This commission aligns with Profound Sound’s mission to showcase local, national and international experimental music, and invests in enhancing the diversity of the Kent regional scene.

Saturday 18th July 2026, 7.30pm
Profound Sound presents: RIEKO
Quarterhouse
Mill Bay
Folkestone
Kent
CT20 1BN

RIEKO’s EP Zakuro (Japanese for “pomegranate”) features sweeping string arrangements over crushing electronic beats, cavernous minimalist piano, and vocals that move from roaring lament to yearnings of hope. The four-track EP draws on the Buddhist tale of Kishibojin: a child-devouring demon who undergoes a spiritual transformation, consuming pomegranate seeds as the closest substitute for flesh, and becoming a protector of the vulnerable. Zakuro is a tender proposition of hope through anticipatory grief, in the face of political and ecological collapse.

The Outlands commission has helped facilitate the development of the EP into a performance art piece that combines movement, fashion, set design and dramaturgy. Following the premiere, the commission helps extend the legacy of the overall body of work – moving forward, REIKO will develop an accompanying film made for exhibiting internationally, and the EP itself will see a release via RIEKO’s own organisation Diasporas Now. Initially drawing on the the diversity of Kent’s regional scene, further presentation plans will open up the potential to connect to national and international touring circuits.

Support at the event comes from Raven Bush, a composer, producer, and violinist who defies genres through a blend of strings and electronics, across the music, film, and performing arts industries.

RIEKO

RIEKO (Rieko Whitfield) is a Japanese-born artist and composer whose multidisciplinary practice is part of an ongoing mythological world-building project. Weaving ritual performance, experimental music, and collective healing workshops with curation and community building, her work prototypes alternative futures and cultural systems through oracular, artist-led intuition.

Alongside her artistry and musicianship, RIEKO is founding director of Diasporas Now – a live art community and cultural agency for artists of the Global Majority. She was a 2025-2026 resident of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), a 2022-2023 resident of the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and a 2021 MA graduate of the Royal College of Art. The art film for the first single campaign from the Zakuro EP premiered in Numéro Netherlands earlier this year, alongside a screening and live score at the ICA. She has recently worked with major U.K. institutions such as the Southbank Centre, the V&A Museum, the Barbican Centre, South London Gallery, Turner Contemporary and Spike Island.