Aristotle’s Hope is the progressive rock project of Japanese-born, St. Paul, Minnesota based musician / YouTuber Ari Koinuma.
Aristotle’s Hope combines the raw guitar muscle of 90s rock with ambitions of prog’s forefathers from the 70s, capped with fresh, jazz-tinged avant-garde harmony and introspective, poignant lyrics.
Bio
With credits ranging from independent film composer to record producer to guitar sideman to musical theater, Ari Koinuma has had a diverse, if wandering music career.The varied influences and a significant life / world event converge in Aristotle’s Hope’s 2nd album, “Found in Darkness.”
While going through a major midlife crisis and living on his own for the first time in his adult life after his 20+ year marriage ended, he felt songs come to him with certain messages, those he needed to hear. After the first 2-3 songs, he realized there was a story emerging, with one old song from decades ago (that he never released because of its sensitive subject matter) serving as the crux.
At the same time, the world at large was going through some crises of its own, first with the pandemic and then with the George Floyd incident, taking place 20 minutes away from where Ari lived. All these elements inspired and molded “Found in Darkness,” a concept album about an existential crisis.
Starting with the problem statement that is “Flood in Fortress” the songs convey increasingly darker and more desperate sentiments, until it culminates in the suicidal thoughts of “Perfume” and lands on “Lost in Neverland,” a hopeful yet far-from-resolved aftermath of a soul entering a long, and still-dark recovery phase.
With the album now released, Ari resumed creating content on his YouTube and other social media channels, while releasing more singles and covers The intention is to use the recordings and online presence to attract like-minded musicians to eventually form a band.
Social Media Links: https://hyperfollow.com/arikoinuma
Videos
Images
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