Hiro Kone

New York-based artist Nicky Mao crafts intricate, atmospheric electronic music as Hiro Kone. Her work has evolved from the lush, vocal-heavy ambient pop of her 2011 debut to the darker, quasi-industrial techno of 2018's Pure Expenditure, and while her tracks are often highly rhythmic, they're more concerned with expressing unexplainable thoughts and feelings rather than providing a club soundtrack. A former member of experimental post-punk group Effi Briest, Mao went solo as Hiro Kone in 2011. Her self-titled debut EP appeared that year, and she began performing at N.Y.C. ven...