Nº 4 (Reissue) twilight – haruka nakamura

haruka nakamura’s second solo outing refines the lyrical, pastoral imagery that inspired his first album grace. 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.