On January 11, 2025, Taka, guitarist and leader of MONO, heard MONO’s music played at a funeral for the first time. It was at the funeral of his father-in-law.

〈Eternal Story〉 was playing as family and friends placed flowers, one by one, beside the coffin. The song was the first piece Taka wrote for his wife after his father passed away. While he was still alive, his father once asked him, “Why don’t you ever write a song for your precious wife?” Those words remained in Taka’s heart after his father’s passing. He eventually wrote 〈Eternal Story〉 and dedicated it to his wife. To him, the song carries his feelings for a loved one, while extending the story that has never truly disappeared from life.

Over the past four years, Taka has lost several beloved and irreplaceable people, including his father, his longtime collaborator and producer Steve Albini, and his father-in-law. At his father-in-law’s funeral, as 〈Eternal Story〉 played, an image gave these losses a new connection.

“It made me realize all over again that our music can heal the pain and sorrow of those left behind and shine a light on them.”

The funeral did not carry the heavy gloom he had experienced in the past. On the contrary, he described it as being filled with light, almost like a wedding ceremony where eternal love was being pledged once again.

As he watched family and friends place flowers beside the coffin, he suddenly wanted to understand the meaning behind offering flowers.

Later, he learned that every flower has its own language. When we can no longer speak to the departed, flowers take the place of words, carrying the final message.
The next day, he returned home and listened again to the music he had accumulated over the past few years. The passing of loved ones around him, along with all the emotions he had not yet been able to arrange, suddenly connected into a single line. That line became MONO’s new album, 《Snowdrop》.

One of the important companions Taka lost was Steve Albini, MONO’s longtime producer. He was a highly important recording engineer and musician in the history of American underground rock. For MONO, Steve was never merely a producer they had worked with. Albini’s recording approach placed great emphasis on the band’s own live presence, space, and dynamics, without using excessive polish to conceal the texture of the instruments or the room. This direct and honest way of recording deeply resonated with MONO’s pursuit of emotional weight between silence and roar, and through years of collaboration, he gradually became an inseparable part of MONO’s sound.

Yet two weeks after 〈Eternal Story〉 was recorded, Steve Albini suddenly passed away. Taka said it took him a long time to accept the reality. He remembered crying uncontrollably for at least three days, as if a huge hole had been torn open in his heart. He had no strength and could not think clearly. It was not until Jef, a dear friend and longtime partner, called him and said, “Taka, keep writing music. Keep writing just like you always have,” that he slowly returned to daily life and immersed himself in songwriting, gradually moving through his grief and his overwhelming anxiety about the future.

Facing the successive losses of several loved ones, what Taka wanted to express through 《Snowdrop》 was not grief alone, but gratitude. The contact information of those who had passed still remained in his address book, yet he could no longer see them or hear their voices. That was why he wanted to write an album that could stand beside others who, like him, had lost someone dear.

He believes that gratitude toward the departed can shine light into the loneliness, sadness, and suffering of those left behind. “I am so glad I met you,” “the wonderful time we spent together,” “the countless beautiful memories with you” — these feelings are both remembrance and the final bridge that can still mend the relationship between the living and the departed.

When asked whether the album could be understood as a journey through time, moving from a harsh winter toward a new spring, Taka answered yes: after a harsh winter, people gradually accept and overcome separation, eventually arriving at a new spring, carrying blessings for the loved ones who have passed and beginning another chapter of life. The songs on 《Snowdrop》 are all named after flowers. These flower names are not decorative; they are like another layer of lyrics within MONO’s wordless music. The language of the snowdrop includes hope, new beginnings, and consolation. Blooming out of the snow, it also symbolizes hope in adversity.

This album features a 10-piece orchestra and an 8-piece choir. For Taka, the answer to which instruments should be used lies not within himself, but within the song itself. Every note, melody, and frequency carries an irreplaceable meaning and necessity. His role is simply to give proper shape to the inspiration. 〈Winter Daphne〉 was rewritten the day after his father-in-law’s funeral. The main melody played by strings and guitar in the first half reappears in the second half in the form of a choir, entering a completely different world. Through this, Taka wanted to express the final explosion of life, as well as the image of a person being gently wrapped in love and light, peacefully departing for heaven.

Since forming in Tokyo in 1999, Japanese post-rock band MONO has built a highly recognizable musical language through long-form instrumental narratives. Guitars, drums, bass, and orchestral arrangements are layered upon one another; melodies often begin from the most delicate places before eventually rising into a wall of sound that washes over the body like waves. Over the past two decades, their music has continued to expand. Yet for Taka, what has truly remained unchanged is not a particular style, but a will to face music with sincerity.

“In music, we can express everything: pain, sadness, darkness, suffering, loneliness, anger, as well as joy, relief, love, light, and dreams,” Taka said. In this chaotic world, music is the only place where they can remain honest, and the only place where they can stay sane.

On July 12, 2026, MONO will return to Hong Kong for the seventh time. Through the 《Snowdrop》 tour, they hope to express the strength of the bond between people that transcends life and death, allowing the music to become love and light in someone’s heart.

If 《Snowdrop》 could offer one thing to listeners carrying grief, Taka hopes the album helps listeners feel that “love is what must be prioritized above all else,” and that “even if you feel completely cornered right now, if you look up, there is the sun, along with light and hope.”