HARUKA NAKAMURA Vinilo y CD

Review: This is a second new and standalone 7" that is taken from Incense Music for Bed Room, a new compilation series from Incense Music that was curated by Toru Hashimoto and legendary Japanese downtempo and Balearic master Calm. On the A-side, we delve into Haruka Nakamura's beautiful tribute to Bill Evans' timeless piece 'Soiree'. On the flip, 'Valsa de Euridice' is a rendition of Vinicius de Moraes' classic from Etepalma, the inaugural 2006 album by Nobuyuki Nakajima. Renowned as a composer and pianist, Nakajima presents a captivating interpretation that captures the essence of the original piece. Together, these tracks offer a harmonious blend of homage and reinterpretation.

Review: Humble folk compositions from Haruka Nakamura, a longtime fixture of the Tokyo singer-songwriter scene. From the outset, we can almost instantly tell the theme of Nakamura's 2018 album Grace: it's a waltzing meditation on daily life and lightly passed time - and our research proves this to be correct, with the album having been made carefully over three parts of a daily cycle. A crude but elegant blend of lo-fi elements, glorious soprano vocals and rough samplework make for an emotionally wide-ranging listen, from the outset of 'every day' to the closing 'cadenza'.