Sometimes, when the sun beats so hot that every slight movement produces a torrent of sweat, it’s necessary to find some stillness and inner quiet. The nation of Japan seems to specialize in these qualities, and so its no surprise that electronic dream pop songstress CUUSHE evokes them with a charming, soothing ease. ‘Airy Me,’ a single off her debut album Red Rocket Therapy, released last year off the dear FLAU, is exemplary of her work. Layering her soft cooing vocals over sparse, pulsating rhythms, CUUSHE constructs a meandering pop song that flows steady and earnest like a babbling stream. Grounded by a circular synth piano melody and enriched by prickly sonic textures, Cuushe’s songs flutter and unfold with a mesmerizing delicacy, like flower petals or butterfly wings. The video, featuring hand-drawn animation by YUKO KUNO, succinctly translates Cuushe’s sonic palette into a visual format. Colorful, hazy lines oscillate over a yellowed monochrome backdrop, morphing between the mundane and fantastic, giving form to an elliptical narrative imbued with a child-like innocence and a peculiar, unarticulated sadness. With vibrant colors washed out, like in a half-remembered dream, the video underlines the surreality of Cuushe’s strangely comforting sounds, dwelling in a hypnagogic ambiguity perfect for dazed summer days and long, restless nights. Take this as an appetizer for her new album Butterfly Case, which comes out this September off Flau.