On that year’s Windswept Adan, a concept album set on the fictional island of Adan, Aoba and her main collaborator, Taro Umebayashi, added elements like sweeping strings, synths, and field recordings to her delicate sound. If earlier songs were pinhole snapshots, Windswept Adan was full of wall-sized panoramas, zooming out to capture the immensity of existence. On Luminescent Creatures, Aoba’s exquisite and entrancing eighth album, she and Umebayashi further broaden their horizons. Throughout Luminescent Creatures, the vibrant arrangements position Aoba in the middle of a vast landscape. In contrast, Luminescent Creatures is rooted in her experiences of traveling to remote islands, swimming in the tide, and studying how weather and climate change affect coral reefs.