Nagoyaka Na Kaze / 和やかな風 (Quiet Wind) is a collection of forward-thinking electronic experiments sourced from central Japan -- co-curated by Nagoya artist abentis for Facta & K-LONE's Wisdom Teeth imprint. The project profiles a close-knit community of music makers operating in and around the Japanese city of Nagoya: one of the country's most populous and industrial cities, but one all too often overlooked in terms of its cultural significance. Curated in close collaboration with local scene organizer Yuya Abe -- aka abentis -- the record seeks to capture the creative energy of a community of artists making hard-to-define, future-facing electronic music away from the clamor of the bigger cities. Spiritually, Nagoya fits the mold of cultural hotbeds like Bristol, Detroit or Melbourne, showing that some of the most innovative creative communities form away from the glare of the capital cities. The city's music scene is characterized by a freedom to mix genres and an open-door approach to creatives of all disciplines. The artists featured come from a diverse set of backgrounds, ranging from hip-hop to noise music, but have found a common collective identity in their omnivorous approach to genre. As such, the record moves fluidly between shimmering ambient and new age, psychedelic minimal house, abstract, low-slung downtempo, and spaceage steppas. Responsible for bringing artists like Basic Channel, Mala and Jan Jelinek to the city, baptisma, the crew's eldest member and de-facto scene leader, has been crucial in establishing underground electronic music in Nagoya since the '90s, and now helps cultivate the next generation of local talent. The record's art direction was led by Yudai Osawa -- in-house designer for Kankyō Records, the much-loved Tokyo record shop run by H. Takahashi -- and features original photos by Hayato Watanabe. Featuring Am Shhara, Methodd, Nasty Soupman, Karnage, DHYAN, and daiki hayakawa.
