Records of the Week

OFFICIAL SITE OF HARUKA NAKAMURA
HARUKA NAKAMURA ON MYSPACE

Has America lost its taste and talent for 4:30am-bottom-of-the-bottle-piano-jazz? It seems that we have, and Asia is picking up the slack.  Last summer Motohiro Nakashima melted our hearts with We Hum on the Way Home, and both Akira Kosemura and Teruyuki Nobuchika released albums late this spring that revel in the jazzier notes of ambient electronica.  Haruka Nakamura’s 2nd album, Twilight, is the perfect summer score–nostalgic and patient, yet fleeting–like the last half-lit evenings of August. Now imagine laying in a meadow, hearing faerie queen Titania’s alluring voice in your ear–stand-out tracks “Faraway” and “Twilight” feature mischevious, ghostly vocals that pull you into a world of natural magic. Nakamura’s careful compositions blend rutty clarinets, breathy brass instruments, shimmering violin and effervescent piano into a true midsummer’s night’s dream.