth, collapsing the boundary between dance and percussion, body and instrument. Her practice sits at a rarely occupied intersection: the Japanese noise tradition of Merzbow and Otomo Yoshihide on one side, the percussive physicality of Milford Graves and Han Bennink on the other — with no precedent for what happens when those two worlds meet in a single body.

Track 7, M108, features a guest appearance by Atsuo — drummer of legendary Japanese rock band Boris — in a collision of two distinct but kindred approaches to rhythm and noise.

Recorded, mixed, and produced by Randall Dunn. Mastered by Ben Greenberg. Dolby Atmos mixes by Ben Greenberg. Lacquer cut by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering. Front cover artwork Legend of the Snow Spirit by Kazuki Tomokawa; back cover portrait by Allison Brant.