midori jaeger releases new single “exasperate”
One of the first times I listened to midori jaeger’s “exasperate”, I was sitting in my kitchen with my granny. Within seconds, we were both hooked, immediately drawn to the track’s restless pizzicato cello line, a funky, elastic bassline that prowls and jumps beneath the track. We were trying to figure out how Midori played the cello riff, how she plucked, what effects were on it. The conversation only grew as the song developed, with the arrival of vocals and the unveiling of rhythmic turns, pauses and build-ups.
I thought it best to go straight to the source to learn how midori created this musical masterpiece.
“exasperate” began instinctively, with no plan. “I sat down at the cello with no specific intentions and this music came out exactly as it ended up on the song,” midori explained. That initial improvisation, unedited, demanding, and intense, became the backbone of the track. I asked midori if the cello itself was a moment of exasperation, if the theme was embodied in the music? “I think there’s definitely something in wanting to express an intense feeling through music via quite technically intense means on one’s instrument.” During the improvisation, she found herself “pushing boundaries of metre and groove,” a process that mirrored the emotional tension underpinning the track- to exasperate- demonstrating musical talent on multiple fronts.
“exasperate” emerged during a period of emotional upheaval, shortly after the end of a long-term relationship. midori plucked lyrics from her own poetry, after reflecting on what she’d created on the cello, “it felt right to use poetry of a similar mood that matched that frenetic energy,” she said. “That’s when the title ‘exasperate’ came into being.”
The song holds a particular kind of tension: the ache for something new rubbing against grief for what’s been lost. That push and pull is especially palpable in the way midori’s voice winds around the cello line. On “exasperate”, midori was able to completely immerse herself in the emotional landscape, “Strangely when I sing and play cello at the same time on music that is less settled, more intricate, and that requires a level of musical ‘effort’ it makes me feel super present with the emotion being expressed.”
This elegantly performed sense of exasperation is echoed in midori’s lyricism. Lines such as “carry my body like a doll, a fallen tree trunk in your exasperated arms” suggest a familiarity that is deeply felt yet no longer sustainable. Her writing is rich and poetic, it grounds these intense feelings into well wrapped bundles of rhythmic schemes and vivid imagery.
When I asked about the production process, midori elaborated on a beautiful relationship with her co-producer Felix Higginbottom. “It’s all quite instinctive. We recorded 11 tracks in 10 days,” she said, with the main bulk of “exasperate” completed in a single day. She continued, “I feel grateful to work with somebody who can understand my intentions easily and in enough depth to complement what I’m trying to do with another element.”
Although “exasperate” was recorded back in 2021, it has taken years to reach the world. Sitting finished on midori’s computer, the song gathered its own emotional weight over time. Listening back now feels different. “Pre-release, it was tied up with lots of thoughts outside of purely what the song is trying to say,” she reflected. “Now that it’s finished and released, I feel strangely comforted to have finally got these ideas out in musical form and to be sharing them with people, the best part of making music.”
Described as a “genre-defying collaborator”, midori jaeger continues to prove just how fluid those boundaries can be on “exasperate”. Her next single is out on the 7th of February, so make sure to tune in.
Stream “exasperate” below:
