Nobuka

"The idea behind Reiko is that it is a story about a city "scarred by the effects of climate change and burdened with the imminent threat of viruses" and a girl "who has her own demons. Anxiety, depression, a dead-end job. Wandering the streets, swallowed by a mass of commuters." Music for the end of times, but are we aware of this impending end? You could think this results in top-heavy depressing music, and while it is dark, it is not without hope.

Nobuka has guest players in four songs, twice Michel Banabila and once Machinefabriek and once Marina Tadic (of Eerie Wanda/Kidbug and formerly living in this beautiful city). Nobuka uses field recordings, old tape recorders and analogue equipment in his music, which lumps him into a crowded field of similar musicians, but there are also some differences. Maybe the variations come via his guest musicians (the very rhythmic 'The People', with Machinefabriek, is one undeniable example of doing things differently). Also, in his solo pieces, Nobuka strives not for bleak ambient industrial soundtracks, but there is also a very musical undercurrent. For instance, the piano in 'The Sorrow' sits on top of industrial rubble, slowly fading away for birds twitter. And yes, there is also the horror of 'The Ghosts', with its mass of violin sounds, growing from one to many and ascending to one again. The two pieces with Michel Banabila are dreamy and unsettling at the same time. Nobuka cleverly waves ease and unease together in his music, and he amazingly does that with considerable ease (pun intended). Sometimes there is friction between the sounds, and I thought there was an uneasiness that didn't work, but it all started to make sense upon repeated listening. The hissing and skipping of vinyl, the many stringed instruments dropping in and out of the mix, the ghostly drones and the melodic interjections" - Frans de Waard