Unhurried Journey

Yoto Says: Yoto says: Celebrate children’s music from all over East Asia, mixing various musical traditions, languages, styles, and stories.

Unhurried Journey is a collection of songs for all ages that celebrates the beauty of taking our time to appreciate every moment of our individual and collective journeys. The album is inspired by the artwork of Kristiana Pärn, and features original songs based on her artwork plus reimagined folk and children's songs from East and Southeast Asia.

From the artist: “As I get older, I am learning to value taking my time. I embrace any opportunity to create space, listen, and appreciate this wild journey we're all on. When I do, I remember what I enjoy most about the journey: Having a conversation with a friend, face to face. Sharing a good meal. Listening to people's stories through music, art and memories. Appreciating the natural world that surrounds us. This album is about creating space for conversations, laughter, reflections, and memories. Let’s soak in a breeze, watch ripples across the water, study the lines of a tree, enjoy the colors of a flower, learn the melody of a bird song, revel in the mystery of our dreams, and hear the symphony of sounds that surrounds us if we stop and listen. We are constantly pushing everyday to achieve more and be more. But in that effort, let’s remind ourselves to look up, breathe, listen, and let go. This album is my dedication to the unhurried journey. Each song is also a deep musical collaboration. They feature musicians and dear friends from Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, China, Mexico and the US. As always, I treasure the opportunity to learn songs from these friends, and to bring them into new songs of my own. In learning these songs, I learned histories, cultures, languages, personal memories. In building new songs, I learned something new about myself.”