Silvia Yordanova and Jose Ponce of the duo iriri recently released “Heliotropic,” an album featuring songs inspired by Hawaii’s flora. Courtesy photo

Bonded over a love of plants and music, Silvia Yordanova and Jose Ponce, who perform as the duo iriri, have released “Heliotropic,” an album with songs inspired by Hawaii’s flora.

Paying tribute to various local trees and plants from ulu and naupaka to mamaki and jacaranda, “Heliotropic” opens with “Puakenikeni,” and closes with the delicate “Lotus Rise.”

Yordanova is a landscape designer and artist who draws inspiration from nature, while Ponce is a Cuban-American musician who channels the heartbeat of Latin rhythms. Crafting a rich amalgam of soulful, smooth pop and jazzy Latin flavors, they describe their music as world rhythm dream folk.

“Silvia is a landscape architect and does a lot of permaculture design, and I am an avid gardener and love to grow food,” Ponce explained. “We met regarding a design that she was doing, and we hit it off. We joined our passions through this music project which started with plants.”

Connecting over a love of plants, they discovered they both played music and started singing some Beatles songs together one evening. “We harmonized in a way that we both kind of took a step back and go, ‘Did you feel what I felt?'” said Ponce.

“We started realizing how our voices blended naturally together,” added Yordanova.

Silvia Yordanova and Jose Ponce of the duo iriri share a passion for music and plants, which inspires their collaborative work. Courtesy photo

From this early realization, the “Heliotropic” project slowly blossomed. With Yordanova on vocals and ukulele and Ponce on vocals, guitar and bass, they began embellishing tracks by calling on various Maui musicians.

They included Marshall Lefferts on guitar, Austin Ford on cajon, Lenny Castellanos on bass, Eric Nakamoto on upright bass, Larry Fitzgerald on congas, Polina Faustova on cello, Rajat on bansuri flute and Manuel Trabucco on clarinet.

“‘Banyan’ has a bansuri flute and ‘Lotus Rise’ has a cello,” Ponce noted. “I really love what that cellist Polina did with that track. It just really elevated it.”

Their musical influences include “a lot of jazz, Brazilian, Cuban and Cumbia stylings, but also very contemplative and ethereal kinds of sounds as well,” he said. “We love rhythm and love to dance, and we love to have shows that bring people together to enjoy celebrating life.”

“We also have other shows where they’re more ambient and meditative,” said Yordanova.

They said they both love Pink Floyd and the Beatles.

“We have a lot of visuals with our music that we like to bring in, probably because of our Pink Floyd inspiration,” said Ponce. “But also as an educational element, so people can see which plant we’re singing about.”

“Flowers too,” said Yordanova. “We’ve incorporated essences of the flowers in our shows like ylang-ylang, plumeria and gardenia for songs that we have, and also tastes like lilikoi.”

Along with the album, Yordanova produced a 2026 calendar featuring her paintings of plants. “I’ve been really inspired to paint watercolors, and I’m deeply inspired by nature,” she said. “Nature’s my greatest teacher. I’ve often really loved observing plants and painting plants as well.”

Silvia Yordanova’s watercolor painting of ulu is featured in her 2026 calendar celebrating plants and nature. Courtesy photo

Helping promote regenerative agriculture on Maui, Yordanova has worked with the Maui Tomorrow Foundation, the Sierra Club of Hawaii and JustOne Organics.

“When I came to Maui about 14 years ago, my work turned into more permaculture design and ecological design,” she said. “I love helping people grow food, and often the challenge is how to make it visually, aesthetically pleasing as well. So I love incorporating ornamentals with strategies of growing food because that’s so important for Maui. Many more people are getting involved in regenerative agriculture.”

“That’s kind of our passion, almost foremost,” added Ponce. “But music is a means to help send the message out. We want people to be growing food, and we love to give away plants at some of our shows.”

On July 28, duo iriri will perform a benefit concert at Hale Sunshine Rae farm in Haiku, as part of a Hawaii Farmers Union United fundraiser.

The couple is currently compiling songs for a new album that they hope to release by the summer. “We’re collaborating with some local artists here, as we did on the first one. We’re very excited about it.”

More information is available at iririmusic.com.