Nº 30 twilight (Deluxe Edition) – haruka nakamura

“From the car window, a view of street lamps atop the hill. The lighthouse keeper feeds a bonfire with firewood.”

twilight, haruka nakamura’s iconic second album, originally released in the summer of 2010, remains a cornerstone for both the artist and KITCHEN. LABEL. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, twilight will be available for the first time on vinyl and the re-releasing of the much sought after original first press CD + art book edition. Included in the reissue are 8 previously unreleased tracks recorded during the original sessions in 2010. 

Recorded in a studio overlooking the ocean as a tribute to the sight of the expiring sun falling slowly over the horizon at dusk, twilight is a sustained reverie that mirrors the dwindling rays of light at day’s end with its subtle variations in timbre and texture.

The brassy shimmer of ARAKI Shin’s sax opens the first track Yuube no Inori, swelling languidly as the orchestra slowly unfurls around it like a resplendent sunset. Throughout the album, haruka nakamura coaxes a startling range of tonal colour out of piano phrases that twinkle, patter and shuffle through a variety of compositions and tempos — the gentle march of harmonie du soir; the somnolent haze of On the Verandah punctuated by drowsy stutters and cicadas muttering all around you; the reverberations of your languishing pulse as night starts to fall — a hazy blend of hip-hop and jazz, Nujabes-esque, faraway. Isao Saito’s sensitive percussion offers subdued but confident support throughout — dwindling to a hush as the fading rays of the sun dissipate in the crisp night air.

The middle of the album – koukei and dialogo, in particular – wanders off on a short jaunt into looser, ethereal territory. The furtive meandering of the soprano saxophone by Akira Uchida, roving itinerant chords, airy percussion and carefully-spaced sustain and release of the pedal are reminiscent of the ambient jazz style of ECM.

Closing the album, however, are two melody-driven vocal tracks: twilight, a gentle flicker of a ballad that rises and ebbs with April Lee of ASPIDISTRAFLY’s fluttering, half-whispered vocals, and Janis Crunch’s acoustic arpeggio-driven elegy in tribute to the dwindling of The Light.

Remastered by long-time collaborator Gen Tanabe, the reissue features artwork faithful to the original design with the addition of liner notes written by Toshhiko Terada of Ameto Kyujitsu.

CREDIT