Music for, er, hairports
Who?
Osakan ambient experimentalist Nakayama Munetoshi will be a new name for many, though he’s been recording essential albums since 2016. But up until now, his Eno-inspired music has only been released on specialist Japanese labels like Terminal Dream and Umé, as well as his own aptly named Scissors Hair Synth Records. Aptly named, because aside from being a modular synth expert, Munetoshi also runs a hair salon.
Why Nakayama Munetoshi?
His Buchla Music Easel synthesiser is set into a wall near the cash register of his hairdressers, so while blow-drying the bonces of Osakan sophisticates, he’s also blowing their minds with his extemporised electro-psychedelic sound sculptures. “My hair salon is a recording studio,” says Munetoshi. “I have background music blaring from my synthesisers all day long, adjusting, mixing and getting feedback from clients.”
Tell Us More…
Munetoshi’s new album ‘Compass For Nychlf’ is his first release on UK label Salmon Universe. It was inspired by a dream he had in 2018 about a boy embarking on a fantastic journey, and sees Munetoshi using old-school techniques like re-recording cassette tapes played backwards, looping guitar phrases, and isolating the attack sound on drum samples. “I first created a rough structure in the salon,” explains Munetoshi. “Then I started with the first song in the sequence – ‘Buổi Sáng’ – the main body of which was field-recorded in Dalat, Vietnam. It’s a city that felt similar to the world which appeared in my dream, and I hope you can imagine its story according to the title of the song.” I’m sure you will. Its complex tonal patterns and painterly melodic motifs evolve evocatively, turn unexpectedly and mirror the surrealist ambiguity of lucid dreams.
‘Compass For Nychlf’ is out on Salmon Univer
