With her lunging rhythms and deliciously retro melodies, Akane Hosaka catapults us into a world of gleeful wallabies and drummer-boy monkeys.Her discovery of music came through song, and only later led to instrumental experimentation.References to her early influences, the 60s and 70s precursors of electropop, are deliberate, there for all to see: Raymond Scott, Perrey & Kingsley or Yellow Magic Orchestra. Nevertheless her true inspiration is from the visual world and lies in graphic forms and architectural fantasy:Keiji Ito, Archigram or Bruno Munari.For her, these images evoke musicthat she then sets about transcribing.Naturally reserved, she’s a perfectionist in her work. Seeing her in the studio is like watching a blacksmith in the smithy, as she bends her music into the required shapes.

Her compositions are like pastel-coloured soap bubbles in extra-bright Super 8.