Yakei (夜景) / Erika Toda

Electronic Press Kit

Erika Toda

Erika Toda (戸田絵理香) is a Japanese guitarist and composer based in New York whose music blends the melodic language of blues and jazz with rock, folk, and contemporary improvisation. She developed a versatile musical perspective shaped by diverse experiences and musical communities across Japan and the United States.

Link to Yakei (夜景)

Debut Album Yakei (夜景)

Yakei (夜景), meaning “night view” in Japanese, is Erika Toda’s debut album as a bandleader and composer. The album explores the space between the familiar and the unexpected, bringing together the melodic language of blues and jazz with elements of rock, folk, and contemporary improvisation.

Yakei reflects Erika’s experiences moving from Japan to San Francisco and eventually New York. The album moves between intimate melodies, rhythmic experimentation, and open-ended improvisation, creating a sound rooted in jazz yet reaching beyond its traditional boundaries.

Currently seeking label and PR partnerships for the release of Yakei.

Track Highlights

“Yakei”

The title track came together surprisingly quickly—I wrote it in about an hour, following where the melody naturally led me. The melody is built around a simple, singable blues language, which I colored with richer harmonic movement. While writing it, I imagined a quiet nighttime cityscape, with lights scattered across the distance.

“I Wonder”

I wrote this piece while listening extensively to Japanese koto music, particularly Rokudan no Shirabe (六段の調べ). I was exploring ideas from traditional Japanese melodies and seeing how they could naturally lead into a contemporary harmonic language. Much of the harmony emerged through improvising around the melody.

“Fortune Teller”

This was the last composition I wrote for the album. Wanting to approach songwriting differently, I first wrote the melody without any harmony and developed the harmonic structure afterward. I brought the first draft to Peter Bernstein, who offered a broader perspective on the form and how the melody and harmony were functioning within it. His feedback became an important insight into my own approach, and I ultimately reworked the piece into the version heard on the album.

Listen to the album

TRACKLIST